******Official Star Citizen / Squadron 42 Thread******

[Curlyriff]

They have already got to the bug fix and polish as per the schedule last week. As usual Chris's words let him down but if they are doing videos of the final push and meetings then we will be seeing how far it is.

This is the info from last Fridays report though for this weeks work we have just had. I would say Chris likely made the ATV video earlier in week end of last week anyways. It also ties up with the render to texture notes they have in the schedule that it was recorded prior to this statement.

This week, we entered the optimization, polish and bug fixing phase for the 3.0 feature set. As there have been so many features and content implemented, we’ve encountered some stability issues that we want to address before going to a wider test audience. The ongoing work on the new Patcher system (that will save you from having to completely re-download each build) and some new bugs with CopyBuild3 (our internal version of the patcher) have also slowed us down. Because of this we have pushed back the Evocati and subsequent date ranges to reflect the additional time needed to get Star Citizen Alpha 3.0 ready for prime time.

Also the amount of content that needs to be added based on said schedule is also rather limited as it states;

Mission Givers

• ETA is 11th August (was 28th July)-some code dependencies are still present and animation rework is still in progress

Entity Owner Manager

• ETA is 11th August (was 28th July)

Character Customisation

TBC (so would say this is one of the main content adding sections they want in. We should see later the date when it updated)

Vehicle Customisation App

• ETA is 9th August (was 27th July)

Comms System UI

• ETA is 16th August (was 25th July)

Mission System

• We are continuing to build on the mission system AI in order for design to implement more missions for inclusion in 3.0.0
• ETA is 9th August (was 24th July)

Again that is another content addition but doesn't directly mean that they are not already doing bug fix and polish

Render to Texture

Was noted as 10th August. We have now seen first implementation so they will just be fleshing it out and bug fixing it as needed for 3.0

Gemini L86 Pistol

• The latest review of this weapon highlighted issues that need to be fixed before it is signed off as complete.
• ETA is 2nd August (was 28th July) (so should be done and will be surprised if it's not in honesty)

And that is it for the list of outstanding. There are a few noted as being in the QA procedure and going through bug checking but that isn't a huge amount of content. As said the only part we know otherwise is of course Delta Patcher.

 

[humbug]

New Schedule is up, no change on the Window end date but the start date has been moved up a week. IMO once that one expires another 2 week extension will be added, i've lost could how many this is now. More than several.

The Schedule does have an interesting new addition .....

https://robertsspaceindustries.com/schedule-report

 

[GBRusty]

My continuing mission status:

Managed to get into the universe! yay me. I had a wander round (wishing the motion blur would go) impressed with the framerates and smoothness. Managed to somehow end up in a bar that also somehow, managed to get behind the bar with the bar tender and got trapped and couldn't get out.
Reload.
Entered the other universe entry and found a monitor that spawned my ship on bay 05. Now to find bay 5. There's lots of signs so that's not so bad. As I'm doing that my screen is going nuts with missions being added then retracted. So I try looking at my smart watch and a lady gives me a proper mission with a voice over. Nice.
I find my ship. I open the door and manually walk inside. A screen prompt pops up saying 'Enter ship' so I press F and an animation takes over that takes me back outside again. So back inside again using the F key animation. Next trying to sit in the pilot's seat. I force it too much and I get thrown outside the ship. Right back round again and this time a prompt manages to appear saying 'Enter pilot's seat'
Without even looking up the key bindings I find myself taking off and retracting the landing gear. I can see a marker saying my mission is that way so I start heading towards it. It seems a long, long way away. Where's my boost button. Aha, shift. That's better. Hmm, it's millions of kilometres away. Ohh some random button mashing (can't remember the combo) seems to select my destination and I then quantum leap/warp towards it. That's even betterer.
More voice over stuff and then more blue dots to go visit.
Then I decided I need to learn some keys and turned it off.

We're getting there.

 

[FloppyPoppy]

My continuing mission status:

Managed to get into the universe! yay me. I had a wander round (wishing the motion blur would go) impressed with the framerates and smoothness. Managed to somehow end up in a bar that also somehow, managed to get behind the bar with the bar tender and got trapped and couldn't get out.
Reload.
Entered the other universe entry and found a monitor that spawned my ship on bay 05. Now to find bay 5. There's lots of signs so that's not so bad. As I'm doing that my screen is going nuts with missions being added then retracted. So I try looking at my smart watch and a lady gives me a proper mission with a voice over. Nice.
I find my ship. I open the door and manually walk inside. A screen prompt pops up saying 'Enter ship' so I press F and an animation takes over that takes me back outside again. So back inside again using the F key animation. Next trying to sit in the pilot's seat. I force it too much and I get thrown outside the ship. Right back round again and this time a prompt manages to appear saying 'Enter pilot's seat'
Without even looking up the key bindings I find myself taking off and retracting the landing gear. I can see a marker saying my mission is that way so I start heading towards it. It seems a long, long way away. Where's my boost button. Aha, shift. That's better. Hmm, it's millions of kilometres away. Ohh some random button mashing (can't remember the combo) seems to select my destination and I then quantum leap/warp towards it. That's even betterer.
More voice over stuff and then more blue dots to go visit.
Then I decided I need to learn some keys and turned it off.

