2022 Letter from the Chairman

[Montoya]

Wrapping up a record breaking year with some interesting stats!

Letter From the Chairman - Roberts Space Industries | Follow the development of Star Citizen and Squadron 42

Roberts Space Industries is the official go-to website for all news about Star Citizen and Squadron 42. It also hosts the online store for game items and merch, as well as all the community tools used by our fans.

robertsspaceindustries.com

 

[Montoya]

Some highlights:

"We are aiming to put Static Server Meshing and Pyro into the hands of players in the fourth quarter of 2023. "

Oof... I was hoping earlier, but it seems Pyro towards end of 2023, which means safely in 2024.

A huge portion of our growing revenue has come exclusively from New Players that only joined Star Citizen this year. In fact, this year, we witnessed truly explosive growth. Over 800,000 New Accounts were created this year to follow or play our project. Our New Players this year have almost doubled this year, compared to last year, with over half a million new players joining us during Free Flies, Dynamic Events, and throughout 2022. And of those new players this year, over 70% of them stayed around as paying players who purchased starter packs to get access to the Star Citizen Alpha to keep their adventures going in the ‘verse.

 

[Patrick Spaceman]

"Never gonna give you up...never gonna let you down....."

 

[NaffNaffBobFace]

Thank you, Glorious Leader!

I checked my post box but didn't get sent the letter sent to me this year or it got lost in the mail, thank you for sharing!

 

[CosmicTrader]

Thanks.
It was quite a nice surprise to get the letter from CR.
Have a terrific New Year's Eve.
Server Meshing will be worth the wait...I am looking forward to help test it...

 

[Mudhawk]

"We are aiming to put Static Server Meshing and Pyro into the hands of players

And for a second there I was thinking: "What? They are planning for player hosted Servers?"
But then I realized it's just his way of saying that it's something to be broken in five minutes flat.
But what glorious five minutes this shall be.

 

[vahadar]

And for a second there I was thinking: "What? They are planning for player hosted Servers?"
But then I realized it's just his way of saying that it's something to be broken in five minutes flat.
But what glorious five minutes this shall be.

Originally player run servers was part of the plan and of the goals, but it was scrapped years ago

 

[Shadow Reaper]

It feels like Chris asked permission to dick us around for another year while he builds a different game than the one we backed, and that we gave him permission. Pyro in 2024, makes me angry. When is SQ42 due to be released?

 

[LurchLord]

So I hope you are all really happy with 3.18, since the Chief executive liar is already making up excuses for why there will be yet another year with no measurable progress.
Another year without system 2 of 100.
Another made up Jesus tech that is absolutely vital to have because THIS TIME it will REALLY make things go, REALLY. And it's only 2 years away.
Another year where we will get and see nothing about SQ42.
Another year where fundamentals will not show up, because they are not a priority, because this project has no priorities. No beards for characters, no ignore feature in chat, no functioning map, no functioning waypoint system, no ground compass, no planetary maps. Need Jesus tech 73465 for that, see, because no one else has ever done fundamentals.

But I'll bet my fat white hairy ass there will be at least 4 big new concept ships to pay for.
Not that any of the old ones, you know, like the kickstarter ones, will be fixed to be on par with the new ones. No, just pay for the new ones, and get nothing in return except for broken promises and straight up lies.

Another wasted year.

 

[Shadow Reaper]

I disagree. I'm not making those kinds of complaints. I think Chris wants to put as much fun in the hands of the players as possible. However, I also think he grossly underestimated the number of hours needed for both SC and SQ42, and it matters if he still has a player base when his game comes to market. He can only dick people around for just so long, and this feels like pushing the hairy limit. I think he has lost touch with just how precarious his position.

No joke, so much of the letter was rationalizing his poor performance that one wonders just what his expectations are for future funding. I'm sure he feels safe--the base is growing and the amount he takes in each year is growing, despite his failure to perform. That must feel like a blank check and that he is not accountable to anyone. That's not good for performance. The continuing success to fund in the face of failure to perform, really is shocking and feels like a scam. It's not, but damn. . .how can you raise so fucking much money when you can't deliver on a single thing on time?

 

[DirectorGunner]

"full-throated embrace"... I was not expecting a phrase like that... is that a UK thing? lol

 

[DirectorGunner]

P.S. What shard are we gonna pick? can we create an announcement so everyone knows once that happens?

 

[NaffNaffBobFace]

"full-throated embrace"... I was not expecting a phrase like that... is that a UK thing? lol

Being a resident of the UK it is a term I am familiar with - as far as I am aware it means being strongly supportive of something, often while being exceedingly vocal in a positive manner. A full throated endorsement of something would be one which is overwhelmingly enthusiastic.

 

[Sirus7264]

P.S. What shard are we gonna pick? can we create an announcement so everyone knows once that happens?

shard?

