Vapourware Scam Citizen - Only people with too much money can become StarCitizens! WOULD YOU LIKE TO KNOW MORE?

[Baron Tahn]

Easy marketing/advertising hires though and that's where all the money is in arts these days. Apparently we just cannot stop buying lies and eating shit. Advertising pays waaaaaay more than film/tv and, I assume, game dev.

Edit: also fuck you Im not a retard *cries into cereal*

 

[Crispy]

CIG is actually ending SQ42 development and it is effectively in beta where they hunt bugs before release.

THIS TIME WE REALLY MEAN IT

 

[Jrpgfan]

Are they trying to break Cleve's record for longest development time?

 

[Myobi]

My only hope for Star Citizen is that one day, which will probably be far in the future, there will be Bernie Madoff levels of lawsuits and criminal prosecution that culminate in Chris Roberts having to spend the rest of his life in prison.

Very unlikely because technically for legal purposes the game is already “released”, what they have now is the product. However, I don't know what's the situation with Squadron 42 and other shit they are selling such as “modding guides”.

 

[Modron]

Are they trying to break Cleve's record for longest development time?

Beyond Good and Evil 2 is probably there already.

Edit: Plus lets not mention a lot of roguelikes that have been in development for longer like Unreal World.

 

[Perkel]

Report from CIG about server meshing test.

TDLR:
- It went really well.
- Next test this week which will now connect two system for the first time in SC history.

Happy Monday, everyone!​

Last week, we opened the doors to the Evocati for a series of initial Server Meshing trials, and we're happy to report that it was a success. The playtest involved full-scale static meshing, with one server dedicated to Pyro and another to Stanton, both seamlessly navigating through the replication layer to the same shard.

During the 5-hour playtest, we encountered only one server crash, and despite a hiccup on the Pyro side of the shard, Stanton, which was running on the same shard, continued seamlessly without any disruptions. Even more encouraging was the swift recovery, as Pyro bounced back in just over 2 minutes.

This week, we're aiming to take another big step forward by opening the Jump Gates between systems for the first time.

We want to take a moment to thank everyone for participating and, just generally, for all the support you have shown us over the years. 2024 is shaping up to be really special, and we couldn't have come this far without each and every one of you.

We'll see you on the other side.

 

[Perkel]

12 more years to go

 

[Virgil Brummond]

You and other star citizens keep pushing this "it went really well" PR talking points without any specifics.

What went well? They have a prototype of in-game server selector (that doesn't yet support in-game transitions?) after 12 years and $650+ million allegedly spent?

Below is some commentary by PCmag about Dark Age of Camelot from July 2003 (more than 20 years ago):

The heart of camelot, it turns out, isn't in the english countryside but in fairfax, virginia. there mythic keeps 120 dual-processor pentium servers running linux. each group of six servers runs what mythic calls a gamespace—a virtual world inhabited by thousands of players. the idea is to create different gamespaces for different types of players.

...

Design decisions also reflect the need to keep players happy. while each gamespace could conceivably handle 20,000 simultaneous players, mythic limits them to about 4,000 players each, adding new gamespaces when necessary instead of increasing the load on the ones already up. "if you have too many people, the worlds get too crowded," says denton. "the last thing you want is to be bumping into thousands of people."

What do the star citizens mean by "it went well"?

 

[Perkel]

You and other star citizens keep pushing this "it went really well" PR talking points without any specifics.
What went well? They have a prototype of in-game server selector (that does yet support in-game transitions?) after 12 years and $650+ million allegedly spent?
Below is some commentary by PCmag about Dark Age of Camelot from July 2003 (more than 20 years ago):
What do the star citizens mean by "it went well"?

Every time any technology goes online in test servers it usually makes everything blow up.
It went so well that they are now enabling new features in next test that will make it at level of mentioned camelot.
Thing is that this is just basic functionality of server meshing not its limit.

If server meshing was only about connecting two servers together via gate CIG wouldn't be doing this because they could use camelot tech just like every other mmo game there is.

Camelot system essentially is game on servers just like any other mmo. While CIG's server meshing essentially is servers on a game. Reversed situation in which servers are basically just resource to render what game needs rather than servers telling game engine what it should render.

 

[Virgil Brummond]

So what technology went online? A server selector? So a server selector (that currently doesn't actually allow for in-game server selection) not destroying everything is a major achievement?

If server meshing was only about connecting two servers together via gate CIG wouldn't be doing this because they could use camelot tech just like every other mmo game there is.

Can you provide specifics? You claim it is not a mere server selector (that will soon be available in-game!!!), so what else is there? Does it allow for transparent missions between servers? Invasions from one system to another?

Camelot system essentially is game on servers just like any other mmo. While CIG's server meshing essentially is servers on a game. Reversed situation in which servers are basically just resource to render what game needs rather than servers telling game engine what it should render.

Game on servers, servers on game, what is this bullshit?

What don't you understand about the quoted PCmag text, star citizen?

