Author Topic: Star Citizen  (Read 4552 times)

Offline Lusche

  • Radioactive Member
  • *******
  • Posts: 23828
      • Last.FM Profile
Re: Star Citizen
« Reply #30 on: December 15, 2018, 09:07:08 AM »
I was excited when I heard of Star Citizen a few years ago. I was impressed by the initial kickstarter results.
And then they kept collecting money, kept adding new feature after new feature to their roadmap, while delaying releases again and again. Instead of getting a basic game working first and then adding expansions. Squadron 42 was to be released in 2014, then in 2017, now it's due to arrive in 2019.
In many aspects, they are still in alpha status, but keep adding promises and collecting money. If I were a cynic, I'd say they have no reasons to change that, as it works quite well. Fortunately I am not one. ;)

By the way, anyone remembers the 'combat flight sim to rule them all', Fighter Ops and their 'area 51'?  :noid
Steam: DrKalv
Elite:Dangerous: Snailman

Offline bozon

  • Platinum Member
  • ******
  • Posts: 6037
Re: Star Citizen
« Reply #31 on: December 16, 2018, 01:31:18 AM »
FYI, in the Frontier Developments store, the 'Commander Deluxe Edition" of E:D is currently on sale for $14.40, just E:D without "horizons" goes for $7.60
Thanks for the heads-up.
What s the difference between the editions? It is odd that an open universe game even have editions - is it about access to certain galaxy regions? ownership of certain class of spaceships?
Mosquito VI - twice the spitfire, four times the ENY.

Click!>> "So, you want to fly the wooden wonder" - <<click!
the almost incomplete and not entirely inaccurate guide to the AH Mosquito.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RGOWswdzGQs

Offline Lusche

  • Radioactive Member
  • *******
  • Posts: 23828
      • Last.FM Profile
Re: Star Citizen
« Reply #32 on: December 16, 2018, 04:32:37 AM »
Thanks for the heads-up.
What s the difference between the editions? It is odd that an open universe game even have editions - is it about access to certain galaxy regions? ownership of certain class of spaceships?

The 'Commanders Edition'  includes Horizons, a DLC that allows you to land on (non atmospheric) planets, features the Engineers (places where you can greatly modify/improve your ships), enables bigger ships to carry 1-2 fighters and allows for some more variety in missions and other options. It's not necessary for a peek into Elite, but you absolutely want to have it if you keep on playing.

Steam: DrKalv
Elite:Dangerous: Snailman

Offline Flossy

  • Aces High CM Staff (Retired)
  • Plutonium Member
  • *******
  • Posts: 11067
      • Flossy's Website
Re: Star Citizen
« Reply #33 on: December 16, 2018, 09:20:25 AM »
Elite: Dangerous has just had a major update and is currently on sale at £4.80 for the base game and £4.80 for the Horizons expansion - which I think works out to be about $6 for each.  Horizons is not essential to get going and you can quite happily play with only the base game and it's not too much to pay out.  The nice thing is, once you have it you can keep coming back to it at no additional cost. 

I have 4 accounts in E: D so that I can vary my game play as much as possible.  My main (Kickstarter backer at Alpha level) account is Flossy, and I have also added Flossy2, Flossy3 and more recently P0PPY (named after out hamster  :)

Having multiple accounts means I can have one in the main occupied area, known as 'the bubble', another one for exploration and another out at a smaller 'bubble' 22KLys away towards the centre of the galaxy.  Originally there were supposed to be multiple commander slots but so far this has not happened, unfortunately.  Still it does provide extra income for Frontier, as well as some from the various paintjobs and other vanity additions - Xmas tree 'bobble-heads' and coloured lights for example.

There is so much to do in Elite - trading, exploring, mining, combat and even piracy!  Or even become a Fuel Rat as I have and help to rescue (mostly new) commanders who have run out of fuel.  We recently reached a milestone of 50,000 rescues, of which 40 rescues are in my name.  :)
Flossy {The Few}
Female Flying For Fun

Offline WEZEL

  • Silver Member
  • ****
  • Posts: 815
Re: Star Citizen
« Reply #34 on: December 17, 2018, 09:19:20 PM »


Or even become a Fuel Rat as I have and help to rescue (mostly new) commanders who have run out of fuel.  We recently reached a milestone of 50,000 rescues, of which 40 rescues are in my name.  :)

Fuel Rats are the best thing in ED, they pulled off some odd ball rescues.