We're getting there.

IIRC B to bring up the warp drive and F to warp towards pointed direction/to pointed target. It does take a while to get used to but it's totally worth getting used to .

 

[Raumarik]

New Schedule is up, no change on the Window end date but the start date has been moved up a week. IMO once that one expires another 2 week extension will be added, i've lost could how many this is now. More than several.

The Schedule does have an interesting new addition .....

Apparently those are published

https://robertsspaceindustries.com/schedule-report

That's a lot of blockers still to work through. No way Evocati are getting this before Gamescom. :-/

 

[FloppyPoppy]

That's a lot of blockers still to work through. No way Evocati are getting this before Gamescom 2018. :-/

fixed lul

 

[mid_gen]

Are we still supposed to get Squadron 42 pt1 this year?

 

[FloppyPoppy]

Are we still supposed to get Squadron 42 pt1 this year?

 

[TNA]

Lol. And it was meant to come out last year was it not? Haha.

I would rather wait until 2019 and they get it right to be honest. If they release it and it is ****, it will be very sad.

 

[Raumarik]

That's part of my worry now, they aren't testing it with Evocati and don't intend to as it's all being tested internally. That means a lot less random stuff happening which can expose bugs and exploits.

 

[humbug]

That's a lot of blockers still to work through. No way Evocati are getting this before Gamescom. :-/

Right, and yet the schedule report says it will.

I just don't believe they think it will be ready in a couple of weeks, i don't believe they ever thought it would be ready during the last 3 months of publishing release dates every 2 weeks, so why do it? why not just say "December 2017"
8 months of polishing and bug fixing, really?

 

[Raumarik]

I think it's classic CIG adding in a few extras we don't know about to dazzle the masses at gamescom and get them off the hook. Now it's likely 3.0 is the main release perhaps with the 600 series, they need a couple of rabbits to pull out seeing as they technically demo'd 3.0 last year

 

[humbug]

I think it's classic CIG adding in a few extras we don't know about to dazzle the masses at gamescom and get them off the hook. Now it's likely 3.0 is the main release perhaps with the 600 series, they need a couple of rabbits to pull out seeing as they technically demo'd 3.0 last year

I have no doubt it will be worth the wait, but waiting is painful

 

[humbug]

Monthly update August 2017.

 

[Besty]

I think they could get away in release 3.0 or 3.3 as a beta at least?

Looking at the amount of separate modules they have created for offering each piece of functionality i would be surprised if they even have a working build of the game. My guess is the teams finished writing their modules, they tried to integrate them into the build and it all went splat.

That is one of the problems with modern development of huge games with big teams, the integration phase of the development process can be fraught with difficulty. You would not see the integration problems on smaller games as they would not be as gung'ho with their modular approach.

 

[NeoWave]

Looking at the amount of separate modules they have created for offering each piece of functionality i would be surprised if they even have a working build of the game.

I'd wonder if they really need a working build of the entire game - it seems to me, & I don't know hence I of course have an opinion on it , that in this type of game there are clear transition points where data can be saved so separate modules can exist probably for a large part of the dev process. For example, in ED the transition between relative orbits; star, planet, port, which is used most obviously to control graphics detail, could easily be separate modules with entirely different gameplay. I personally don't think in SC's case this is something to worry about.

 

[mid_gen]

Looking at the amount of separate modules they have created for offering each piece of functionality i would be surprised if they even have a working build of the game. My guess is the teams finished writing their modules, they tried to integrate them into the build and it all went splat.

That is one of the problems with modern development of huge games with big teams, the integration phase of the development process can be fraught with difficulty. You would not see the integration problems on smaller games as they would not be as gung'ho with their modular approach.

There doesn't need to be any integration problems, if there is that is their process at fault.

 

[Raumarik]

I doubt there's any integration to happen, the mini-PU we're playing now is the basis. Arena commander and Star Marine will likely be in-game "arcade games" and racing is something that's easy enough to add when they've got a location for it.

They are all distractions to keep us busy and used purely for testing purposes though. They aren't going to have to hook up a racing instance etc where it then loads the racing module.

 

[FloppyPoppy]

I doubt there's any integration to happen, the mini-PU we're playing now is the basis. Arena commander and Star Marine will likely be in-game "arcade games" and racing is something that's easy enough to add when they've got a location for it.

They are all distractions to keep us busy and used purely for testing purposes though. They aren't going to have to hook up a racing instance etc where it then loads the racing module.

Isn't there actually a race/something to do with one atleast within the mini PU? Via a DB

 

[Besty]

There doesn't need to be any integration problems, if there is that is their process at fault.

If only it were that simple. You always get defects when you bolt modules of functionality together, it is the same inside and outside of the gaming industry.

What is important is not the number of remaining defects, it is the speed with which they close them down. Give them two months, record the number and then you can draw a conclusion on how long it will take to get the release ready. Let's just hope the number stabilises and starts to go down.

90 defects is actually a small number considering the size of their team.