The Journey so far, backing Star Citizen

The following is my opinion; let’s just get that out there first and foremost. Nothing I say is anyway endorsed or confirmed by CIG or anyone else. The situation is just how I see it as a backer who threw money at an amazing idea for a game I would like to play.

First let me start by stating that Chris Roberts has surrounded himself with clearly very talented people in order to create this game. Tony Zurovec there to tell him what is and isn’t possible is in the Persistent Universe’s development, with most of the early design docs I’m assuming being in direct consultation with Tony Z. A lot of design decisions go through Tony Z, with him being the Persistent Universe Director and all. I trust in Tony Z.

So Chris Roberts initially pitched Star Citizen on kickstarter because he wanted to crowdfund the game that he wanted to make and NOT be restricted in ways that a publisher would restrict him, such as someone monetarily invested and having their hand in the cookie jar or release dates. The delay of the Alpha patch 3.0 is honestly irrelevant to the overall game’s scope and image, but I will cover that later on. So as of now, we are seeing their proprietary planetary tech coming into play on “smallish” moons (which are fucking huge). This is the same tech that will be used for planets, but the meshing between biomes and the detail of those biomes is still yet to be shown (maybe we’ll see this at Gamescom next week, who knows). On top of this, they still have to get past creating jump points, and many more star systems to populate the universe. They also (based on design documents and kickstarter goals) will need to develop and implement many more features before they consider actually releasing the game, such as repair, medical, electronic warfare, economy, science, farming, server meshing etc. The 400+ employees aren’t all just sitting around bugfixing 3.0. They are working on things leading up to future features.

Also, let me get this ugly part out of the way so I can get to my real point. There has been delays, most notably the Star Marine delay due to an external company (Illfonic) being contracted out to handle the "FPS" aspect of the game, and of course the 3.0 delay partly due to an external company (Behaviour Interactive which stopped adding to the monthly report in September 2016) being contracted out to handle environments, and depending on who you ask: planetary environments which were to be seen in the "3.0 before the end of December 2016". The fact of the matter is, as backers we just don't know what exactly happened and that could be due to a number of legal reasons between CIG and these companies. There is no official explanation outright from CIG as to why these companies are no longer supporting the project, but what we can assume is that because CIG has been hiring internally and developing these systems internally... it caused some backpedaling and unforeseen consequences in the schedule. But guess what, the studios are all still full steam ahead and it’s not anything to worry about now since they’ve now hired their own employees to take on these tasks.

Feature Creep has been brought up as a complaint by many, somehow also relating it to the current situation with 3.0. The other part of the 3.0 delay seems pretty justified from what Will Leverett stated in his response to the salt a few weeks ago here: https://robertsspaceindustries.com/spectrum/community/SC/forum/3/thread/production-schedule-and-3-0/36099 , and that is referring to the scope changing of this particular patch from last year, to this year. The initial scope of the "3.0 patch” at Gamescom 2016 was an inkling of what the planetary tech has become. I’m not trying to defend CIG’s communication as of late, but they are constantly learning as they go and Chris Roberts I’m sure isn’t all too happy with himself “promising”(which he didn’t) last year’s 3.0 build would hit before the end of 2016. The majority of people who are exclaiming that “Chris Roberts lied” are understandably frustrated that the game that they want “NOW” isn’t in their hands, but that really doesn’t call for bashing on Chris Roberts, since he clearly was just as excited to get the game out as bad as us backers wanted it. The game/patch/build changed from last year, regardless of how the more vocal player base felt, and this is awesome to me because CIG is able to pivot in a way that doesn’t limit their technological capabilities. It shows that they are doing exactly what Chris Roberts set out to do, which is make the game he wants to make without anyone telling him how to do it.

The main thought I've seen is that Chris Roberts should be trying to control feature creep, not encourage it. I do understand that feature creep can mean the death of a game’s development, but in Star Citizen’s case I feel as though it’s too early to deem whether or not it’s actually happening. This is because there is simply SO many things that have yet to be implemented that have been planned. Sure, once those things are in the game, and actually working… maybe then the argument could be made. Even at that point though, if it’s in Chris Robert’s vision, and it is doable as deemed by Tony Zurovec then why not add it to the game? I’ve backed this game because of Chris Robert’s pitch, and even though the scope has widened over the years, funding continues very strongly because people want to see this amazing game that they are attempting to make. So many systems that are proprietary are going into development, and it’s awesome to see them making progress on it week after week. They may hide certain things, but the other factor that CIG must adhere to is their public image because of the vocal minority that has lashed out at them. While some of us ignore them, the general feeling of the public is something CIG must weigh when giving out information (take the release dates on the schedule report, those were their internal goals they shared with us). It is unfortunate that it has come to that, but I’m in this for the long haul, and I’m still seeing progress being made despite not putting out a patch recently.

The fact that there has been so much hate thrown at CIG lately is understandable based on CIG’s communication practices (not even talking about the Referral Contest, I'm not going to touch that subject), but mainly appears to be ignorance or stubbornness because of impatience or receiving bad information. I have a very strong feeling that those type of people aren’t cut out to stick this out for the long haul of Star Citizen release in the coming years. The minute someone states that “THEY LIED TO US” or that “This game will never see the light of day”, that person is no longer conversing in a discussion. They are simply publicly bashing and hating on the project at that point whether or not they want to admit it.

The thing to remember is that this game WILL take years still to complete and there are still MANY features we are waiting to come online. I’m happy with the state of affairs at the moment, especially considering it doesn’t seem like we can stop this train anymore even if we wanted to. CIG has long left the station and there is no slowing down funding wise or development wise. They are making the game Chris Roberts set out to make, and they are doing it in a way that makes it seem like it is going to come into fruition despite not being able to currently see the light at the end of the tunnel.

Sure, the train MIGHT crash and burn, but there’s nothing that any of us as backers can do to help that, prevent that, or affect that in any way. I’m along for the ride at this point and many of you are as well, popcorn anyone?

TL;DR:

CR wants to make a great game, and there hasn’t been any official word on how they are wanting to implement most features as described in early design docs (in order to make the game feature complete) yet the most common complaint by haters/doubters are that features are becoming too cumbersome for CIG to take on. And who cares because Tony Zurovec is there to lead the foray into the PU’s development, so long as they continue to generate income, it’s too damn early still to complain about feature creep based on what we have that IS playable.

TL;DR for the TL;DR: Stop worrying and love to learn the Journey, we gave them our money for a reason and they have not broken any promises on what they plan on delivering