TOG - The Older Gamers

Ludy · 6th February 2013, 12:52 PM

This game is already being discussed in TOG at Star Citizen, it's a space sim!!! but this will have a persistent MMO server and I felt it should be included here for games.

star-citizen-thats-no-moon.jpg

What is Star Citzen?
It is a space flight sim that is being mad by Chris Roberts. You might remember some of his old title Wing Commander, Freelancer, and Privateer to name a few. Well he is back after taking 10 years and is making a new game that is pretty impressive in scope.

Impressive in scope how?
Well first it is going to have a single player game "Squadron 42" that will be a good spot to learn the more twitchy mechanics. Then it will have a multi-player area that will be for you and your mates to make it's own server and mod it up. After all of that he still is going to have a MMO server that you an take your single player pilot into. I am looking at the single player game as a lengthy tutorial to the multi-player game.

Who is the publisher and dev?
Us gamers are really the money behind this one. $7.5 million and counting has been raised from kickstarter and the drive on their website. This drive is still on going and there are some nice items that you can get. (Link to site in link section below)

Will this have PvP?
Yes. They have already talked about pirates and PvP conflict. I don't know if it will be a top priority but it will be part of the game. If you are familar with Eve they will have a "podding" ability to blow up the pilot after they eject. There will be insurance to safeguard you against lose of ship and upgrades. Being a pirate and "podding" will carry stiff penalties in "hi-sec" space.

What's this "Podding" you refer to?
In Eve you are a pilot in a "pod" this pod ejects into space when your ship blows up. Another player can then blow that up and you are sent to a clone you have stored somewhere. Here is a blip from a post I just read on the dev's site on how Star Cit will handle it in the pesistant world...

Quote:

Every “death” creates wear and tear on your body. Depending on where you were hit and how you died, your character may require a new body part, which can either be cybernetic or organic. Eventually after too many deaths, your character’s body will just give out, and instead of waking up in a med bay, you’ll be attending the funeral of your fallen character from the eyes of the beneficiary you specified when originally creating your character. If your old character has done something noteworthy (akin to an in-game achievement), his headstone might read “Here lies Chris, discover of the Orion 2 jump point, slayer of the Dread Pirate Roberts, and a Citizen of the First Order.”

The beneficiary is the name of a person you put down at creation. I leave my stuff to Ludy signed Ludy type of thing.

What do they have for guilds?
They already have announced huge spaceship carriers that can be piloted by one person with large crews for defense turrets. So you could ride in the carrier until we get to an exploration site manning the defense turrets or launching to dogfight if attacked. Once there you could pilot around and collect mats to bring back to the ship. The hope by many is that these ships are hard to get and can act as a mobile base for guild functions.

Is this one of those only in ship games?
No. You can walk around and even have FPS boarding actions to take other ships from the sounds of it.
Star_Citizen_5.jpg

Any crafting?
From what I have read is they want decay and player made goods to be the majority of gear in game. There will also be local not server wide markets so not only can you be a trader but you can be a space trucker.

Conclusion:
All of this is just really bit's and pieces of everything that has been released by the company. Chris Roberts is an old school developer that wanted to make a new game that he wants to play. He is using the whole crowd funding to back this game because he didn't like his chances of getting his vision to market going to a major publisher.

He has stated that his goal is to keep the funders informed along the development process and they have. They have released new information nearly every week and answer questions from the forum all the time.

In short I funded to the Freelancer level and have been thinking of upping my pledge. I like the dev's earlier work and I love the direction they are going with the game. Problem is I need to wait until likely 2014 before I get to play.

Links:
| Roberts Space Industries (Dev Site)
Star Citizen | Roberts Space Industries (Game Site - where to go to fund)
Roberts Space Industries on Vimeo (Vimeo site for vids. I like Wingman's Hanger)
Drake Interplanetary | Star Citizen Community Fansite | Forums | Articles | Media (fan site)
Star Citizen Base | Star Citizen Fansite | Star Citizen Forum | Roberts Space Industries (fan run forum site)

cahiry · 6th February 2013, 01:58 PM

I am looking forward to this one, played all his games. only downside is his going to release it as a single player game first with some form of co-op play and once the bugs are worked out he will introduce the MMO universe.

Purg · 6th February 2013, 02:25 PM

I think I pledged ~$35. IIRC, it's using Cryengine? Love space sims and I like Cryengine and can't wait to see what he can do with it. Even the early stuff he posted looks fantastic.

Zalzany · 6th February 2013, 02:38 PM

My only beef is the slander that no one outside of him believes in a space RPG. EVE, the X-series and a whole army of weird oddball one like 2d ones kind of say otherwise. Other than that sad dramatic build up to help him get more cash for nothing, and of course more then he would have goten if he wanted backing on his terms from a producer. Games like this, although not necessarily space related are popping up all over, and their options are sign with abig firm, and hope you don't eat the contract, or start fundraiser drives, cut corners on staff, and still slap a price tag at the end, and come out ahead whether its a best seller or not.

I just hope the guy remembers that donations are not that much money is taxable, otherwise he will find himself in the same bought as free to play private servers, who got out of lawsuits for using some one else's game because they allowed a free download. Guys got taken to the cleaners by IRS after they realized they had no way to shut down the private servers. That and that they don't pull a fast one like they did with mount and blade, where you paid for the first one to support the developers work, then they released the final version with everything he promised for the support beta purchase into Warband which they sold as a standalone game.

