30 replies to this topic

[Ronat]

http://arstechnica.c...e-on-pc-gaming/

Have any of you played his old games, especially wing commander. I remember playing them and the last one I played was WC4 and it was awesome! I never played WC3, but I probably should have bought it on the cheap shelf back then. I'm looking forward to this comming out.

[Quest]

Played every WC and Freelancer as well. Great games for sure! For me it all started with Elite on Commodore64 and I have been searching for the equivalent ever since. WC was a bit more story and twitch, but I loved the movie/game mix that 90's games had. Plus Mark Hamil - LOL

[Crazy Vania]

That kickstarter has Access to Alpha + Beta + Retail copy of the game for 35 dollars. Pledged ! I played Freelancer and when I had done pretty much everything there was to do I was like: hmm, what the fuck ? how do I get more of this... google for "Space game"... what's this Eve Online thing ?

[Ronat]

$35 for all that! Where do i sign up?

[Wulfrunner]

The Kilrathi are coming to destroy the Tiger's Claw!!! I only ever played Wing Commander I, and I think I may have even finished it. Great game!

[Tea]

Played wc3 and wc4 to death then WC prophecy and Secret Ops (my first experience with free DLC ). Those two might have been post Roberts though. Freelancer was quite fun too. In principle the 35 dollars for a full game is pretty good value, but in practice I can't justify spending cash now for a game not due out for 2 years,

[ChildofDestruction]

There was a thread few weeks ago about this with lots of videos in forum

[Ronat]

It's actually $30 on kickstarter. It doesn't show alpha access in the info, but on the main page they said they added it later and change change info after donations start. I'm going to do that before they fill up all the slots. $30 is a good price for a game, but only if it's at least pretty good plus you get access to alpha/beta testing. I don't care about the alpha testing as much as it will probably be very buggy.


Congratulations!

You are now an official backer of Star Citizen. Time to tell the world about it!

[Nero Prime]

Did the $60 bounty hunter package.

[Ronat]

Nice Nero! 2 year early preview: https://player.vimeo.../video/53321312

[Ulin]

Maybe I just drank way too much of the kool-aid but I went all the way to Wingnut. I still have the collector's tin of WC3 on my bookshelf, and Privateer was one of my favortite games.

[Crazy Vania]

Hmmrfff... they are pushing this kickstarter money grabbing a bit too much for my taste.

Congratulations, Kickstarter, your dedication has unlocked an additional base type in Star Citizen: the hidden smuggler's asteroid. (Technically, we're still about $500 short... but it's not your fault that Amazon is down, so we've decided to release this goal anyway.)
The asteroid bases will take on two forms: the first is active smugglers bases with trading and the seediest bars in the galaxy offering some of the most dangerous--and lucrative--missions outside the law. The second is secret supply depots that you can discover, raid and contest yourself. Their locations won't be on any map, their location the stuff of legend and hearsay. You'll learn about them through heresy at seedy mining bars or tireless exploratory scanning of asteroid bases or even by outfitting your ship o stealthily follow successful smugglers. There you' may find anything from a thriving smuggler community, an intergalactic bazar trading black market goods at great prices… or an abandoned cache of weapons and upgrades thought hidden in deep space by their previous owners. And once discovered, the abandoned worldlets could make for an excellent hidden squadron base… as long as no one reveals their location or follows you home!
At the $1.5 million level you're going to unlock two additional flyable ship types which won't be available through the main site's progression. Origin M50 interceptor and the Drake Interplanetary Caterpillar armored transport (for salvage and... piracy.) We'll provide specifications for the M50 at $1.375M and the Caterpillar at $1.5M. Meanwhile, at the main site we're getting close to $3.7 million and another star system and then a new ship at $3.75M. Your contributions through Kickstarter will work towards both goals!

Maybe it's just me being a bittervet or something, but unlocking content based on how many donations they get is annoying to me. Shouldn't they strive to give us the best possible game from the start, regardless of how many donations they get ?

[Nero Prime]

Hmmm...going to upgrade my level. Should I go for Freelancer or Colonel...hmmm

[Ronat]

Hmmrfff... they are pushing this kickstarter money grabbing a bit too much for my taste.

