Star Citizen dev tells angry fans that it's working on another Squadron 42 roadmap

[midian182]

A hot potato: The world has been through a lot of changes since 2012, but one thing remains reassuringly the same: there’s still no sign of Star Citizen. Not surprisingly, people who backed the game’s Kickstarter and have been handing over money in the many years since then are running out of patience, especially after Cloud Imperium Games (CIG) promised more regular updates on the Squadron 42 single-player element back in March but failed to deliver anything. Now, the developer has responded to complaints, though it's unlikely to appease fans.

Squadron 42, which features an all-star Hollywood cast, was once due to arrive in 2016. But in a development roadmap earlier this year, CIG wrote: “We want to be clear: progress on Squadron 42 is happening and we’re broadly happy with that progress. But we know that our roadmap is not reflecting that progress.”

Following fan and backer complaints that the company has given no new information on Squadron 42 since March, CIG released a statement. Rather than being an actual roadmap, the dev confirmed that it is working on a new roadmap.

As noted by Kotaku, the team has set out a four-part plan for the roadmap.

While it’s not quite ready, it’s currently top priority on the web team’s current projects. In the immediate future, we plan to deliver the following communications:

• Give an explanation of the goals of our new Roadmap and what to expect from it
• Show a rough mockup of the proposed new Roadmap
• Share a work in progress version of the Roadmap for at least one of our core teams
• And then finally transition to this new Roadmap

The good news is that the Squadron 42 beta, pushed back from the second quarter of 2020 to the third quarter of the year, might arrive soon.

Despite the seemingly eternal development cycle, Star Citizen has raised $300 million. What we’ve seen of it recently does look pretty good, admittedly, but that doesn’t mean a finished game will get here any time soon—within the next decade would be nice, CIG.

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https://www.techspot.com/news/86189-star-citizen-dev-tells-angry-fans-working-another.html

 

[veLa]

I've played a bit of Star Citizen over the last few years. The game is basically unplayable in its current state, and I doubt it'll ever be in a deliverable state.

Either it's a cash grabbing fundraising scam, or severely mismanaged by incompetent buffoons.

 

[etempest]

I've played a bit of Star Citizen over the last few years. The game is basically unplayable in its current state, and I doubt it'll ever be in a deliverable state.

Either it's a cash grabbing fundraising scam, or severely mismanaged by incompetent buffoons.

Chris Roberts, he's a visionary, and created genre defining games. He keeps adding stuff to the game causing delays. If they would freeze the feature set and focus on what they have, it could actually be done.

 

[ShadowDeath]

I've played a bit of Star Citizen over the last few years. The game is basically unplayable in its current state, and I doubt it'll ever be in a deliverable state.

Either it's a cash grabbing fundraising scam, or severely mismanaged by incompetent buffoons.

A friend of mine poured money into that game since day 1. A few years back he decided that he was done supporting it when I pointed out that 4 years in it was a tech demo. Now here we are 10 years later and it's a playable demo.

I get why people are angry every time someone criticizes the game. They invested a lot into the game, buying ships they don't physically own in a game that.hasnt released. People are basically financing this guy's hobby and as long as they keep coughing up money for it he has no incentive to finish it.

 

[fps4ever]

$300 million dollars for a picture store with a playable demo. Everyone has warned what he was like. Hard to find sympathy here.

 

[Lionvibez]

More feature creep for this never ending game. The people still waiting for this game are the ones I worry about lol.

 

[Okami]

I've played a bit of Star Citizen over the last few years. The game is basically unplayable in its current state, and I doubt it'll ever be in a deliverable state.

Either it's a cash grabbing fundraising scam, or severely mismanaged by incompetent buffoons.

The game has its glaring issues but its far from ''unplayable''. Sure 30ks are an issue but more so for cargo people than anything. It can be hit and miss some days but I can play for a good 4 - 5 hrs on avg before some bug makes me restart in 3.9

Lets be real here were WWWAAAYYY past the cash grab scam phase, its been 8 years since the kickstarter and some say with 600+ employees on the books thats no scam and if it is their incompetent at making a game and a cash grab lol.

"severely mismanaged by incompetent buffoons"
Eh mismanaged and leave it at that, they know what their doing since most of the leads have made other well known popular games and movies before. Especially since they got those crytek engineers they did pretty well on the backend tech since but we all know more needs to be done.

