OFFICIAL Star Citizen

[D007]

I just want to fly my Connie.
But hey, it's progress!

 

[human_error]

I really don't understand why are they asking for so much money. At this rate the game should be free to play, because they've already made a fortune from donations. Even if their team is 100 people, there's no way in hell development would cost this much, even if all of them flew from USA to Australia every week.
Seriously, how much does a good programmer cost per month? A graphic designer? And an office with 100 chairs?

So as has been said there's near 400 people working on the game around the world. Your average software engineer may only take home $60,000 a year but in taxes, benefits, office space etc a $60k/yr dev costs over $100,000 a year (this is the case across all software development). So that's 4 million a year for the staff. You then have to pay tax, credit card/paypal fees etc on all revenue, so that's more that's eaten away from revenue. A lot of game asset artists are freelance, so their costs are pretty high (they've hired people who worked on Star Wars, Star Trek, The Matrix, Prometheus etc to work on art/assets so there's a lot of good talent working there, and that costs money. You have actors (both for animations and voice/face actors for the characters in the game, of which there are quite a lot) who also need paying for.

You then have infrastructure costs - even now there are thousands of games being played globally by the players, and petabytes of patches/game downloads to serve - all of that is costing money as well. Every developer needs development & test software, development machines of all different configs to test the game on which again are a cap expenditure. They're moving to a new sound engine - that is something they have licensed and will cost money.

The financial plan for Star Citizen is that it will release and continue to be expanded on and developed for for a long time - this includes continually creating and releasing new content and ships, new expansions etc (only single player expanded content will be charged for so all that online content won't be charged for). The game may not have cost 100 million to make by release, but they would be terrible planners if they planned to launch what is effectively a very large, no monthly subscription based MMO without enough money spare to be able to continue working on it, expanding it and running it for a considerable time - if they lacked the funds to continue maintaining it you end up in a situation where the game could become stale or even shut down within a year or two of release - it's good they have planned to be able to avoid that happening.

The reality is games (and software development in general) cost money to develop (a lot more than people outside of the professional software development world realise) - and it takes time to do. GTA V and several other large games have all cost well over $100,000,000 to make so it is not like Chris Roberts is over stating the cost of game development.

 

[Octopuss]

Wait, there aren't going to be monthly subscription fees? Isn't that economical suicide on this scale? Unless they intend to either get all the profits upfront (the current system) or make the game pay to win with microtransactions (more likely I guess).

 

[erocker]

Future expansion/DLC's.

Perhaps they might keep the voluntary subscriptions. Also, a lot of the money coming in now will help keep the game running later.

Either way, it's better than a forced fee or a pay to win model. So, no. What you're saying is not likely. All of this has already been addressed.

 

[Batou1986]

Ok, who's the DIY guru in the group?? I need to see this working

Works just fine I made one with the PS3 eye camera+red filter using normal red LED's and opentrack
The only thing real TrackIR has going for is a monkey to setup curves for game profiles instead of you doing it yourself.
Works great in DCS not so great in SC since the helmet is bugged and doesn't move with the head.

Spoiler

 

[Octopuss]

All of this has already been addressed.

Hey I wasn't following the game's development at all...

 

[Kursah]

Hey I wasn't following the game's development at all...

I believe that's what @erocker was pointing out in response to the comments and assumptions you've made in this thread up to this point. Don't worry, if you're interested in learning about this title and how it's working out financially, structurally and for gamers, you're at a good spot and we'll point you in the right direction to read up and become educated on the situations you may seek knowledge in.

Tried 1.1 last night, I gotta say it feels much better to me than .90 (the last time I put any serious time into the title). Other than the awkward default controls (really...yaw as a primary axis on the flight stick?! I hate it! Maybe because every other space sim I play utilizes pitch and roll for primary axis and yaw is a secondary or separate axis. I'll be making adjustment soon. I will say I did end up playing with mouse + KB and it worked pretty damn well, better than I've experienced in many other sims.

I still go back to Elite, but this is getting more exciting with more changes. I wish the extra ships weren't so damn expensive, I won't be donating more $$ as I can't justify or afford to. But the action and flight model seem smoother, better polished. I could care less about walking around at this point, and really want to get into the meat of SC's universe. Landing is handled interesting, I like their take on how it works with auto and manual modes. Best update yet, even if it required a full reinstallation, the game now loads faster, runs smoother, still a memory hog and the only game that I play that really ramps up my GTX770 other than inside space stations in Elite!

Alright...back to Server 2012 R2 homework... sigh...

 

[human_error]

Wait, there aren't going to be monthly subscription fees? Isn't that economical suicide on this scale? Unless they intend to either get all the profits upfront (the current system) or make the game pay to win with microtransactions (more likely I guess).

