I was rather disappointed

Game Development Star Citizen
1

I got the bug to kick the tires on my ships again. That happens every once in a while. I deliberately stay away to avoid burn out. But I got the itch to go through my fleet and see if there was anything I might want to swap for. I’ve decided they aren’t getting any more of my cash so straight up swaps or melt/upgrade are my current options.

I wasn’t feeling my Vanguard Warden anymore. I have a Hurricane and Banu Defender as my combat ships (A heavy and a light). So the Vanguard was the candidate. Ship upgrades showed a straight up swap… Vanguard for the Apollo Triage. I don’t have a “rescue” ship… the Apollo looks pretty damn good. Go to try out the swap and it say the Vanguard isn’t available. I try again… same thing. For giggles I try the upgrade to the Constellation Aquila… that’s fine.

Curious… I contacted Concierge Support. Apparently they no long allow zero dollar swaps. Very disappointed. I can only upgrade if I spend more. The support agent said “You could always melt and buy/rebuy a ship”. Yup… that I know. I’ve done that probably over a dozen times over the past five years.

Not very happy with them at the moment.

2

Yeah, me too. I think they’re slowly realising that they’re going to need a LOT more revenue to keep this ship afloat long term. And to do that, they’re going to need to eke out cash from everyone they can. I’ve said it before, I’ll be astonished if they don’t introduce a subscription model for the game. Only way it’s going to work IMO.

3

I get that… but then why suggest melting and buying? They don’t make any revenue that way? Unless they are going to deke me for the warbond price.

You’d think they might have a bit more leeway with Concierge folks. Just thought it was disappointing.

Funny thing was I got a survey afterwards asking if I was happy. LOL.

4

Yeah, same sentiment here…enough cash put into it; I really hope they can still “afford” SQ42, if so they may have a future, if not…well , we’ll see…

5

I have a very simple philosophy for Star Citizen. I spent money on it way back when, the game is for me personally still in an unplayable state, and I won’t be giving them any money whatsoever.

If it ever releases, I’ll decide at that point if I can handle all the things that make it unplayable for me, whether they’ve improved on those, and whether it’s still worth playing.

So I hop on every year or so to check. Got a mail the other day that as an early founder, I could upgrade my ship. Went there, checked, and pretty much 90% of all the ‘upgrades’ were cosmetic and cost money. No thanks.

2 Likes
6

For my 2 cents, I think they are going to keep the “Buy a ship with cash.” model, while at the same time selling ships ingame. The difference being that ingame they aren’t all going to be sold in the same spot, whereas you can cash buy them on the website and they instantly become available in the fleet selection screen. You don’t have to fly all over the galaxy looking to buy one ingame.

7

I guess they could do that but that would constitute massively going back on their word and making liars of Chris, Tony, almost everyone. Not to mention upset a lot of backers. IMO, they need to make even the most basic ships so expensive in-game that they take months of play to earn, thereby genuinely thanking & rewarding all the pre-release backers who put their faith in CIG.

8

They could do that. The backlash from that would be massive though. If after 40 hours of gameplay and I cant buy the next level ship. I will likely rage quit. Truth though is that currently the alpha is a pay to play game. We all want this to succeed but right now the hardware technology isn’t really there. This whole exercise so far has been about new tech and ways of doing things. If they cant get server meshing in and working reliably all the money in the world wont help this game.

9

Not to mention the UI… Ugh. the UI… It’s like they chose all the most horrible aspects of all the UIs in games over the last 10 years, and decided they could do worse than that. :stuck_out_tongue:

10

lol true.

11

Keep smiling :slight_smile: It’s only a game and…life is beautiful …

12

The UI is going to get a major revamp toward the end of the year. Though I expect it to get pushed into next year.

But yeah, it is bad right now.

13

I was thinking about the UI recently. It exists as a thing in the verse, and I guess that has come with its own set of challenges. Like it would be a lot easier if it were an overlay, but we are basically interfacing with the UI through an interface and that makes it just feel cludgie.