Offline Flossy

  • Aces High CM Staff (Retired)
  • Plutonium Member
  • *******
  • Posts: 11067
      • Flossy's Website
Re: Star Citizen
« Reply #35 on: December 18, 2018, 07:46:49 AM »
Fuel Rats are the best thing in ED, they pulled off some odd ball rescues.

I've always enjoyed helping others in the games I play/have played in the past.  Game Assistant in AW, CM here.  Being a Fuel Rat gives me a great deal of satisfaction, that I can help players in a very practical way and also give them advice on how to avoid running out of fuel in the future.  I love it.  <3  :)
Flossy {The Few}
Female Flying For Fun

Offline Volron

  • Platinum Member
  • ******
  • Posts: 5778
Re: Star Citizen
« Reply #36 on: December 18, 2018, 03:01:55 PM »
Doesn't that make you a target as well? :headscratch:
Quote from: hitech
Wow I find it hard to believe it has been almost 38 days since our last path. We should have release another 38 versions by now  :bhead
HiTech
Quote from: Pyro
Quote from: Jolly
What on Earth makes you think that i said that sir?!
My guess would be scotch.

Offline Flossy

  • Aces High CM Staff (Retired)
  • Plutonium Member
  • *******
  • Posts: 11067
      • Flossy's Website
Re: Star Citizen
« Reply #37 on: December 19, 2018, 05:46:51 AM »
Doesn't that make you a target as well? :headscratch:

I suppose it does, yes.  However, even the most hardened pirates usually realise that it could easily be them needing our help one day and once they realise who we are and what we are doing they let us go unharmed.  My main Fuel Rat ships have a distinctive decal on them too to give an extra hint.  One thing we do not do is use the fact we are Fuel Rats as an excuse not to be attacked, unless we are on an active case. Many of us don't even carry weapons.  :)
Flossy {The Few}
Female Flying For Fun

Offline zack1234

  • Plutonium Member
  • *******
  • Posts: 13182
Re: Star Citizen
« Reply #38 on: December 20, 2018, 01:41:24 AM »
 :)
There are no pies stored in this plane overnight

                          
The GFC
Pipz lived in the Wilderness near Ontario

Offline rabbidrabbit

  • Gold Member
  • *****
  • Posts: 3880
Re: Star Citizen
« Reply #39 on: December 20, 2018, 01:27:20 PM »
An update today regarding finances:
"December 20, 2018


Hello everyone,

2018 brought some pretty big things to the Star Citizen universe: our first planet (Hurston), our first major landing zone (Lorville), four new moons, 32 new flyable ships, Face Over IP, much improved performance thanks to Object Container Streaming, Network Bind Culling, and a complete overhaul of the game code to enable it to run on multiple CPU cores simultaneously. We had our largest CitizenCon to date in Austin, Texas and just recently wrapped up a really fun Anniversary Event. How cool was it to make the journey to Lorville, visit the Intergalactic Aerospace Expo West, and get an up-close and personal sneak preview of some of the vehicles coming to the ‘verse, or fly dozens of already flyable ships? It has been exciting reading the posts from people discovering the project for the first time and seeing so many people having a blast playing Star Citizen.

As we look forward to the holidays, I want to give you all a couple of updates. The first item of news is that the Squadron 42 public roadmap is going live today. As with our Persistent Universe roadmap, this is linked to our company’s internal JIRA tracking system, so you can see at a glance the work remaining to complete the game. It was a lot of work to make sure every remaining task was broken down in detail and estimated to the best of our ability.

The same caveats will apply to the Squadron 42 roadmap as they do to the PU's, but our plan is to be feature and content complete by the end of 2019, with the first 6 months of 2020 for Alpha (balance, optimization, and polish) and then Beta.

