Some [Concern] about concept ships and no roadmap

[Schmunkel]

First off, I love this game(golden ticket holder here) and by no means intend this to be a "sky is falling" post. That being said, I feel like we still have a very long road to go before release of both versions of the game with almost no roadmap in place. I'm not asking for dates, but at least a plan of things to come would be very helpful. The reason this concerns me is that we are almost to April and do not have any major game mechanics(salvaging, mining, etc.) I place yet. I suspect each of these will take 3 to 6 months to perfect and the longer it takes to put them in the longer we wait for the game to release.

I also think CIG bit off more than they chew by having so many ships. I know they brought in a lot of funding, but each new concept ship reminds me of how we still don't have many early ships even hangar ready(Caterpillar, BMM). Each new concept ship I hear about makes me wonder if that delays the release of the multiplayer portion by a few months.

I don't dare post this on the forums, but I was hoping to get some good feedback from my fellow Testies. Am I crazy in thinking this?

 

[Blind Owl]

Trust in Robert's. Have faith. And just...

I'm sorry. I couldn't resist.

 

[CosmicTrader]

The best place where I get 'road map' info is the Monthly reports.

 

[FireEmblem6]

I was actually on the other side of that. I feel like we are getting updates more rapidly lately so it gives me more hope they are really pushing forward with the game.

 

[Schmunkel]

Trust in Robert's. Have faith. And just...

I'm sorry. I couldn't resist.

I haven't lost faith, it's just frustration/worry that the game is not further along than it is. I know there are still some things they are not telling us, but having a least a loose plan for upcoming releases would help in my opinion. I also think multiplayer is going to be waaaay farther out (like 2018) than everyone thinks.

 

[Schmunkel]

The best place where I get 'road map' info is the Monthly reports.

I do like the reports, but most of them have been the "we are working on" not a "next patch will contain" type of info. I'm glad they are working on everything, but would like to know more about what is on the more immediate schedule.

 

[AntiSqueaker]

The new ship pipeline is apparently speeding things along A LOT. Just look how quickly the Sabre went from Concept -> Hangar -> Flight ready.

Same with Khartu. 2.2 Hangar ready, 2.3 Flight ready.

There is a yuuuuuuuuuge backlog of ships, but most of the can safely wait. The exploration ships, as much as people moan and groan about wanting their Carrack (suck it, Caterpillar is first HAHA) are wholly useless without the mechanics, and frankly the mechanics have to wait until we have stuff to actually explore.

At the same time mining and salvage will probably have to wait until we have an economy, so no Orion or Reclaimer.

 

[Blind Owl]

I haven't lost faith, it's just frustration/worry that the game is not further along than it is. I know there are still some things they are not telling us, but having a least a loose plan for upcoming releases would help in my opinion. I also think multiplayer is going to be waaaay farther out (like 2018) than everyone thinks.

I have no expectations. That makes life easy. Development of a good game can take 5-7 years. SC will be available when it's available. SQ42 will be out this year. Perhaps Xmas. That'll tide me over for a while.

As the other gents have said, I feel like there's plenty of info coming from CIG. I've never seen a studio this open with its clients. And I've never seen this level of transparency from a studio.

I, for one, love it.

 

[Schmunkel]

I was actually on the other side of that. I feel like we are getting updates more rapidly lately so it gives me more hope they are really pushing forward with the game.

See I was thinking that too until I recently updated the game to find that not much had really changed as far as game mechanics. Yes, we have more ships, but we having nothing to do.

 

[Whaleman]

Due to the heavy focus on SQ42 we will see a lot more additions to FPS mechanics and animations as well as flight combat systems than we will on mechanics that will be exclusive to the persistent universe, such as cargo, exploration, salvaging and mining. That being said, they have people working on those things as well to some extent, because with a couple of hundred employees they are multitasking ;) I think that once they've fleshed out the more combaty things we will see more and more implementation of PU friendly mechanics in the second half this year, but right now they really have to focus on getting as many SQ42 aspects as possible into the baby PU to have us help them polish them to perfection for a late year release :D

 

[Schmunkel]

The new ship pipeline is apparently speeding things along A LOT. Just look how quickly the Sabre went from Concept -> Hangar -> Flight ready.

Same with Khartu. 2.2 Hangar ready, 2.3 Flight ready.

There is a yuuuuuuuuuge backlog of ships, but most of the can safely wait. The exploration ships, as much as people moan and groan about wanting their Carrack (suck it, Caterpillar is first HAHA) are wholly useless without the mechanics, and frankly the mechanics have to wait until we have stuff to actually explore.

