exactly, every time something liekt his happens it becomes that little bit harder to ignore all the claims of SC just being an endless cash draw and cynical milking-the-fans exercise. i'd get buying these in-game [they are an asset/equipmetn item after all] but surely something like this could/should have been given as a freebie? 5 for original KSers, 4 for other kinds of backers, maybe one free for every year you've been a subscriber - something like that?
i really would like to see CG's books, to see why stuff like this is needed, given they've already amassed $150+ million, or whatever the total is. if it's needed, something is very wrong [IMO] if they've burned through that amount w/out a game to show for it, and it it's not needed, then they shouldn't do it. or at least make it $5 or something. FFs guys, $50 - seriously does just seem to me that they're bleeding the fanboys at this point.
Why do you keep suggesting there must be an issue if they have spent funding or are looking to get more to complete the game? Surely that is common sense that they are utilising the funds to produce the games accordingly.
So they have so far generated $172 million for the development of two games. They have opened up 4 major studios and a small mocap studio also. They are working through creating completely new engine tools that haven't been produced before. They are producing a new IP that has lore that is as in depth as some games get fleshed out over a decade during expansions and similar with details that most don't aim for such as completely working dialect for alien races with their own detailed lore.
They are producing two games with this monies, one is SC and the other is SQ42 of which both are to be as large as generally Triple A games in their own right. They are looking to have the PU almost be multiple games that all work in one eco system so rather than just a farming game, mining game, space flight game, racing game or similar those all take place in one world with everyone able to do any of those without having to load up a different version or similar.
It is having scale of ships and the complexities that come with development to get multi crew gameplay to actually work where you are not all just sat in seats as you travel from A to B without being able to do anything. It is then taking things like TeamSpeak or Discord 3rd party apps out the requirement by building that into engine with people able to engage in MMORPG in more detail than currently any other game I am certainly aware of.
These new directions when they are first produced have diminishing returns in that to get that 10% better gameplay will likely cost twice what not developing it would be. However going forward with say Chapter 2 of SQ42 where this has been developed their return is significantly increased. These games would cost more than most to develop to the same that things like SW:TOR cost a lot to develop minor gameplay changes compared to what they could have done. That is the nature of going the next step.
If they kept to what the engine could do or what the gameplay was based on alone at the beginning of 2012 then it would have come in and been developed at a standard $60-$80 million budget but it would be much less of the game than what is being aimed for now. Will they pull it off to what people want, honestly it is unlikely because there is so much going on but there will be nice gameplay loops that everyone can be involved in.
There is nothing wrong with pushing the development of something and giving completely new tech. Be it new tech that others have tried on either smaller scale or in less detail for instance server meshing from Dual Universe or Procedural Tech in Frontiers Cobra engine. They were/are their selling points.
CIG's is putting it all together in one universe which unfortunately is more complex then implementing one new system at a time. Look at the way they are looking to animate characters using their new IK system in regards to interacting whilst walking/running regardless of the interaction geometry or the IK system for interacting with components and details like being able to blend animations to get in and out of benched tables. Those are in terms of premise simple things but the diminishing return is there to get it working means that future developments CIG produce in terms of games beyond SQ42 or SC are resolved. Assuming they are putting back into Lumberyard (which is likely) then those tools will be able to be utilised by other developers without needing to themselves go through the same development cycle.
That is what a lot of backers got excited about. That next level, and that unfortunately costs a lot. And a lot of it we will never see directly as it is very much back end work. Take though the hightmap system to work on spherical planes, the ability to then flatten them again and utilise the prog city tool to populate large areas in reasonably logical states in a timely fashion that you are not taking 3 years to develop a city. I mean compare say the footprint alone of ArcCorp to GTA V and you have to consider the assets alone for GTA took 3 years to produce by artists. Now imagine having to do that for a planet wide system to the same tool basis and see why that would take decades to complete. Working on that tool for 2 years and fleshing it out is the difference between the same 100 cities copied across multiple planets and having 100 cities that all feel unique by it being able to generate completely unique layouts with both the same and different asset sets.
Things like being able to do all the cities for ArcCorp manufacture where they would have similar structures as that is their construction style like buying a house from builder A and builder B would be unique but Builders A structures if they are in Oxford or Cambridge would still utilise the same design aesthetics and floor plans. That is human nature. Patterns and ability to do as much modular as possible but it still feel unique due to the way development occurs.
But it was really fun flying it whilst it lasted & I only had time to play for 20mins so not that long to work stuff out
They need to make sure people aren't wrecking ships only to salvage the parts and claim it back free after all!
