Star Citizen single-player mode gets new star-packed trailer, facial tracking tech added...

midian182

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Something to look forward to: We’re so used to hearing stories about Star Citizen backers fighting to get their pledges returned that it’s easy to forget about the game itself. At CitizenCon, a live event organized by developer Cloud Imperium Games, we saw a new trailer for the space sim’s single-player mode, which features some big Hollywood names.

Despite being in development since 2012 and having raised $195 million through crowdfunding, Star Citizen still doesn’t have a solid release date. But work is progressing on the game, as this new trailer for Squadron 42, its "cinematic single-player adventure" mode, shows.

It appears that some of the near $200 million raised went toward paying Squadron 42’s cast. Gillian Anderson, Mark Hamill, Gary Oldman, Mark Strong, John Rhys Davies, Liam Cunningham, Ben Mendelsohn, and the soon-to-be Geralt of Rivia—Henry Cavill—all appear in the game.

Star Citizen is the brainchild of Chris Roberts, who those of certain age may remember for his work on the brilliant (for the time) Wing Commander games from the 1990s. Squadron 42 reunites two actors from the FMV-filled WC titles: Mark Hamill and John Rhys Davies. It’s a shame Roberts can’t shoehorn the cat-like Kilrathi race in there, too.

To coincide with CitizenCon, Cloud Imperium Games launched its quarterly Star Citizen update—Alpha 3.3. One of its additions is face and voice over internet protocol (FoIP), which lets players control their in-game character's facial expressions with their own using a webcam. It means that when you speak to other players, the avatar will mimic your mouth movements as well as your looks of disgust and rage, adding an extra layer of realism.

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The facial recognition is the first thing I would disable after making a few funny faces and getting bored of it. That "extra layer of realism" will 100% ruin the immersion.
 
Love it. Can't ever seem to finish the actual GAME part of the game, you know like the Kickstarter campaign promised where you fly around in space in cool ships, but let's throw a bunch of resources into something that is essentially useless fluff like facial tracking. Ugh, have to wonder what kind of drunk monkey is in charge of their development planning.
 
Love it. Can't ever seem to finish the actual GAME part of the game, you know like the Kickstarter campaign promised where you fly around in space in cool ships, but let's throw a bunch of resources into something that is essentially useless fluff like facial tracking. Ugh, have to wonder what kind of drunk monkey is in charge of their development planning.

If I had to bet, not much actually went into it. Facial tracking and mimicking it on an avatar is pretty easy to do these days with freely available softwares. I would be surprised if this was more than a pet project by an engineer that a PM went 'cool, leave it in'.
 
Love it. Can't ever seem to finish the actual GAME part of the game, you know like the Kickstarter campaign promised where you fly around in space in cool ships, but let's throw a bunch of resources into something that is essentially useless fluff like facial tracking. Ugh, have to wonder what kind of drunk monkey is in charge of their development planning.

If I had to bet, not much actually went into it. Facial tracking and mimicking it on an avatar is pretty easy to do these days with freely available softwares. I would be surprised if this was more than a pet project by an engineer that a PM went 'cool, leave it in'.

I'll take that bet. Those little pet projects are most likely thought up by Roberts, and take a lot of money. Distracting side projects is a disease with him. They all add up as a whole to bog things down.
 
Love it. Can't ever seem to finish the actual GAME part of the game, you know like the Kickstarter campaign promised where you fly around in space in cool ships, but let's throw a bunch of resources into something that is essentially useless fluff like facial tracking. Ugh, have to wonder what kind of drunk monkey is in charge of their development planning.
As I understand it there are a lot of people that do fly around in cool ships even now despite the fact that the game is not finished.
 
Love it. Can't ever seem to finish the actual GAME part of the game, you know like the Kickstarter campaign promised where you fly around in space in cool ships, but let's throw a bunch of resources into something that is essentially useless fluff like facial tracking. Ugh, have to wonder what kind of drunk monkey is in charge of their development planning.
FOIP was part of Kickstarter and is mainly including a technology developed by another company. It costs close to nothing in terms of implementation as the all codes is not done by CIG.
 
I'll take that bet. Those little pet projects are most likely thought up by Roberts, and take a lot of money. Distracting side projects is a disease with him. They all add up as a whole to bog things down.

Pets like FOIP are made by others companies. Having pets in game is almost mandatory for MMO's by now, as well as many different outfits. Strech goals have been stopped since mid 2015 and nothing new added since then except land claim concept.
 
Pets like FOIP are made by others companies. Having pets in game is almost mandatory for MMO's by now, as well as many different outfits. Strech goals have been stopped since mid 2015 and nothing new added since then except land claim concept.

Nothing is really "stopped" when Roberts is in charge. And to think implementing any sort of changes into a complex game like that is not trivial. Doesn't matter who does the bulk of the coding. Feature creep is part of who he is. Still taking that bet.
 
Pets like FOIP are made by others companies. Having pets in game is almost mandatory for MMO's by now, as well as many different outfits. Strech goals have been stopped since mid 2015 and nothing new added since then except land claim concept.