When we started the campaign for Star Citizen and Squadron 42, I said that the crowdfunding would go towards developing the game, and that the amount would define the scope and ambition of what we were working on. That is a commitment I am proud to say we have been upholding; its why we have over 500 staff around the world working on the games and have spent very little on marketing.

You can see this investment into development in the UK financials that we publish every year on Companies House. In a further effort at transparency, we have decided to publish our historical financials from 2012 through 2017 on our new corporate website to allow all of you to see not just how much money we raise via the public counter, but also how the money has been spent globally.

All of our current marketing is community focused and viral, with events we host for all of you, in-fiction lore, commercials that help flesh out the world, and PR outreach. The fact that we have raised over $211M via word of mouth and viral marketing is staggering and a testament to how amazing a community you are. Everyone at Cloud Imperium is humbled to have your trust and support on this journey together.

As a result, we are building two of the most ambitious games ever, with budgets that are unmatched by all but the very biggest projects.

Having a great game is only half the battle. As we look towards the release of Squadron 42, we have been acutely aware that having a AAA game that matches the biggest single player titles out there only goes so far if no one knows about it. The games we will be competing with for attention have tens and, in some cases, hundreds of millions of dollars of advertising behind them.

Other companies in a similar situation have normally tackled this problem by partnering with a publisher for the marketing and sales of their game. As you all know, I am not in favor of putting our destiny in the hands of a third party. On the other hand, I don’t feel it would be right to go back to all of you to raise funds to market the game to other people; most of you already have a copy earmarked for you and I still strongly feel that the money brought in from our crowdfunding should continue to go to the development of Star Citizen and Squadron 42.

Because of this, we started to investigate ways to raise money to fund the upcoming marketing and release needs of Squadron 42. We turned away some approaches from Private Equity and Venture Capital because we were concerned about them fully understanding what makes our company tick and pushing us towards short-term decisions.

During this process, we were introduced to Clive Calder and his son Keith, who have both been interested in the confluence of entertainment with the ability to directly connect with an audience online. Clive founded the most successful independent music company, Zomba, which was home to some of the biggest music acts in the world. Keith is an independent film producer whose company Snoot Entertainment’s most recent films are the critically acclaimed Blindspotting and the Academy Award-nominated Anomalisa. During our first meeting we got on like a house on fire, with Clive telling me about how he wished that, when he built Zomba, he could've connected to the fans of an artist while bypassing the myriad of media gatekeepers in the way Star Citizen does. Keith and I swapped war stories about the film industry and talked about how refreshing it is to be able to utilize crowdfunding to create a project that flies against what is currently considered mainstream.

During the course of these discussions, it became clear to me that if Clive and Keith joined us as investors in our company, we’d have true partners that respected what we had built, but also fully understood the ins and outs and the patience required with a business based on creating entertainment. Taking in like-minded partners helps us solve the need of funding the marketing and release of Squadron 42, but also stay attuned to what makes us special.

So, it’s with this that I would like to announce that we have closed a minority investment into Cloud Imperium US & UK from Clive’s family office and Keith’s Snoot Entertainment for $46M for approximately 10% of the shares in the Cloud Imperium US and UK companies.
This is a testament to the value, future potential, and longevity of Cloud Imperium.

As part of this process we’ve taken on two outside board members. The first is Clive and Keith’s board nominee, Dan Offner, who is an experienced lawyer and entrepreneur with over twenty years of experience in interactive entertainment. The second is Eli Klein, a long-term friend who has been acting as an advisor to the company over the past couple of years.

The control of the company and the board still firmly stays with myself as Chairman, CEO, and majority shareholder.

We wouldn’t have taken anyone on board if we didn’t feel that they were fully aligned with our vision, philosophy, and could add valuable insight into navigating the business challenges ahead.

This investment helps secure our independence. We may not have the resources that an Activision or EA have to launch one of their tentpole games, but we now control our own destiny in marketing Squadron 42, especially as we have a secret weapon: all of you! Between the power of the best community in gaming to help get the message out and these additional funds, we will be well positioned to enable Squadron 42 to enjoy the success that it deserves.

Beyond this, this investment gives Cloud Imperium the ability to take the long view when needed and allows us to grow as a company. I couldn’t be happier.