Current revenue plan is to sell single player expansion packs and to sell in-game credits for real money (the sale of in-game credits would be limited per person, so a kid with his parent's credit card can't ruin the whole economy). We do have MMOs that survive without subscriptions (see: Guild Wars 2) but Star Citizen is the first AAA MMO I know of that will sell in-game currency for real money instead of other micro transactions (this will hopefully kill off gold farming threats entirely, in addition to letting you either earn things in-game or buy them with bought credits if you don't have as much time).

Hey I wasn't following the game's development at all...

That's fine, but it's best to find out a little about a game (or anything really) before questioning why they are trying to raise so much money and saying that it doesn't sound like they need $100m. Best to ask questions about stuff than to proclaim that the people in charge of it don't know what they are doing.

I wish the extra ships weren't so damn expensive, I won't be donating more $$ as I can't justify or afford to.

With 1.1 they've added the ability to earn REC (Rental Credits) in all multiplayer game modes. You can then buy access to ships/weapons/equipment using REC where you can use that rental in 7 separate 24 hour periods before needing to renew. Earning rate seems pretty good so it doesn't take too long to get access to some of the better ships, and then arm them with better gear. No need to spend any more money to get access to the majority of the ships

 

[Kursah]

I guess my next challenge is finding time then! Right now Elite Dangerous, SupCom FA and Homeworld Remastered consume what little time I do have a week to game...oh well I graduate in a couple of months, then it's on! I think I may retire Elite for a little bit to see if I can earn some REC! I did read what you stated, and it sounds pretty fair to me. I'm game to give it a go.

I am still on the biggest fan of how they let you manage their controls, but that has improved none-the-less. I'd also like to see more graphics options to play with. Between my CH Fighter Stick and the Logitech G13 I picked up on sale a couple weeks ago, I'm hoping I'll be pretty well set! I'm still adjusting to using the G13 in Elite vs. my G15 keyboard full-on. I am hoping I can adjust because I really like the analogue thumb stick, it works AMAZING for lateral thrust in Elite, I imagine it'll be the same here too.

I'm glad to see things moving forward more and more with SC, I was pretty disappointed with how AC was looking a few updates ago, felt too arcade-ish to me. Still has more of an arcade feel to me, but they've really worked on the flight model and action, and it shows in a good way!

 

[rtwjunkie]

So as has been said there's near 400 people working on the game around the world. Your average software engineer may only take home $60,000 a year but in taxes, benefits, office space etc a $60k/yr dev costs over $100,000 a year (this is the case across all software development). So that's 4 million a year for the staff. You then have to pay tax, credit card/paypal fees etc on all revenue, so that's more that's eaten away from revenue. A lot of game asset artists are freelance, so their costs are pretty high (they've hired people who worked on Star Wars, Star Trek, The Matrix, Prometheus etc to work on art/assets so there's a lot of good talent working there, and that costs money. You have actors (both for animations and voice/face actors for the characters in the game, of which there are quite a lot) who also need paying for.

You then have infrastructure costs - even now there are thousands of games being played globally by the players, and petabytes of patches/game downloads to serve - all of that is costing money as well. Every developer needs development & test software, development machines of all different configs to test the game on which again are a cap expenditure. They're moving to a new sound engine - that is something they have licensed and will cost money.

The financial plan for Star Citizen is that it will release and continue to be expanded on and developed for for a long time - this includes continually creating and releasing new content and ships, new expansions etc (only single player expanded content will be charged for so all that online content won't be charged for). The game may not have cost 100 million to make by release, but they would be terrible planners if they planned to launch what is effectively a very large, no monthly subscription based MMO without enough money spare to be able to continue working on it, expanding it and running it for a considerable time - if they lacked the funds to continue maintaining it you end up in a situation where the game could become stale or even shut down within a year or two of release - it's good they have planned to be able to avoid that happening.

The reality is games (and software development in general) cost money to develop (a lot more than people outside of the professional software development world realise) - and it takes time to do. GTA V and several other large games have all cost well over $100,000,000 to make so it is not like Chris Roberts is over stating the cost of game development.

All of that is why I get angry when people pirate. Game making is expensive, and they deserve to be paid for their work.

 

[erocker]

Gif of a part of Terra Prime!

http://i.giflike.com/D6aAFTX

 

[Kursah]

All I can say after being spoiled in other games is the control settings in this game are STUPID! These guys should take note from other games in this genre *cough*Elite*cough*Evochron*cough*.