Congratulations, Kickstarter, your dedication has unlocked an additional base type in Star Citizen: the hidden smuggler's asteroid. (Technically, we're still about $500 short... but it's not your fault that Amazon is down, so we've decided to release this goal anyway.)
The asteroid bases will take on two forms: the first is active smugglers bases with trading and the seediest bars in the galaxy offering some of the most dangerous--and lucrative--missions outside the law. The second is secret supply depots that you can discover, raid and contest yourself. Their locations won't be on any map, their location the stuff of legend and hearsay. You'll learn about them through heresy at seedy mining bars or tireless exploratory scanning of asteroid bases or even by outfitting your ship o stealthily follow successful smugglers. There you' may find anything from a thriving smuggler community, an intergalactic bazar trading black market goods at great prices… or an abandoned cache of weapons and upgrades thought hidden in deep space by their previous owners. And once discovered, the abandoned worldlets could make for an excellent hidden squadron base… as long as no one reveals their location or follows you home!
At the $1.5 million level you're going to unlock two additional flyable ship types which won't be available through the main site's progression. Origin M50 interceptor and the Drake Interplanetary Caterpillar armored transport (for salvage and... piracy.) We'll provide specifications for the M50 at $1.375M and the Caterpillar at $1.5M. Meanwhile, at the main site we're getting close to $3.7 million and another star system and then a new ship at $3.75M. Your contributions through Kickstarter will work towards both goals!

Maybe it's just me being a bittervet or something, but unlocking content based on how many donations they get is annoying to me. Shouldn't they strive to give us the best possible game from the start, regardless of how many donations they get ?

The way I see it is the more money they have at the start the more people/resources they can hire/have to work on production. These are all things you'd probably get eventually as they say they'll be adding content every one to two weeks, but you'd have to wait much longer if they had 2M verus 4M in their pocketbook. As the next major influx of cash would be at launch (I think). I haven't really look at all his sources of funding, but I'm amazed at how much work has been done by the time the kickstarter project was initiated. I hope all goes extremely well for him, because I'd like to see an interest in creating advanced PC games that just outdo consoles. He's raised about 6.8M from supporters between his website and kickstarter, which is amazing to me. Maybe others will follow suit.

I didn't do more than the $30 for alpha/beta early access and a copy of the game, because I don't really understand the options with the ships. Can't you just work your way towards them in the game? I don't mind games funding themselves with using real life money to buy in-game stuff, because it makes it cheaper for me to buy the game or funds the continuing updates. Eve has it with plexes as you get ISK when you sell them and can buy ships that you didn't 'earn' in the game. I'm going to read the forums as I see they've extended early adopter prices until tomorrow. So anyone else who wants in, you have today and it ends sometime tomorrow.

Edit: Is Star Citizen “free to play”? A subscription game?

To play Star Citizen you need only to buy the initial game. There will never be a monthly charge for usage. Some in-game items may be available as microtransactions, but we will NEVER sell anything that can’t be acquired through honest (and fun!) gameplay.

I answered my question. I'll just play the game when it comes out and earn my way up as I did in Eve. Who knows I may not like it, but I loved Wing Commander.

[Tea]

An Interview relevant to this interest.

[Othran]

Took me forever to finish the last mission in Heart of The Tiger but I won't be contributing to this one same as I'm not contributing to Braben's latest Elite vapourware. I think that the majority of the Kickstarter stuff are simply vanity projects - Braben's most certainly is and this one smells the same. I hope you get what you expect but I don't think you will....

[Itkovian Beddict]

I think that the majority of the Kickstarter stuff are simply vanity projects

Not sure if you mean this about Kickstarter in general but there have been many more genuine valid titles by relative unknowns who wouldn't have been funded any other way. Sir, You Are Being Hunted, FTL, Maia are three off the top of my head but there have been many more.

I do agree if you just mean "the ones by the known faces" though. I'm not keen on supporting them in the same way...

[Larg Kellein]

I'm not pre-buying it, but unless it's trash I'll certainly get it on release. My Thanatos is named "Tiger's Claw", ffs.

[Othran]

I do agree if you just mean "the ones by the known faces" though. I'm not keen on supporting them in the same way...

That's exactly what I mean. In the case of Braben he part-owns a gaming company with 250 employees. He has personal wealth well in excess of the £2 million he's looking for to reprise Elite. Had he really wanted to reprise Elite properly then he's had 20 years to do it and has failed, despite having had the means to do so. Now he wants it Kickstarted. Vapourware funded by fools in the case of Braben/Elite.

This one smells the same although I don't know the principals and their public financial positions.

[Ronat]

Took me forever to finish the last mission in Heart of The Tiger but I won't be contributing to this one same as I'm not contributing to Braben's latest Elite vapourware.