So I would like to welcome Clive, Keith, Dan, and Eli to the Cloud Imperium family, and I look forward to great success with them and all of you.

See you in the ‘Verse!

-Chris"

It does seem like they are getting there.

Offline BoilerDown

  • Silver Member
  • ****
  • Posts: 1926
Re: Star Citizen
« Reply #40 on: December 20, 2018, 03:27:03 PM »
Link, with links inside to financials, roadmap to Squadron 42's release, and more:

https://cloudimperiumgames.com/blog/letter-from-the-chairman/investment-news

That's what I call open development. Nobody else does this that doesn't have to, nobody.
Boildown

This is the Captain.  We have a lil' problem with our entry sequence so we may experience some slight turbulence and then... explode.

Boildown is Twitching: http://www.twitch.tv/boildown

Offline Skuzzy

  • Support Member
  • Administrator
  • *****
  • Posts: 31462
      • HiTech Creations Home Page
Re: Star Citizen
« Reply #41 on: December 21, 2018, 06:37:10 AM »
There is so much spin in that it is ridiculous.

Basically he is saying they have gone to the well too many times with crowd funding (the negative press about it is getting overwhelming) and they are not having any luck finding anyone who will invest money in it as they are out of cash, again.

How you can read what I just read and see it as a positive is just odd.


Look, I  hope they get a completed game out and I hope it is great.  Just for the simple fact if they do not then crowd funding for any other game project will be tainted.  Reading things like what you posted does not help matters at all, if you have any knowledge about this business.
Roy "Skuzzy" Neese
support@hitechcreations.com

Offline BoilerDown

  • Silver Member
  • ****
  • Posts: 1926
Re: Star Citizen
« Reply #42 on: December 21, 2018, 09:33:18 AM »
You've got it all wrong.  I think deliberately, but not sure about that.

You can see their financial position through 2017 (2018 not included).  They had made 14M more than they spent, net, through end of 2017.  They've been burning about $5M more than they make over the past few years, so if that held in 2018, they'd be down to $9M for this year.  But we actually think they had a better funding year than usual in 2018, so it might not be that bad.

But here's the kicker: During the kickstarter they promised to not spend any backer money marketing the game.  That's why they have the special optional "subscriptions" to fund all the video content they put out about the game, its designated for that kind of marketing.

They feel that they need to begin to market Squadron 42 as a AAA game, and they can't use backer funds to do it.  Ergo, this investment. Now they can market Squadron 42 without using backer money.  That money isn't going to be behind some virtual fence for Marketing Dept use only, but they can spend that much on Squadron 42 if they need to, on marketing, without using backer funds to do it.

Now how you can interpret all this as some kind of negative, I have no fraking clue.  You asked to see their financials just a few posts ago, and what do you know, they told you their financials.  And its still not good enough for you (/s but you don't really care because you're just an impartial observer /s).  I have the feeling at this point nothing would be good enough for you.  Which is a shame, because this community respects your opinion.  But I don't, not in this instance.
Boildown

This is the Captain.  We have a lil' problem with our entry sequence so we may experience some slight turbulence and then... explode.

Boildown is Twitching: http://www.twitch.tv/boildown

Offline Skuzzy

  • Support Member
  • Administrator
  • *****
  • Posts: 31462
      • HiTech Creations Home Page
Re: Star Citizen
« Reply #43 on: December 21, 2018, 11:14:07 AM »
You are reading around what I said, hence your confusion about what I think about it.

Like I said, I have no horse in this race.  I would like to see the game completed.  I want to play it.

I'll simplify it.  They have spent far more money than they should have to be where they are, today, in the release cycle.  Nothing you, nor they, have presented indicates otherwise.

That is my opinion based on what I know about game development costs.  You are free to disagree.
Roy "Skuzzy" Neese
support@hitechcreations.com

Offline Nathan60

  • Platinum Member
  • ******
  • Posts: 4573
Re: Star Citizen
« Reply #44 on: December 21, 2018, 08:14:53 PM »
HamHawk
Wing III-- Pigs on The Wing
FSO--JG54
CHUGGA-CHUGGA, CHOO-CHOO
Pigs go wing deep