 

[Vulcanproject]

Better to under promise and over deliver. This rule has been broken, stomped on, set on fire and then the remains thrown into a volcano at this stage by CIG

 

[Mister_K]

Either it's a cash grabbing fundraising scam, or severely mismanaged by incompetent buffoons.

Don't be stupid. It's very clear that it's an extremely mismanaged project from start to finish. That's all. I had plenty of fun in the game, have my monies worth for sure but not expecting a truly finished product.

This is Chris Roberts after all, he has a certain history with games.

 

[Mister_K]

$300 million dollars for a picture store with a playable demo. Everyone has warned what he was like. Hard to find sympathy here.

This is an extremely un-educated assumption. A lot of backers including myself understood the risk, it's a bloody kickstarter without a publisher and a lead who has an iffy-past. But to call the game a demo?

Sure a single player game with this amount of development and issues would raise a lot more eye-brows, but this isn't a single player game. It's a multiplayer "MMO" using an engine which is not ideal for such task (majorly revamped) which requires insane amount of dev work.

 

[Mister_K]

"severely mismanaged by incompetent buffoons"
Eh mismanaged and leave it at that, they know what their doing since most of the leads have made other well known popular games and movies before. Especially since they got those crytek engineers they did pretty well on the backend tech since but we all know more needs to be done.

Look I am all for defending the game, I think majority of people are bunch of *****s who are either seeking to satisfy their boring lives with online wars or truly out of touch on scale of game development that Star Citizen proposes.

HOWEVER, it is well know and agreed the project has been mismanaged. Enfact, go to Glassdoor, find ex-employee comments and you will see the conformation.

Engine choice/swap in early of last decade is also one of the problems.

All comes down to dear Christopher.

 

[Lew Zealand]

Chris Roberts, he's a visionary, and created genre defining games. He keeps adding stuff to the game causing delays. If they would freeze the feature set and focus on what they have, it could actually be done.

This sounds exactly like Duke Nukem Forever's development cycle. Ooo! shiny new feature, let's add that! They've still got a few years before challenging DN4's delay but then gamers weren't directly pumping money into the dev's hands so it was merely a head shaking exercise for us then.

Another window into game development at the complete other end of the spectrum is to look at Stardew Valley's dev cycle as all of ConcenedApe's dev update posts are available. You can see how he kept expanding the game's scope as interest in it increased, but eventually had to jettison some of that content when after 2.5 years of delays, he committed to releasing a complete but smaller game. Then he followed up with regular significant content expansions, including multiplayer, to expand the game to the feature set he wanted it to have.

 

[Captain828]

I personally don't think there are any legitimate fans of SC that think the game is "taking too long" or that they're being scammed. To those that think so, they should read about how long it takes to make MMOs of this scope and all the articles and videos that CIG published.

As for the SQ42 concerns, I think they're merited but people should also think about what's happened in the world since March before blowing things out of proportion.

So far, CIG has been transparent about SC development so this really just looks like the type of article for a slow news day.

 

[ChickyBoom]

Either it's a cash grabbing fundraising scam, or severely mismanaged by incompetent buffoons.

Or... They really are dedicated to the project, but perfectionists to a fault, and as a result bit off way more than they can chew to have a complete product in our lifetime.

 

[fps4ever]

This is an extremely un-educated assumption. A lot of backers including myself understood the risk, it's a bloody kickstarter without a publisher and a lead who has an iffy-past. But to call the game a demo?

Sure a single player game with this amount of development and issues would raise a lot more eye-brows, but this isn't a single player game. It's a multiplayer "MMO" using an engine which is not ideal for such task (majorly revamped) which requires insane amount of dev work.

You are right. A demo would mean an actual playable level or two with most if not all capabilities. This is more of an an early alpha prototype with constant changes and feature creep.

 

[gamerk2]

Chris Roberts, he's a visionary, and created genre defining games. He keeps adding stuff to the game causing delays. If they would freeze the feature set and focus on what they have, it could actually be done.

But he's incapable of doing that. This has been his MO since the Wing Commander days.

 

[DaveBG]

I've played a bit of Star Citizen over the last few years. The game is basically unplayable in its current state, and I doubt it'll ever be in a deliverable state.

Either it's a cash grabbing fundraising scam, or severely mismanaged by incompetent buffoons.

LOL, I said the same in the previous "news" about this game and the paid trolls attacked me...

