In recent weeks a good gaming friend(a guy who I started my Star Citizen journey with) and I have been talking about the game. We've kept up on the most general news over the years and bemoaned the lack of actual 'real' content you could call a 'game'. We've bítched, moaned and groaned mocking the minute details of the 'game' and it's development. All the while the game as a game doesn't seem to see it's forest(end product) for the trees(how NPC's eat and move etc). It's current form is a tech demo testbed. Overall we are fairly shocked at the amount of work, effort and cash that has gone into such vaporware. It's a head scratcher on so many levels. So much done so little to 'really' show for it.
Yea it's gonna be fair to say this is going to be a negative look at the game; This reflects my expectations and what I'm seeing currently and being greeted with. I'm disappointed.
I've not put much into the game, financially. A basic game pack at the time(2014), containing an Aurora Legionnaire, Squadron 42 and access to Arena Commander / the 'universe'. As well as some hanger(old hanger) items like the fish tank and fish. Oh and of course a Greycat. On top of game item inflation(in game items/currency given, taken, re-given, changed etc etc, plus free items/gifts like holiday baubles) All in all I'm €65 in the hole.... Not much in the grand scheme of things(especially compared to my friend); The game has some massive whales out there(star stats).
My friend is in 'deep deep'.... Thousands of Euro for software items alone. He had been subscribed for years...... He's bought ships and been hyped..... No wonder he's been in a 'mood' about the game(disenfranchised... peeved etc etc) for so long now. The ships he has bought and never seen in game, huge ships in concept.... Never seen in game after years!! It's nuts when you think about it!!
For the last few years I've not blogged or even commented on Star Citizen. My previous blog posts by year(listings even posted with a remote hint/mention of the game are there).
Late 2014 - 3 posts.
2015 - 6 posts - Also the last year I can remember actually flying a ship in game!
2016 - 16 posts - I guess it was the year I had most 'hopium'.
2017 - 3 posts - In one of which I said "The game is possibly coming closer to a more final product....."; I know.... I know! Please commence historical laughter.
2018 - 1 post - But not really a post.
2019 - 1 post - https://acasualcarebear.blogspot.com/2019/06/star-citizen.html
2020 - 0 posts
2021 - 0 posts
2022 - This post.
As 'little' cash as I've 'invested' in the game compared to my friend and compared to some others(lots and lots of others) I still quiet can't believe that there's nothing to play for Squadron 42....
Is it me or is this area looking like something from Planetside 2?
Vampires exist.... The game is so detailed it correctly removes the reflection of NPC's who are, Vampires.... Of course.... A game about details..... Winning me over.
and on foot:
Squadron 42 motion capture performances..........Done seven years ago!
So coming back to the game after years with all it's changes, all it's updates, all it's micromanagement of minute detail and infinite tweaking. What does it say to me?
To me it says it's worse than cyberounk's release. Or as I sent to my friend.....
"Wow man Star Shítizen may actually be worse than Cyberpunk when that released. NPC's walking into walls or just standing there, unintuitive UI, unintuitive everything. NPC chat ui is a menu stapled on their chest only they don't stop f**king moving so selecting a choice is 'fun'….. To get to a hanger from area 18 I need to get out of bed, take an elevator to the ground floor, walk to a tram station, wait for a tram, get off, walk to a hanger console, select a ship, find where another elevator is to get to the random hanger it puts the ship, get off the elevator and then wonder where my f**king hanger fish tank went!!!!! Never mind my Greycat.."
Yea my initial take was not favorable.
As much information is on display and as much information is there for you to see and get, the game tells you nothing about how to do anything! But NPC's can sit and lean in 14 animations to not look stiff(they still do).
Still life artwork.... NPC watching guard NPC watching wall.......
Fidgety NPC's are the worst to click on......
The new Greycat issue..... I present......Hanger dude. So much detail..... That A.I. at work eh!
So much talk of detail and it's the first thing I look for in the active installed version only to be greeted by a shoddy Cyberpunk 'thing'.
It's got a laggy low framerate mess feel. I may have a graphics card that's a generation old but my friend has top of the range and he was having the same issues. Both on SSD's. So Alpha game is Alpha and not tuned for all rigs.
For all the NPC's dotted about it still 'feels' dead. As such for me it gave off vibes that remind me so, so much of the old Doom 3 game from 2004. Then again I've not been to other planets. I've little motivation to do so. Everything seems like so much work. I like detail but I don't want to spend 30 minutes to prep for a journey..... The PR expectation from RSI is shockingly bad.
I wasn't wowed by visuals or locations. The game is so very, very, very Alpha. I'm not sure that the game can deliver Sq 42 to the expectation it's saying it can deliver. All talk and no action.
As is on release I see it being received as a cross between No Man's Sky(under delivering the hype) and Cyberpunk(car crash on a tech/game engine level) when they release. Day one will have a massive player number but after the longterm retention will suffer.Proof in the pudding!
The 'servers' only allow the old cap of 50 players per server and the new cap of 100! So it doesn't really put the massive into MMO! I've known Eve Corp's with more active players than 100!
No development end in sight, no release, only more years of promises. Yet more changes to mechanics that then get scrapped and replace in a never ending development loop. It's a ponzi sceme and players don't get anything. A joke on players who want to play. Those that do now are free testers! But you can't be casual about it either way. Such a massive disappointment.... To me. Best to prepare for the coming shizstorm(it's still on the horizon) when they finally get to the pointy end of delivering it.
There is gameplay to be had if your patient. If you can see past the Alpha state..... And live between server wipes. That said how is the current world of casual players going to get into this game!
Players who have not been back to the game in years like me will not be happy. If they were happy they would be constantly active in it already! I can't imagine what fresh players, knowing only some hype and expectation are going to think. 'Yeay space combat.... Here's a 800 page manual, good luck'.
Previous iterations of the game had a tutorial for docking and undocking... WTF is Squadron 42 going to be like or do for that!
2019's Intro to play! Has no intro to actual gameplay! It's not a tutorial.... It was a sales pitch... AND THERE WAS NO SECOND PART to follow on! Typical Star Shitizen!!!!
BoredGamer does it better! That said it's nearly 30 minutes long and it's filled with detail both said and unsaid.
What can I say to make the most of this 'game'... A MASSIVE amount of patience. A virtue I have not had with this look at the game.
There is too much detail. Far too much detail in how to do anything. See patience above.
It takes an 'age' to get anywhere and do anything at all. Again see patience above.
Everything is 'quirky' in game, it's not you, it's the current game mechanics. Or rules. Unless it's you pressing buttons.
F12 opens and closes the chat
F11 opens your comm link, for chat and friend options(as far as I can see)
F1 opens MobiGlass.
F2 opens the Mobiglass route/map.
'I' for inventory.
'F' for mouse over actions while clicking withe the mouse (left or right button depending on the situation).
And from there it just gets complicated..... As well as not telling you anything to add in frustration.
This game is not 'casual'.
This game is not 'intuitive'.
Keyboard layout for flying:
Right now I'm a combination of peeved, frustrated and demotivated. So I'm not in a forgiving mood. Hence the waffling blog post..... Hence the overall aggression and 'talking down' the game. Not totally without cause. Fans and shills can forgive, casuals not so much! I want in but the game makes it hard to do so.
The game needs motivation and patience to play. The right mood at the right time and with time to spare... Lots and lots of time.
I've not played for long this time round. Everything is hard/complex to do, I've no motivation to learn anything in game to make the 'complex', 'simple'. For me, for now it's a game that's too swamped in processes of processes to offer meaningful short term play...
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