It clearly states that Mythic used 6 dual sockets servers to power a "shard" with a target of 4,000 CCUs (not accounts) with an alleged theoretical max of 20 K CCUs. And this was completely transparent to the players. If one started a quest in (physical) server #1, you didn't need to worry that you were technically being serviced by (physical) server #4.

And this was 21 years ago.

CIG is claiming to be focused on a 1.0 launch for star citizen. Robert's wife must be going wild with the weekly Monaco shopping trips and/or the Calders have Roberts' balls in a vice (it's been ~5 years since the investment, they probably want an above average return).

 

[Perkel]

So what technology went online? A server selector? So a server selector (that currently doesn't actually allow for in-game server selection) not destroying everything is a major achievement?

Whole network backend infrastructure went online. They are in process of transferring game into that new backend now hoping nothing will blow up (it probably will). Until now SC run effectively on single server aka no proper backend at all.

Game on servers, servers on game, what is this bullshit?
Can you provide specifics? You claim it is not a mere server selector (that will soon be available in-game!!!), so what else is there? Does it allow for transparent missions between servers? Invasions from one system to another?

With server meshing the whole notion of selecting server goes away. The only limitation will be probably geographical latency which means they will be regions instead like EU/US/ASIA but those will be design choice not a physical limitation if they wanted they could do all players in single shared world etc.

Idea of "full server" "queues" "server crashes" "server lag" "instancing" "Item timers" etc. stuff like this has potential to not exist anymore.

In fully featured server meshing if you server crashes then your game will just continue like nothing happened because state of your game is not on server but lives on information layer. The moment your server crashes authority over calculation like pathfinding etc goes to nearest server which gets increased load while that crashed server restarts and is assigned where is the most needed. Servers aren't tied anymore to anything, they float where they are needed and idea of "server" as in something that holds in it game becomes completely meaningless. They effectively will become compute.

Good way to think about it is this:

old shard system - your discs in your pc
server meshing - google cloud

It is meaningless to ask about what hard disc you use in virtualized cloud like google cloud. You don't choose servers, your data is always online regardless if some google server facility has fire or not. You don't have bandwidth limit either you can get arbitrary speed of transfer exceeding best discs there are by quantum leap not just by a lot. Want 1 petabyte per second ? It will cost you but is possible.

CIG is claiming to be focused on a 1.0 launch for star citizen. Robert's wife must be going wild with the weekly Monaco shopping trips and/or the Calders have Roberts' balls in a vice (it's been ~5 years since the investment, they probably want an above average return).

News at 11. Developers working on a game are interested in finishing game.

No there is no way 1.0 will be released anywhere soon. From feature set point of perspective they are pretty close though. Once they are out of alpha there is content completion which will also take some time, especially for an MMO which is where supposedly all their tech R&D should come into play shortening that cycle. Then Beta where game is content complete and then release.

 

[Myobi]

People don't use "server meshing" because its not worth the trouble or the money and it opens an entire new can of worms to deal with.

 

[Perkel]

Another test was run. This time connecting Pyro and Stanton. People were able to jump from and to those systems. No major bugs. Next test will probably be two servers per system and then 2 + 2 with jumping between pyro and stanton and then back to developement to squash bugs improve etc.

Seems like 4.0 will be this year.*

*Or in next 12 years XD

 

[Virgil Brummond]

Another test was run. This time connecting Pyro and Stanton. People were able to jump from and to those systems. No major bugs. Next test will probably be two servers per system and then 2 + 2 with jumping between pyro and stanton and then back to developement to squash bugs improve etc.

Incredible. Truly, never been done before!

Below is an image of this historical event:

CIG claims that the loading screen leveraged "anatomical mocap" performed by none other than Chris Roberts on one of the more committed star citizens.

 

[Perkel]

Another test announced. This time focusing on increasing amount of people.
For comparison currently there is 100 people cap.

Seems that second test went really well as well otherwise they wouldn't be this test so soon.

Below is an image of this historical event:

CIG claims that the loading screen leveraged "anatomical mocap" performed by none other than Chris Roberts on one of the more committed star citizens.

Yeah they said it will be just spawn for now, final quality animation gameplay etc. is not ready yet.

 

[Virgil Brummond]

Chris Roberts just released a new self congratulatory (surprisingly no comparisons of SC's development and Apollo missions this time) blog post.

Beyond the usual drivel, there seems to be a bigger emphasis on "Star Citizen 1.0":

While we recognize that there is no definitive finish line in an online MMO, and that we will always be adding new features and content for many, many years to come, Star Citizen 1.0 is what we consider the features and content set to represent “commercial” release. This means that the game is welcoming to new players, stable, and polished with enough gameplay and content to engage players continuously. In other words, it is no longer Alpha or Early Access.

Much like we planned out Squadron 42’s drive to Feature Complete and the upcoming Content Complete status, we spent significant time looking at what Star Citizen 1.0 means and what it would take to get there.

Firstly, I’d like to take this opportunity to say how great it is to be back working on Star Citizen. Some of you may already know me but I was the Core Gameplay Pillar Director before I moved over to become the Game Director on SQ42 a few years back. With this new role I will be coming on board to help push Star Citizen to the next stage of its development, ultimately culminating in leaving early access and releasing the 1.0 version of the game.