Spent my game-time last night binding controls to my G13, found that SC doesn't seem to want to use the extra analogue joystick when I have the CH Fighterstick hooked up... lame! Maybe I'm doing something wrong. I feel the interface is greatly lacking in its ease of use though...I suppose that's small beans in alpha...

But I got a couple rounds in with drones...they have been improved...much more fun than I remember! Time to get online and see what I can do..once I re-re-learn controls lol!

 

[erocker]

Since interaction with things isn't really in yet, I don't even bother. I just make sure I have my buttons mapped where I want them, dial in the control curves and then just pew pew. What I'd really like to see implemented is getting something done targeting/firing wise that's somewhere in between a fixed mount and signature tracking assist like they have in Elite. Trying to hit targets like this where things are run off of a server is ridiculous.

 

[Kursah]

My goal is to have a similar control config in Elite, EvoMerc and SC. I didn't need to spend even a fraction of the time in Elite or EvoMerc as I have SC, so I'm just frustrated is all..some of it is my impatience.

I agree on the tracking assist or at least the lead-in-targeting which I find mighty handy. The faster, more agile ships are far more fun to fly than the good ol' Aurora that I have.

 

[Nordic]

My mustang omega is tons of fun to fly, the aurora feels like a brick.

 

[erocker]

So, after finally getting into some MP matches last night... Things are a bit of a joke with this game. Using a controller of flightstick is useless going against anyone using a mouse + keyboard. Point+click = kill. Very easy to do, while using a flightstick or controller, it's a bit of a struggle to aim. I'm pretty disappointed, I can only hope the lock the mouse to the movement of the ship and not this point and click bs.

 

[REAYTH]

Grand Theft Auto V cost over $200 million to develop and the scale of Star Citizen could easily exceed that for GTA5. The question is whether or not Roberts what is Roberts doing with all that money? Is he pocketing it? Is it keeping it in the bank for continued expansion of Star Citizen or another RSI project? I don't know but I think I would like to know. My hope is that once Star Citizen meets its original design goals, he hires a hundred or so people to start work on expansions to the original design goals (not unlike Payday with the addition of more characters, weapons, and heists). It would keep the game relevant long after it launches.

Only Roberts really knows what is happening with all of that money.


Figure about $60k per employee per year. 100 employees is a minimum of $6 million per year just for salaries (the largest expense of any game studio). We're two and a half years out from the original Kickstarter. I don't know how many employees RSI has but game development is costly anyway you look at it.

The artists make WAY more than 60k a year. The art department and programming are your two big money drainers. Baseline programmer probably makes 100k a year on a project like this. Never mind all the license software. Top shelve concept artists make over 100K a year.

Maybe 60k for their t-shirt artist lol

 

[bpgt64]

I binned my Constellation Andromeda for a Bomber--Retaliator? can't remember the name.

 

[Ahhzz]

I binned my Constellation Andromeda for a Bomber--Retaliator? can't remember the name.

*sigh* Connie.....

 

[bpgt64]

I just figured, I was less likely to enjoy the Explore! and Smuggle! ...that escort/pvp/warzone type stuff. Going out with a 5 man gunner! figure if I ever haul stuff I'll get a ship more suited for it.

https://robertsspaceindustries.com/pledge/ships/aegis-retaliator/Retaliator

 

[Ahhzz]

I just figured, I was less likely to enjoy the Explore! and Smuggle! ...that escort/pvp/warzone type stuff. Going out with a 5 man gunner! figure if I ever haul stuff I'll get a ship more suited for it.

https://robertsspaceindustries.com/pledge/ships/aegis-retaliator/Retaliator

hahaha nice


jesus man, I'd have to tank my whole kit to get to that!!

 

[erocker]

Encountered my first obvious cheater last night. Guy was in a super hornet, easily going faster than or as fast as an M50.

 

[Ahhzz]

Encountered my first obvious cheater last night. Guy was in a super hornet, easily going faster than or as fast as an M50.

I wonder how they're doing it, and how easily it will be to stop it... I figured we really wouldn't see that much, since it's all managed from the server....

 

[human_error]

I wonder how they're doing it, and how easily it will be to stop it... I figured we really wouldn't see that much, since it's all managed from the server....

Possibly modified their XML to put the M50 engines in the SH. Although XML modification is possible as an exploit at the moment, the devs are aware of it and will block it before release (I'm hoping for sooner rather than later).

 

[D007]

Possibly modified their XML to put the M50 engines in the SH. Although XML modification is possible as an exploit at the moment, the devs are aware of it and will block it before release (I'm hoping for sooner rather than later).

I'm hoping they straight up perma ban anyone they find using any exploits.
You want to be a little pansy. You should be treated like a little pansy.