14

Basing a UI you use with a mouse and make it ‘realistic’ has always been a horrible idea.

Making it so you completely change how people normally interact with a mouse has always been a horrible idea. (See Anthem for the latest major example of that).

So we’ll have to see what this UI improvement brings, hopefully it’ll make things so I don’t feel the need to rip my eyeballs out :stuck_out_tongue:

15

It is not THAT bad.
But no it is not good at all.

Fortunately it is just temporary until the UI team gets their time in the sun

16

Keep in mind, they don’t need the old money players anymore, they need new money. The old money players have crapped the bed so many times CIG would likely honestly be happier if they just left, no one would care. If every old money player just walked away, and SQ42 launches to 2 million NEW players, it will be as if we never existed. Oh, we can piss and moan all day long but that influx of cash, plus subs, will keep CIG in cash for a very long time.

I’m not saying they’re going to do it, but I do believe they could and not bat an eyelash. There is no “backlash”. Think about it, how many “backlashes” have we seen in the 7 years (I started in '12, it’s '19) since it started on a cocktail napkin? Still going strong, still raking in cash, still bringing in new folks. The reason the backlashes don’t matter is because no one is paying attention but us, and all we do is grouse at each other. Think about it, 99% of the gamers out there have taken the “sit and watch” attitude so the laugh at those of us who have put any money into it before it’s playable. When it’s actually live and they can buy it and play it, our opinions will mean squat, we’re just old bitter neckbeards.

It’s why the game is not on my desktop or drives, not logged in in over a year, and am focused on pretty much everything else but. Oh, I may buy a ship now and again, if I like it, but I’m not playing games with my fleet, doing CCU’s, etc. I like my fleet as is. I’m building a new computer starting in Feb, a $7k monstrosity…for Cyberpunk, which launches in April. Will it also be great for SC? Sure, but that’s not a priority of mine. Have I given up? Of course not, but it is impossible for me to remain hyper-passionate about something for 7 years that doesn’t pay off. I have to step back, play other things, do other things, and when there’s something to do I’ll come back.

Heck, I’ve “relearned” 5 different flight models, I’m not “learning” the game until it’s finished :stuck_out_tongue:

TL;DR - Still here, still lurking, not dead

3 Likes
17

I recently had a conversation on the forums with someone that said pretty much what you just said.

There was a post where some one was all up in arms about Hover mode. Typical sky is falling, I demand changes now or else kind of post.

My response sounded a lot like what you just said. CIG does not have to give a shit about what we think, they already have our money. That is not to say that they do not care, but only that the model we bought into gives money up front with no repercussion should we dislike the direction development takes at any time after we have offered out money. But I knew that going in.
I have put in almost 8k now and I am totally fine with that. I do not regret one penny. This adventure has been great and I have enjoyed being part of the development. I also think that what CIG is doing here has helped to change the way games are made. Get something to the players fast and get a lot of feedback early. It is EXACTLY what the Agile process is all about.

There are plenty of games for me to play until SC is done. In the meantime I enjoy flying what is available, report bugs as I see them and help others whenever I can. Otherwise, I have LOTS of other games to play when I am not in the verse. And if it takes another ten years for CIG to do it right, well, that is fine by me. I want it to be the game they sold me, and nothing less, regardless of the time to get it done.

18

Wow Mac, you sound a little bit jaded. Probably true though. CIG has a development plan, they seem to be sticking with it for the most part. But stuff happens. I still post ideas I have. Whether anyone listens or not is another thing. Developing a new engine with all the bells and whistles they can muster takes time. Complain all you want, it takes as long as it takes. If they can’t pull it together, I won’t be one of those crying about it. The amount of work I have seen put in shows me they are doing their best to make it work.

19

Full disclosure: how much have you vested into the product?

20

I, personally, would be livid had I prepaid for something like that but has yet to deliver anything but a ship hangar along with being split into 2 products … but then again, I would never have been one of the early adopters of a Tesla either.