 

[Richard Bong]

It feels like Chris asked permission to dick us around for another year while he builds a different game than the one we backed, and that we gave him permission. Pyro in 2024, makes me angry. When is SQ42 due to be released?

According to an inebriated Erin Roberts at an Asian Bar Citizen, supposedly, at least 2 more years.

 

[Richard Bong]

Surprise, surprise. Once again a stated deadline is missed.

Reason given? None.

 

[Shadow Reaper]

Putting all of TEST on one shard save for special events would prove problematic. How many want to game on a server with 30,000 plyers, 25,000 of which you can't attack?

 

[Raven_King]

"full-throated embrace"... I was not expecting a phrase like that... is that a UK thing? lol

Not so far as I know. Likely an accidental mix of 'fully embrace' and 'full-throated support' but the result is funny and perhaps has the opposite meaning. I'm stealing that.

 

[Thalstan]

Surprise, surprise. Once again a stated deadline is missed.

Reason given? None.

It's ALWAYS 2 years away.

SQ42 is exactly 2 years away from being released as of the moment you read this. If you come back and read this again in a year, it's still 2 years from the moment you re-read it. If anyone asks "when will SQ42 be released?" even to yourself, it's 2 years from that exact thought. This way, when they actually release SQ42, it will be a complete surprise! "I thought it was still 2 years out"

Then you remember, SC is at least 2 years after SQ42 is released - or completed with episode 3 depending on who you ask. Once SQ42 is released, the same rules about SQ42 will apply to SC...always 2 years from the moment someone asks a question on when it will be released. Again, so you get surprised when they actually push it live.

Do not count on Static server meshing being this year (2023). CR ALWAYS pushes hard and over promises, and they even say that it could well be missed in the letter to the chairman. Best guess from me is 2H24 (second half 2024) or 2025.
Once they have static server meshing, then they need to implement DYNAMIC server meshing, which will take almost as long.
By this time, yet another 5-10 mechanics will have been added to ships that will require yet another gold pass for each ship, and Master Mode will have come and gone and replaced with yet another flight model because they didn't understand the impact it would have on SC since it was designed for SQ42. The new mode has already been announced that it is not meeting expectations eithers, and they have a new "Domination Mode" that will solve everything, so long as you submit to its will.

Once they have dynamic server meshing, they will finally start seriously working on NPC AI, planet Fauna and realize that it's too much for their servers to monitor and render that much information, so they need to break each planet into different servers...this will cause problems for the back-end, requiring yet another complete database overhaul.

Once this is all done, CR will say the graphics are too dated and will shift platforms to the Unreal 9 engine (assuming that is not outdated either) causing yet another massive change to the assets and necessitating a change to DX15

SERIOUSLY now...
SQ42 is at minimum 2 years away.
When CR says anything about timing, the only takeaway is that it won't happen before that time, and it won't happen close to that time either.
2H24 or 2025 is not a bad bet when it comes to static server meshing, but it might be optimistic

 

[Lorddarthvik]

I waited a couple of days to see how you were feeling about the letter and I gotta say I'm surprised.
Wow, so much negativity, well deserved ofc but I'm still surprised. Usually you are the lot that shouts at me when I'm unhappy about the absolute lack of actual progress but this time feels like I'm the one taking too many chill pills.

I gotta admit I was not happy when I read the mail (paused on a YouTube video, why the fuck isn't it in my inbox?).
Nothing I didn't expect, but still sad news.
'memba when in last years email it was Very heavily implied that by this time we will be testing static server meshing? Some delays were promised ofc, that it might slip into next year... but not a whole year of literally nothing happening, and being behind schedule by two whole patches at this point.
I get it, it's hard to build a skyscraper on a swamp that you are unwilling to drain and fix with concrete. But that's where we are at and will remain unless someone says Stop.
All that debt of trash coding, of agile "oh we will fix it maybe later maybe never" has piled up to the level where there can be no progress.
If nothing changes, Next year this time CR will send his next letter about server meshing being just around the corner, 2-3 years away again, and that's gonna be it. Oh they will have added another iteration of texture painter mechanic maybe as salvage t0.1 and added jetpack so they have more shit to sell us. But nothing substantial will have been done.


The only way I see for CIG to get ahead of this mess they are building is to go :
Dear backers. For the next two years there will be zero patches, zero support, zero anything. Servers will be up but that's it.
But we, All of us, will go back to line one in the code and assets and rework the whole thing to a finalized standard so we can actually give you something good in the end. Cya in 2028.

If you think this is excessive, might I remind you that it has been 7 or 10 however you want to count it years. And we are Still falling through our floors whenever there is a minor packet loss or some such tiny glitch, because they never went back to rethink and recode the very base of their logically broken system.