The more I read, the more I think its just a ponzi scheme. Sounds great, but you have to buy the game, which I got no beef with, on top of 99% of not something around 110% is covered by backers who don't see returns. Then they sell in game credits... and vanity items to "provide support." Because 7 million dollars which traditionally you would have to make back with purchases of the finished product, but in this case its free, must be for pizza parties once they earn back their interest free start up costs. Meanwhile I am waiting for the new X-series game that requires no donations, and a one time purchase for years upon years of support, and zero items vanity or otherwise for you to buy. Guess those guys must be living in shacks, or have some sort of secret...

cahiry · 6th February 2013, 03:07 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Zalzany

My only beef is the slander that no one outside of him believes in a space RPG. EVE, the X-series and a whole army of weird oddball one like 2d ones kind of say otherwise. Other than that sad dramatic build up to help him get more cash for nothing, and of course more then he would have goten if he wanted backing on his terms from a producer. Games like this, although not necessarily space related are popping up all over, and their options are sign with abig firm, and hope you don't eat the contract, or start fundraiser drives, cut corners on staff, and still slap a price tag at the end, and come out ahead whether its a best seller or not.

I just hope the guy remembers that donations are not that much money is taxable, otherwise he will find himself in the same bought as free to play private servers, who got out of lawsuits for using some one else's game because they allowed a free download. Guys got taken to the cleaners by IRS after they realized they had no way to shut down the private servers. That and that they don't pull a fast one like they did with mount and blade, where you paid for the first one to support the developers work, then they released the final version with everything he promised for the support beta purchase into Warband which they sold as a standalone game.

The more I read, the more I think its just a ponzi scheme. Sounds great, but you have to buy the game, which I got no beef with, on top of 99% of not something around 110% is covered by backers who don't see returns. Then they sell in game credits... and vanity items to "provide support." Because 7 million dollars which traditionally you would have to make back with purchases of the finished product, but in this case its free, must be for pizza parties once they earn back their interest free start up costs. Meanwhile I am waiting for the new X-series game that requires no donations, and a one time purchase for years upon years of support, and zero items vanity or otherwise for you to buy. Guess those guys must be living in shacks, or have some sort of secret...

WoW i'm not sure if your for or against this ? lol but was a fun read

Blue_Talon · 6th February 2013, 03:25 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Zalzany

My only beef is the slander that no one outside of him believes in a space RPG. EVE, the X-series and a whole army of weird oddball one like 2d ones kind of say otherwise. Other than that sad dramatic build up to help him get more cash for nothing, and of course more then he would have goten if he wanted backing on his terms from a producer. Games like this, although not necessarily space related are popping up all over, and their options are sign with abig firm, and hope you don't eat the contract, or start fundraiser drives, cut corners on staff, and still slap a price tag at the end, and come out ahead whether its a best seller or not.

I just hope the guy remembers that donations are not that much money is taxable, otherwise he will find himself in the same bought as free to play private servers, who got out of lawsuits for using some one else's game because they allowed a free download. Guys got taken to the cleaners by IRS after they realized they had no way to shut down the private servers. That and that they don't pull a fast one like they did with mount and blade, where you paid for the first one to support the developers work, then they released the final version with everything he promised for the support beta purchase into Warband which they sold as a standalone game.

The more I read, the more I think its just a ponzi scheme. Sounds great, but you have to buy the game, which I got no beef with, on top of 99% of not something around 110% is covered by backers who don't see returns. Then they sell in game credits... and vanity items to "provide support." Because 7 million dollars which traditionally you would have to make back with purchases of the finished product, but in this case its free, must be for pizza parties once they earn back their interest free start up costs. Meanwhile I am waiting for the new X-series game that requires no donations, and a one time purchase for years upon years of support, and zero items vanity or otherwise for you to buy. Guess those guys must be living in shacks, or have some sort of secret...

Down boyo. No need to get all deep into the psych of it all.

I believe the OP (Ludy) was trying to bring this wonderfully potential MMO type game to everyones attention for discussion and general interest, not start a slightly bitter rant about how devious and self-centred the creator is. Unless your personally know there creator and he is as bad as you say, I'd probably try show a little restraint in you opinion.

Just to pick at your argument. The KS program itself is open to abuse, so take it with a grain of salt, not many games are going to be of the quality and scope of a privately funded project. Also micro-transactions and the like are the bread and butter of a F2P game, like say World of Tanks or GW2 or PS2 or SWTOR or Neverwinter (to be released this year) or GW1 etc etc etc.

Sincerely BT

Just to offer a civil comment.
Been interested to see how this goes for a while, there a fair bit of coin being thrown around and obviously a fan base that wants this game. It wont just be good for the genre, which EvE has dominated for a while but also for the KS program or Greenlight if you follow Valves work. Hoping this is a way to get more niche games out there and profitable.... Baldurs Gate 3 anyone?

Oh and that video on the developers page is pretty decent. I'd play it when it comes out.

Ludy · 6th February 2013, 03:34 PM

@Zalzany - Lots of hate in that posts mate. The devs run over your puppy or something?

This is not even close to a scam. They tell you up front what you are buying and have been doing updates on a weekly basis. In fact so much stuff that I don't know of another kickstarter that has done it to that amount.

The idea of kickstarters is we as gamers take a risk to get a game made that we want. In return we get some extras. Fluff really but not different from a Jedi statue and access to an in ame club. In essence not a damn bit different than buying the pre-order collectors edition. If you are not into that it's cool. I on the other hand am. I give money to a few games, documentaries, and other things every year.

Thank you for you opinion. I strongly disagree with you but you have the right to it.

xenoph · 6th February 2013, 07:33 PM

Apart from the thread in the RPG forum you linked, it's also threads in this forum, and in the fps forum.

Just in case people want to check those out for info too.