Star Citizen Online - The search for more money
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Blackwulf
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No doubt, there are bugs - it is an alpha, but this video is pretty trollish. The guy had to be going out of his way to replicate and film bugs. I don't run into 90% of that shit on an average playtest. This weekend I had no trouble taking off and flying in the PU. I'm also smart enough to realize it's a first person game, and not complain about immersion when the camera moves in 3rd person as you enter a turret, though.
Palum
what Suineg set it to
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Captain's log, Stardate -304392.9, we've run into considerable issues with Alpha 19.7 and the backers are getting restless. Only $58 dollars of the nearly $300 million we've milked remains. Our last Papa John's points are being redeemed now for perhaps the last meal we can afford. Our situation is grim and Admiral Roberts plans to issue orders to evacuate should no one come to our rescue. All attempts to contact theRhode Island Economic Development Councilhave failed. We stand little hope of being rescued. To think this all started 'just because of some bugs'. We will be sending our last transmission soon.
uniqueuser
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Blackwulf
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For sure. I don't even file bug reports. Just getting a little fun in space once or twice a week as the game grows.
Blackwulf
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I think some optimists still believe Squadron 42 (Episode 1) will be released at the end of this year. That's the single player campaign that is your intro into the Persistent Universe. By then, the PU alpha should be quite robust. They're releasing a fairly large patch every month so far this year. Right now you have one system being fleshed out, with mechanics for non-combat activities being brought online starting with the next patch (cargo, mining, trading, data collection, exploration, etc.) They, supposedly have hundreds of people working on assets all the time, and will bring other systems online more quickly after they get the mechanics all nailed down in the Crusader system. We'll see.
Tuco
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Palum
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Variise
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Just to correct the next patch is not going to have a ton of new content in it. Unless things changed since last week. The biggest items are 2 ships, one flyable one hangar and some persistence. Changes to a lot of other underlying systems continues and that's going to be the case for the next few months. Nothing Earth shattering is going to happen until a few months after they bring the Item Port System 2.0 online which changes how the call system works in the engine and should result in massive improvements both that we can see and how the developers can use it to accelerate level building.
Don't expect people to be super excited or happy until maybe the end of this year. By then they should have most major systems in game and have one or two full star systems up and running. Don't expect SQ42 anytime this year. Too much underlying engine changes are still in R&D or just changed and takes months to further develop/perfect. Then you need it tested extensively for months.
Fall 2017 is not unreasonable for a full release and in-line with the largest AAA releases from any other studio when you take manpower, having to build a team from scratch into account.
Don't expect people to be super excited or happy until maybe the end of this year. By then they should have most major systems in game and have one or two full star systems up and running. Don't expect SQ42 anytime this year. Too much underlying engine changes are still in R&D or just changed and takes months to further develop/perfect. Then you need it tested extensively for months.
Fall 2017 is not unreasonable for a full release and in-line with the largest AAA releases from any other studio when you take manpower, having to build a team from scratch into account.
Variise
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Their intent is more important than what is currently in game. That's pretty normal for game development. Parallel zones are no longer the direction they are going with and instead it's a phase system like Guild Wars 2. Until a final system is implemented, tested and approved there is little point debating it further.
Tuco
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If I moved this into Other Games someone would probably not look for it and make a new game here.
What's funny is the number of traditional MMO guilds who are really looking forward to playing SC competitively. Nobody knows how SC's online gaming will play out, but one thing that seems firm is the small number of ships allowed in a given area (which I think is a bunch of bullshit).
What's funny is the number of traditional MMO guilds who are really looking forward to playing SC competitively. Nobody knows how SC's online gaming will play out, but one thing that seems firm is the small number of ships allowed in a given area (which I think is a bunch of bullshit).
Variise
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The number of ships limit is almost entirely a server side computational issue. As they get better net code the number goes up and this has already happened.
When massive changes are happening to the code base (item port system 2.0) you are not going to see major changes to the net code until that is launched and perfected. It completely changes how CryEngine handles all calls. They are going with a system where the engine only ever has to call a single integer (if I remember correctly) which corresponds to all such objects instead of having to call unique numbers for the same item for every single instance of it. An example would be the asteroids. Each one could become a single number to call as opposed to the hundreds that is in use now. All chairs of a certain type would be one number instead of each chair in the entire game having it's own number.
Why does it matter? Because each unique number has to call unique code even if that code is identical to one that already exists. Every single identical chair in a ship currently has to have it's own code. Post Item Port System 2.0 all identical chairs in that ship will have one number to call and one code. It's a complete overhaul of CryEngine.