At the same time mining and salvage will probably have to wait until we have an economy, so no Orion or Reclaimer.

See, I think having either cargo hauling, mining, or salvaging needs to be a higher priority than the ships. Being able to perfect that mechanic in a smaller scale, then improving upon it would be better than having double the ships we have with no mechanics.

 

[Schmunkel]

I have no expectations. That makes life easy. Development of a good game can take 5-7 years. SC will be available when it's available. SQ42 will be out this year. Perhaps Xmas. That'll tide me over for a while.

As the other gents have said, I feel like there's plenty of info coming from CIG. I've never seen a studio this open with its clients. And I've never seen this level of transparency from a studio.

I, for one, love it.

I envy your patience!

 

[Phantomoftruth]

From a Developer side(which I am not for this game) , Road maps are great tools and never for external consumption. which is why we get "Soon(tm)". The Monthly Reports are great for showing motion and milestones. New(concept) ships getting sidelined or delayed as, "why release something when there is no mechanic for it" makes sense. We know they had shifted people to SQ42 in order to get part 1 out the door with a target of Q4. The PU we see being adjusted to a more appropriate scale, between Yela and Stanton. This is still all Alpha and for the scope that CR had in mind for this is boggling. We are watching Sausage being made, in all it's glory. Go on the Issue Council, read and try to replicate, get in on the PTU and quash bugs.

I hope I do not come across as an ass, it is not my intention.

 

[Schmunkel]

From a Developer side(which I am not for this game) , Road maps are great tools and never for external consumption. which is why we get "Soon(tm)". The Monthly Reports are great for showing motion and milestones. New(concept) ships getting sidelined or delayed as, "why release something when there is no mechanic for it" makes sense. We know they had shifted people to SQ42 in order to get part 1 out the door with a target of Q4. The PU we see being adjusted to a more appropriate scale, between Yela and Stanton. This is still all Alpha and for the scope that CR had in mind for this is boggling. We are watching Sausage being made, in all it's glory. Go on the Issue Council, read and try to replicate, get in on the PTU and quash bugs.

I hope I do not come across as an ass, it is not my intention.

It's all good! I just need to buy some more of that patience that is in short supply and realize it is going to be much longer than I originally thought before we get more to do in the game.

 

[Azmodeth]

but what about our wallets... just let it gooooo ??

 

[Blind Owl]

I envy your patience!

I have a 6 month old baby. And that's nothing compared to the patience require to put up with the idiots at work. Which are plentiful. ;)

but what about our wallets... just let it gooooo ??

Yup. Just let it go. Haha.

It stuck in your head now, isn't it? Mwaaaahahahahah

 

[Grimbli]

It's all good! I just need to buy some more of that patience that is in short supply and realize it is going to be much longer than I originally thought before we get more to do in the game.

A good thing to do if you're really impatient and not seeing progress is to stop playing. They have made huge progress from 2.0 earlier this year to 2.3 in PTU, if you ignore it for 3 months and maybe only look out for the new concept ships, image what they'll have by then!

Go on the Issue Council, read and try to replicate, get in on the PTU and quash bugs.

This is the best advice! You may burn out on the game a bit and suffer from the "no apparent progress" bug you have now, but it'll help the game production a ton! Just logging in and doing nothing helps them stress the server.

I have a 6 month old baby.

I thought you were going to mention the patience required for dealing with @CrudeSasquatch !

 

[Blind Owl]

I thought you were going to mention the patience required for dealing with @CrudeSasquatch !

Ha! He requires no patience. Just lots of beer. ;)

 

[WarrenPeace]

Fuck you @Blind Owl.

*goes back to humming that damn song again that's stuck in my head after some chucklehead had to go and post it*

 

[Xist]

It's all good! I just need to buy some more of that patience that is in short supply and realize it is going to be much longer than I originally thought before we get more to do in the game.

I was in the same boat as you, when I was trying to actually play Star Citizen too often.

Now I rarely ever play it.

Just get another game and put your attention there. You'll find that Star Citizen makes progress a lot more quickly (in your mind).

In reality I think it will be several more years before the PU is functional. But that's fine, I have plenty of other games to hold me over.

And if SQ42 releases this year, great! I'll play it. But I don't expect it for a few more years, regardless of what their schedule says, and that means I'm less likely to be disappointed.