There is no "stopped" with Roberts in charge. And to think adding features like that into a complex game is trivial is naive at best. Doesn't matter who does the bulk of the coding. Feature creep is part of who he is. Still taking that bet since this is one of those feature creeps that was supposedly stopped.
 
There is no "stopped" with Roberts in charge. And to think adding features like that into a complex game is trivial is naive at best. Doesn't matter who does the bulk of the coding. Feature creep is part of who he is. Still taking that bet since this is one of those feature creeps that was supposedly stopped.
FOIP was never stopped and no new stretch goals added since 2015... 3 years. It sounds that CR is not the controllable "evil" little kid some love how to depict him :)
 
FOIP was never stopped and no new stretch goals added since 2015... 3 years. It sounds that CR is not the controllable "evil" little kid some love how to depict him :)

LOL I don't think that term means what you think it means. Maybe feature creep is more to your liking? Hence why we continue to get these articles where SC just added (insert here). Nobody said he is evil just really really bad at management. This time the only thing extending it is the pile of money he is sitting on. It seems Alpha 3.60 is not even set to be released until 2qtr of 2019. That is best case scenario and they are already behind a revision. Yikes! Seems like no matter what is said some fan boys will always carry the water. ;)
 
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LOL I don't think that term means what you think it means. Maybe feature creep is more to your liking? Hence why we continue to get these articles where SC just added (insert here). Nobody said he is evil just really really bad at management. This time the only thing extending it is the pile of money he is sitting on. It seems Alpha 3.60 is not even set to be released until 2qtr of 2019. That is best case scenario and they are already behind a revision. Yikes! Seems like no matter what is said some fan boys will always carry the water. ;)
Evil is may be a bit strong but bad management... I would love to see all those around shooting that, handle a project of this magnitude, from 12 guys with 6 M$ to +500 and +195$.
The fact we have, starting from scratch, what we see in 3.3 is amazing (and SQ42 trailer does show a small portion of what have been done). Call it bad management. Fine As a manager for an International company, I can talk about terrible mismanagement costing M$... from Directors who have 6 digits salary....year after year...
Does CR did everything perfect? No of course but it is far to be something that impact significantly the project. He is ambitious, that's precisely why +700.000 backers have pledges and keep joining.
Coming a senior guys who have never been a fanboy on anything in his live not I believe in any Cults around :)
 
Evil is may be a bit strong but bad management... I would love to see all those around shooting that, handle a project of this magnitude, from 12 guys with 6 M$ to +500 and +195$.
The fact we have, starting from scratch, what we see in 3.3 is amazing (and SQ42 trailer does show a small portion of what have been done). Call it bad management. Fine As a manager for an International company, I can talk about terrible mismanagement costing M$... from Directors who have 6 digits salary....year after year...
Does CR did everything perfect? No of course but it is far to be something that impact significantly the project. He is ambitious, that's precisely why +700.000 backers have pledges and keep joining.
Coming a senior guys who have never been a fanboy on anything in his live not I believe in any Cults around :)
I truly wish you web-bots would learn how to write in colloquial conversational English. Because that blather, (sorry, I meant "blobber"), is borderline incoherent.

I've heard all this horsh!t before, in different contexts.

"Don't think of it as give until it hurts, give until it helps". (I think that was a United Way / United Fund tag line).

They are too big to fail! (In the context of the massive US banking scandal).

In any event, plenty of people on YouTube make nonsense videos for likes, and maybe a couple of ads tossed their way.. They certainly aren't having 200 million dollars thrown their way for their efforts. A lot of those videos are very, very well done and entertaining also.

Since this guy Chris Roberts can't seen to manage staying on task and finish the game without being continuously sidetracked, it gives one pause to wonder why that is.

Speaking from personal experience, methamphetamine, along with cocaine and its derivatives, cause that sort of mental stimulation. That's when, "work expands to fill the time alloted", and while great concentration and effort is expended, nothing ever really gets done.

And again, this is only speculation, and a crude attempt at humor, but it does raise the possibility that "Star Cirizen's" final destination, is really up Mr. Roberts' nose.

What-happens-when-you-snort-cocaine-1.jpg


But enough about him, let's talk about you. You're apparently new here, and you've really mostly only participated in this thread to tell us what a great job CR is doing.

IMHO, you're another either shill or web-bot from "Star Citizen"....., er, "enterprises".

And given the syntax of your posts, English is somewhere between your 3rd and 6th language, or you're a very primitive AI.