I think that the majority of the Kickstarter stuff are simply vanity projects - Braben's most certainly is and this one smells the same. I hope you get what you expect but I don't think you will....

Startups by nature are risky. Seven out of 10 new employer firms survive at least 2 years, half at least 5 years, a third at least 10 years, and a quarter stay in business 15 years or more (http://www.sba.gov/s...files/sbfaq.pdf). I would put more faith in Star Citizen because of the experience of the guy leading the game development, but at the same point I don't know how much experience he has leading a company. He may be successfully in creating a great game, but it could fold due to his business model. Either way, I donated $30, which is like a month of eve for me (between my accounts) based on yearly subs. So if it does fail, it's not going to bother me, but I feel good supporting a 'potential' great game for the PC and receiving alpha+beta+retail for the support.

[Crazy Vania]

Agreed. I know the "it's not much money so it's ok" argument is how many scams work, but if there is even a 1% for this game to come out the way I want it to, my 30 dollars are well invested. I have paid 10 dollars for kickstarter game FTL, and in return have received approximately 10 hours of fun for each buck. Unlocked 6 ships already, still trying to get the rest, over and over and over

[Ronat]

When's the alpha coming out?

[roigon]

I'm with Larg, love the WC series, played them all. But I'm not going to spend a single penny before the retail release or retail equivalent open-beta like thing.

 

While I'm not surprised how many eve players are keeping an eye on the project I'm quite surprised by the the tower high expectations of people. Some people are for instance actually expecting this game to compete with eve which is folly, some apparently expecting it to be like eve but with in-cockpit controls. Which IMHO is simply setting oneself up for a disappointment. 

 

This game will not be eve or anything like eve. If anything it will be like the X series but with a multiplayer/mmo component. Which actually has me a bit worried. They have cited that the economy will be AI driven to make a dynamic economy. i.e. A factory will need resource X,Y and have output Z. To get X and Y it will create "missions" which can be picked up by players, if no players pick it up then NPC's will pick it up. same with the output. Then the system governing the factory will create a buy/sell price for x,y and z dependant on supply and demand.

 

Now that sounds pretty nifty and it will no doubt work. X actually uses a pretty much identical system. The thing is however, as a player it is childs play to manipulate the flow of resources to make retarded profits because such systems in their simplicity of design are inherently dumb. A simple hoard and dump strategy is generally enough to wreak havoc on such systems.

 

The other part is the current proposal for pve vs pvp. Solarsystems or their equivalent will apparently have instances depending on traffic and if the current proposal is implemented, also security. As I understand it there will be a slider and if the slider is set to full-on PvE you will be put in instances where there is no pvp allowed. So given some eve-esque common sense everybody will set their slider to full-pve whenever they are doing anything pve-ish. So in pvp-on mode you will never see a player doing pve-things, unless they are dumb.

 

Granted this is all speculation since AFIAK none of this is actually made yet. Because as it stands most stuff is still in document form or prototype stages. Which is fine, that's how stuff gets made and made good.  But as a potential consumer it's also the reason I'm going to wait until the project is much further along. I have no interest at this point to "own" spaceships in a world where I can only walk in my hanger and the rest of the game is only described on paper. I already have WiS for that experience.

 

As for kickstarter, I backed broken age from doublefine adventures. A point and click adventure game. It got 3.3M via kickstarter 2 years ago. Initially it would take a year to make. They ran out of money about half a year ago and ended up splitting the game up into 2 parts hoping to recoup some of the money they had to dump into the project themselves to finish it.

 

That's just for a single player point and click adventure game. RSI is making something vastly more complex and intricate and their kickstarter netted only 2M USD. I am not at all surprised by their "money grabbing", they no doubt NEED that money.

 

-edit-

I just looked at their kickstarter which said 2M, but on their site they are now up to 36M invested.

[Aluchem]

 

I just looked at their kickstarter which said 2M, but on their site they are now up to 36M invested.

 

37m as of today.

[Ronat]

That's just for a single player point and click adventure game. RSI is making something vastly more complex and intricate and their kickstarter netted only 2M USD. I am not at all surprised by their "money grabbing", they no doubt NEED that money.

 

-edit-

I just looked at their kickstarter which said 2M, but on their site they are now up to 36M invested.

Yeah, I dropped in whatever the cheapest option was with alpha access in the early days.  I wouldn't have put down money had it not be someone with his level of success and experience.  And by no means am I saying it will be a success, but I would't have dropped for a guy like Curt Schilling http://www.celebrity...o-game-company/