Then there is the damage system that is still not implemented for all ships. Those ships all have to go back into the ship pipeline to be re-done. They are waiting until near the end to do it once the item port system 2.0 is complete. Apparently a ton of ships are complete but missing assets on the inside as they wait for that system to be implemented. Instead they work on new stuff while they wait.
Don't expect massive performance improvements until post item port system 2.0 and post ship updates to the new damage system. Basically they will have to go over the code in the entire game at least once and optimize it as they strip out countless lines of code. Not sure if they got that automated or not. I suspect not.
IMO by early next year this conversion should be done. How many more ships/assets you can have on screen after that I do not know. Maybe double? Maybe more? Who knows. Game development, not game building.
When massive changes are happening to the code base (item port system 2.0) you are not going to see major changes to the net code until that is launched and perfected. It completely changes how CryEngine handles all calls. They are going with a system where the engine only ever has to call a single integer (if I remember correctly) which corresponds to all such objects instead of having to call unique numbers for the same item for every single instance of it. An example would be the asteroids. Each one could become a single number to call as opposed to the hundreds that is in use now. All chairs of a certain type would be one number instead of each chair in the entire game having it's own number.
Why does it matter? Because each unique number has to call unique code even if that code is identical to one that already exists. Every single identical chair in a ship currently has to have it's own code. Post Item Port System 2.0 all identical chairs in that ship will have one number to call and one code. It's a complete overhaul of CryEngine.
Then there is the damage system that is still not implemented for all ships. Those ships all have to go back into the ship pipeline to be re-done. They are waiting until near the end to do it once the item port system 2.0 is complete. Apparently a ton of ships are complete but missing assets on the inside as they wait for that system to be implemented. Instead they work on new stuff while they wait.
Don't expect massive performance improvements until post item port system 2.0 and post ship updates to the new damage system. Basically they will have to go over the code in the entire game at least once and optimize it as they strip out countless lines of code. Not sure if they got that automated or not. I suspect not.
IMO by early next year this conversion should be done. How many more ships/assets you can have on screen after that I do not know. Maybe double? Maybe more? Who knows. Game development, not game building.
Variise
N00b
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As of Alpha 2.3 it's 24 ships/players.
If we go backwards Alpha 2.0 was 16 ships/players.
Before that Arena Commander was 8 players.
Large World is what allowed them to expand to 16 and cutting down the size of memory usage per ship helped hugely as well. That's still pending for a whole bunch of early ships. Aurora, 300 series and I think even the Hornet and M50. Mostly the newer ships have been getting the tech to scale down their memory size but they did sink months of effort to scale down the size of other ships through sheer optimization which they know they will have to bin the moment they go through the new ship pipeline to get scaled down.
Btw when I say scaled down it doesn't necessarily mean less details. In one example they re-built the Constellation and it's twice as detailed as before but at 1/4 of the memory cost before you even factor in the damage state which is further reduced.
EDIT: Don't expect them to expand the player size above 24 this year. Way too many underlying engine changes need to go in. Having said that Chris hinted that the 2.4 patch is as big a change to the game as the 2.0 patch was. Reading what's coming I'm not seeing it. Maybe they fixed a bucket full of bugs? I know things like falling through ships is purely an engine problem and not a coding problem which they have had to rip out and recode from scratch. Will see how 2.4 pans out.
If we go backwards Alpha 2.0 was 16 ships/players.
Before that Arena Commander was 8 players.
Large World is what allowed them to expand to 16 and cutting down the size of memory usage per ship helped hugely as well. That's still pending for a whole bunch of early ships. Aurora, 300 series and I think even the Hornet and M50. Mostly the newer ships have been getting the tech to scale down their memory size but they did sink months of effort to scale down the size of other ships through sheer optimization which they know they will have to bin the moment they go through the new ship pipeline to get scaled down.
Btw when I say scaled down it doesn't necessarily mean less details. In one example they re-built the Constellation and it's twice as detailed as before but at 1/4 of the memory cost before you even factor in the damage state which is further reduced.
EDIT: Don't expect them to expand the player size above 24 this year. Way too many underlying engine changes need to go in. Having said that Chris hinted that the 2.4 patch is as big a change to the game as the 2.0 patch was. Reading what's coming I'm not seeing it. Maybe they fixed a bucket full of bugs? I know things like falling through ships is purely an engine problem and not a coding problem which they have had to rip out and recode from scratch. Will see how 2.4 pans out.