Star Citizen

HSharp · Post by **HSharp** » Thu Nov 15, 2012 9:08 pm

Steady on son, Star Citizen and Elite Dangerous are going to be different games.

It's funny how you say Space Sim because to be honest Elite was much more of a Space Sim then any of Robert's work including Freelancer which was as far as Roberts has got to.

Trying to say Braben's won't be (as) good because he hasn't made a space sim recently is ridiculous. Freelancer is a graphically superior but technically inferior game compared to Frontier: Elite II in regards to space simulation.

And to say using "modern tech", tech moves fast and you have to consider that the last game (space or otherwise) that Chris Roberts last made was Freelancer and that was almost a decade ago, Braben on the other hand has been making games his whole life and has made games using modern tech. I'm not saying I don't think Roberts will produce a good game but I am saying I am sure Braben can.

Bacon_00 · Post by **Bacon_00** » Thu Nov 15, 2012 9:47 pm

I guess that's fair. IDK, I just really loved everything Chris Roberts has worked on. He seems to really "get" what makes a space sim fun and accessible, yet still feeling like a space sim. Freelancer wasn't universally loved, but I absolutely adored that game. So if he's making the spiritual successor to it, this is a case of "shut up and take my money."

I'm sure Elite: Dangerous will be a great game if funded, but after reading his pitch and comparing it to Robert's pitch, I was ten times more inclined to give Roberts my pledge money. Where Roberts has tech demos and endless enthusiasm, Braben was more "Well I've always wanted to make this and stuff, so give me some money and I'll have a more serious go at it." Perhaps he's just more humble than Roberts, but Roberts has really sold me on Star Citizen with his salesmanship and vision. Now, if he delivers what he's outlining has yet to be seen, but I'm optimistic. I'm assuming some of his features will get cut or seriously scaled back (the FPS ship boarding element sounds over-ambitious and derivative of what makes a space sim fun), but as long as he delivers a "next gen" space combat sim I'll be totally psyched.

If you can afford to pledge to both, by all means. More space sims = better for everybody. Personally, though, I chose Star Citizen over Elite: Dangerous due to the reasons I mentioned above. Nothing against Elite, I just found Star Citizen to be a more compelling project.

Adept · Post by **Adept** » Thu Nov 15, 2012 11:01 pm

American salesman pitch vs English programmer guru pitch. Roberts is way better at it, but if Elite gets funded I actually have more faith in Braben. Best of luck to both projects.

madpeople · Post by **madpeople** » Thu Nov 15, 2012 11:48 pm

I'll just leave this here...
http://uk.ign.com/articles/2012/11/15/star...-wars-fantasies

NightRychune · Post by **NightRychune** » Fri Nov 16, 2012 2:02 am

all the immersion @#(! is nice and all but i feel like doing it well is going to require too much work and attention to the point it'll detract from the game itself

fuzzylunkin1 · Post by **fuzzylunkin1** » Fri Nov 16, 2012 2:42 am

NightRychune wrote:QUOTE (NightRychune @ Nov 15 2012, 09:02 PM) all the immersion @#(! is nice and all but i feel like doing it well is going to require too much work and attention to the point it'll detract from the game itself

Well, immersion is trying to make it feel more real, right? Is real life just a game to you? How far is too far?

Bacon_00 · Post by **Bacon_00** » Fri Nov 16, 2012 2:54 am

I think what Star Citizen is trying to do is to push the envelope of PC games. I've been saying this for awhile now, but we've all essentially been playing games from 2007 since 2007. The consoles came out then, and developers have been making games for that level of tech ever since. Almost every AAA game is ported to consoles or ported from consoles, so the devs just aren't interested in taking advantage of the past 6 years of advances in gaming tech. It's not cost effective, because making a game that is unplayable on 6 year old consoles is a stupid business decision. That's why games like the new X-COM on PC, while fun, look like they're from 2007. Because essentially they are. It's made to run on that level of tech, so that's what we get. I mean, look at the last big AAA shooter developed for PC's first, consoles second. Battlefield 3 is a HUGE leap in graphical fidelity and environmental destruction. Imagine that level of production value in a space combat sim. That's sort of what I think Star Citizen is trying to be, but in space and in a different (much better!) genre.

What Chris Roberts said is that he's trying to make a PC game for PC gamers, more like how it used to be in the 90s. So while a lot of this might sound impossible or over ambitious (and it might be), he's also making a game for 2014, not 2007. So the difference might seem shocking to us, but really I think it's more in line with what we would have been seeing had consoles not completely enveloped and dictated the state of the gaming industry for the past 10 years.

IDK, I'm aware that I'm sounding like a Chris Roberts fanboy, but I'm totally psyched about this project. It's everything I hoped a kickstarter'd space sim would be. The newly released documentation on the RSI Constellation is effing amazing and makes me wish I could pledge $250 to get it. But I'm poor and unemployed, so $60 is all they get from me =P

NightRychune · Post by **NightRychune** » Fri Nov 16, 2012 3:04 am

fuzzylunkin1 wrote:QUOTE (fuzzylunkin1 @ Nov 15 2012, 07:42 PM) Well, immersion is trying to make it feel more real, right? Is real life just a game to you? How far is too far?

i don't care if the game feels real or not

i care if the game is fun

and it doesn't matter if you're making a game for 2007 or 2014 or not, but creating environments with massive attention to detail takes an enormous amount of time and, well, attention - especially with what people expect from art and animation now - to the point where doing it to that extent can very easily detract from whether or not the game is fun

Bacon_00 · Post by **Bacon_00** » Fri Nov 16, 2012 3:09 am

Yeah I get that, but I would imagine that the tools to create games are more powerful now, too, yeah? IDK. He seems confident that he can do all this stuff he's talking about. I guess we'll just see in 2014 if he actually does it.

Psychosis · Post by **Psychosis** » Fri Nov 16, 2012 9:06 am

I am going to keep my $$'s in my pocket.

the more I look at it, the more it seriously looks like pay to play and I dislike that.

i have neither the time nor the money to sink into it, so as cool as it sounds, i has no $#@!s