 

[JoeBlobers]

I've played a bit of Star Citizen over the last few years. The game is basically unplayable in its current state, and I doubt it'll ever be in a deliverable state.

Either it's a cash grabbing fundraising scam, or severely mismanaged by incompetent buffoons.

Well thousands of backers are playing every day and ten thousands are joining after each free for all weeks per year letting anyone play/test the current alpha.
Bugs, crash? yes for sure this is an alpha don't expect a game with all possible gameplay and fully polished after many fix patch.
As long you understand it, this is fine. Some patch are more stable than others depending on the quantity of codes changed/added.

Meanwhile, 3.10 is going to be released in few days. In few weeks CIG will provide consolidated roadmap on SQ42+ SC... and those 45$ (nothing more needed) is still the best spent money vs times spend playing/testing alpha versus Triple-A costing more.
Also 3.11 and 3.12 add two new gameplay: tractor beam and the beginning of salvage required tech with free form tool cutting.

 

[JoeBlobers]

But he's incapable of doing that. This has been his MO since the Wing Commander days.

Speculating about a guy who did delivered several good to memorable games, not alone but with his brother Erin, is at least misleading. Not even counting the all company is valued half a billion dollars bu independent auditor. Not only they have now close 600 devs (around 100 external) but they have zero competitor for such scope... partially playable right now in 3.09 and soon 3.10.

This raging surge of naysayers is refreshing. Not only the game won't collapse because ten bold title but upcoming announce and patch will bring more backers. Thanks for free ads

 

[Mister_K]

This is more of an an early alpha prototype with constant changes

No sh!t.

 

[Ozmiz]

I bought the game early in the crowd funding phase.

It was beneficial.

For only around $50.00, I learned not to make stupid investments.

Valuable lesson... cheap price

 

[gamerk2]

Speculating about a guy who did delivered several good to memorable games, not alone but with his brother Erin, is at least misleading. Not even counting the all company is valued half a billion dollars bu independent auditor. Not only they have now close 600 devs (around 100 external) but they have zero competitor for such scope... partially playable right now in 3.09 and soon 3.10.

This raging surge of naysayers is refreshing. Not only the game won't collapse because ten bold title but upcoming announce and patch will bring more backers. Thanks for free ads

Most of those games only got released when other management came in to get them out the door.

 

[JoeBlobers]

But he's incapable of doing that. This has been his MO since the Wing Commander days.

Speculating about a guy who did delivered several good to memorable games, not alone but with his brother Erin, is at least misleading. Not even counting the all company is valued half a billion dollars bu independent auditor. Not only they have now close 600 devs (around 100 external) but they have zero competitor for such scope... partially playable right now in 3.09 and soon 3.10.

This raging surge of naysayers is refreshing. Not only the game won't collapse because ten bold title but upcoming announce and patch will bring more backers. Thanks for free ads

Most of those games only got released when other management came in to get them out the door.

... because the CIG development model is based on Crowdfunding like 10.000's of project who have been delivered that way?

 

[JoeBlobers]

A friend of mine poured money into that game since day 1. A few years back he decided that he was done supporting it when I pointed out that 4 years in it was a tech demo. Now here we are 10 years later and it's a playable demo.

I get why people are angry every time someone criticizes the game. They invested a lot into the game, buying ships they don't physically own in a game that.hasnt released. People are basically financing this guy's hobby and as long as they keep coughing up money for it he has no incentive to finish it.

No backers don't finance this guy hobby. They are supporting a +500 devs team over years to deliver what they want to play, something no publishers care to deliver despite billions of $ revenues PER year simply because publishers don't care about gamer.... hence the success of SQ42+SC.

Current alpha do pack more features than any single triple-A released game. And more is added at every single quarterly patch.
By the way no more than 45$ is required to get in. All assets are achievable with in game credits.

 

[fps4ever]

No backers don't finance this guy hobby. They are supporting a +500 devs team over years to deliver what they want to play, something no publishers care to deliver despite billions of $ revenues PER year simply because publishers don't care about gamer.... hence the success of SQ42+SC.

Current alpha do pack more features than any single triple-A released game. And more is added at every single quarterly patch.
By the way no more than 45$ is required to get in. All assets are achievable with in game credits.

LOL there is so much wrong with that statement it isn't even worth sorting it out. Just smile and wave boys, smile and wave...