Mercy me, it would seem I've completely abandoned my manners. That said, "welcome to Techspot".. :rolleyes:
 
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Evil is may be a bit strong but bad management... I would love to see all those around shooting that, handle a project of this magnitude, from 12 guys with 6 M$ to +500 and +195$.
The fact we have, starting from scratch, what we see in 3.3 is amazing (and SQ42 trailer does show a small portion of what have been done). Call it bad management. Fine As a manager for an International company, I can talk about terrible mismanagement costing M$... from Directors who have 6 digits salary....year after year...
Does CR did everything perfect? No of course but it is far to be something that impact significantly the project. He is ambitious, that's precisely why +700.000 backers have pledges and keep joining.
Coming a senior guys who have never been a fanboy on anything in his live not I believe in any Cults around :)

A manager like that for an International company would be fired for such late projects with no end game in sight. And that SQ42 "trailer" was supposed to be a fully playable game by now. Wow, I have to give you credit for being a true believer carrying water like that. Must get heavier every year? I hope one day your grand kids will be able to enjoy the actual fully released game.
 
I truly wish you web-bots would learn how to write in colloquial conversational English. Because that blather, (sorry, I meant "blobber"), is borderline incoherent.

I've heard all this horsh!t before, in different contexts.

"Don't think of it as give until it hurts, give until it helps". (I think that was a United Way / United Fund tag line).

They are too big to fail! (In the context of the massive US banking scandal).

In any event, plenty of people on YouTube make nonsense videos for likes, and maybe a couple of ads tossed their way.. They certainly aren't having 200 million dollars thrown their way for their efforts. A lot of those videos are very, very well done and entertaining also.

Since this guy Chris Roberts can't seen to manage staying on task and finish the game without being continuously sidetracked, it gives one pause to wonder why that is.

Speaking from personal experience, methamphetamine, along with cocaine and its derivatives, cause that sort of mental stimulation. That's when, "work expands to fill the time alloted", and while great concentration and effort is expended, nothing ever really gets done.

And again, this is only speculation, and a crude attempt at humor, but it does raise the possibility that "Star Cirizen's" final destination, is really up Mr. Roberts' nose.

What-happens-when-you-snort-cocaine-1.jpg


But enough about him, let's talk about you. You're apparently new here, and you've really mostly only participated in this thread to tell us what a great job CR is doing.

IMHO, you're another either shill or web-bot from "Star Citizen"....., er, "enterprises".

And given the syntax of your posts, English is somewhere between your 3rd and 6th language, or you're a very primitive AI.

Mercy me, it would seem I've completely abandoned my manners. That said, "welcome to Techspot".. :rolleyes:
Fair enough. I take the welcome as it is, whatever the quantity of cocaine you injected in your present comment or perception about who is who based on personal point of interest.
About English, grab what you can... :)
I personally did not support this project based on CR or others team leaders grammar or manner but because what they are able to deliver. Last patch 3.3 and current roadmap match all my expectation and beyond.
Welcome to those joining this project now or in 2019... we early Backers had to handle our frustration for much more time. It is coming (as per my cocaine dealer) :)
 
@JoeBlobers Mr.Roberts has put the cart before the horse on several occasions, the topic of this article being a glaring example.

As I see it, the face tracking feature, should have been presented as a patch in a completed game, as opposed to a tangential, "before thought". As in, "hey kids, I've got a great new free feature for you coming in the next update".

The ever expanding but never quite finished nature of this project, point to several possible behavioral issues with CR. Mania is a possibility, as is stimulant abuse, seriously. Or, it could be none of the foregoing.

Elon Musk is habitually prone to the same type of actions, and many, many, people are starting to wonder about his sanity.

As far as "road maps" go, if they were actual accomplishments, Intel should likely be marketing, at the very least, 10nm process CPUs by 6 months ago. Or as they used to say, "if wishes were horses, beggars would ride".

So, being "an early sponsor" explains your enthusiasm, but doesn't necessarily justify it.

The gaming community's fanatics, are apt to do whatever they think will help them win. That includes coding or buying cheats, "swatting" other gamers and civilians, even sitting in front of a monitors for days at a time. It's not a big leap to hypothesize that any number of stimulant drugs are a staple part of some gamers repertoire, nor to believe that game developers are possibly cut from the same cloth.

You, as a self confessed, "early sponsor", do have an emotional need to stay thankful for what you've received, and hopeful for what you expect to come. Those of us with a much more, (arguably ), objective and distant take on "Star Citizen", are quite likely to present a much more jaundiced view on the shenanigans taking place.

As a point of trivia, the now self revered "starter/perpetrator" of the "me too movement", Rose McGowan, was once engaged to rock star "Marilyn Manson", (actually a cheap Alice Cooper knockoff), but quit the relationship because she couldn't keep up with him snorting coke.

She was recently arrested for "coke on a plane", but is now claiming Harvey Weinstein's agents "planted it on her"..

The famous model Kate Moss, has been credited for pioneering the "heroine chic look". You know. pallid and emaciated, bordering on we we today would call, "anorexic", (I think she's gone to rehab since then, and has filled out a bit from her "glory days").

So, I gave you a like on your post #19. Not because I think you deserve it mind you, but rather because you didn't have any, and you've somehow almost managed to convince me you're a human being. Cheers.(y) (Y)
 
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Hence why we continue to get these articles where SC just added (insert here).
Even without any added goals, there will still be articles such as this where SC just added (insert here) as items from the road map are completed.
 
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