While these teams will still be instrumental in shipping SQ42, they will now be focussed on bringing all the existing features over to SC, as well as working on brand-new features like Base Building and Crafting to help round out the 1.0 experience.

Working in tandem, Rich and I will continue to establish the strategic vision to bring to life the intended Star Citizen gameplay experience. As Rich said, over the past few months, our teams have been busily planning the upcoming major milestones for the Persistent Universe, culminating in what we refer to as "Star Citizen 1.0." As that roadmap comes together and becomes validated, we look forward to sharing with you both its vision and executional plan later this year.

It's worth noting that the FUDsters in the refunds subreddit discovered some interesting new info in CIG's latest annual Companyhouse report for the UK subsidiary.

It seems that Calders (billionaire family that invested in CIG in 2018) have an exit clause that allows them to get their initial investment back and 6% compounded annually or another formula based on JPEG sales (whichever ones is bigger).

They have an option to demand this money in 2025Q1 and a final option in 2028Q1.

So it seems that Roberts has a deadline to "release" SQ404 and Scam Citizen.

 

[Perkel]

Chris Roberts just released a new self congratulatory (surprisingly no comparisons of SC's development and Apollo missions this time) blog post.

Beyond the usual drivel, there seems to be a bigger emphasis on "Star Citizen 1.0":

While we recognize that there is no definitive finish line in an online MMO, and that we will always be adding new features and content for many, many years to come, Star Citizen 1.0 is what we consider the features and content set to represent “commercial” release. This means that the game is welcoming to new players, stable, and polished with enough gameplay and content to engage players continuously. In other words, it is no longer Alpha or Early Access.

Much like we planned out Squadron 42’s drive to Feature Complete and the upcoming Content Complete status, we spent significant time looking at what Star Citizen 1.0 means and what it would take to get there.

Firstly, I’d like to take this opportunity to say how great it is to be back working on Star Citizen. Some of you may already know me but I was the Core Gameplay Pillar Director before I moved over to become the Game Director on SQ42 a few years back. With this new role I will be coming on board to help push Star Citizen to the next stage of its development, ultimately culminating in leaving early access and releasing the 1.0 version of the game.

While these teams will still be instrumental in shipping SQ42, they will now be focussed on bringing all the existing features over to SC, as well as working on brand-new features like Base Building and Crafting to help round out the 1.0 experience.

Working in tandem, Rich and I will continue to establish the strategic vision to bring to life the intended Star Citizen gameplay experience. As Rich said, over the past few months, our teams have been busily planning the upcoming major milestones for the Persistent Universe, culminating in what we refer to as "Star Citizen 1.0." As that roadmap comes together and becomes validated, we look forward to sharing with you both its vision and executional plan later this year.

It's worth noting that the FUDsters in the refunds subreddit discovered some interesting new info in CIG's latest annual Companyhouse report for the UK subsidiary.

It seems that Calders (billionaire family that invested in CIG in 2018) have an exist clause that allows them to get their initial investment back and 6% compounded annually or another formula based on JPEG sales (whichever ones is bigger).

They have an option to demand this money in 2025Q1 and a final option in 2028Q1.

So it seems that Roberts has a deadline to "release" SQ404 and Scam Citizen.

Considering their drive toward QOL i have no doubt that they will announce 1.0 when they will have 3-4 systems and server meshing working.

They also officially announced replication layer to be in 3.23 which means no more crashes leading to lost progression.

 

[Myobi]

they will announce 1.0 when they will have 3-4 systems

 

[Perkel]

Hits "enter" and adds 97 randomly generated star systems with nothing in them.

 

[Myobi]

Hits "enter" and adds 97 randomly generated star systems with nothing in them.

... and I wouldn't even be surprised, even less if they were all still broken anyway.

 

[RobotSquirrel]

Hits "enter" and adds 97 randomly generated star systems with nothing in them.

so starfield

 

[Virgil Brummond]

Another test announced. This time focusing on increasing amount of people.
For comparison currently there is 100 people cap.

Seems that second test went really well as well otherwise they wouldn't be this test so soon.

By the way, what happened to the 400 player test (the 200 one was not increase over the current system)?

Someone was saying this isn't just an in-game server selector with an animated loading screen.

 

[Perkel]

It did happen. At one time one of two servers had 350 people in it. Though it wasn't full success like other tests. Ton of crashes but again mostly coming from people going into unfinished Pyro. Later CIG said it went ok.

No more tests for now. They will probably do now bughunting until another test.

 

[Perkel]

3.23 evocati testers spotted working software global illumination. That + DLSS/FSR/CIGownupscaler probably means Vulcan is ready to be deployed in 3.23. With Vulcan finally CPU requirements should fall down a lot. Star Citizen is still natively DX11 game and pushes DX11 to breaking point due to GPU calls being single threaded business. They also spotted new water simulation working there as well.

 

[Myobi]

probably means Vulcan is ready to be deployed in 3.23

A Lard-Ass has been been saying the same sort of shit since 2021, I'm sure that as long as you keep at it, one of these years you'll get it right.