Mikus_Aurelius wrote on Jan 31, 2016, 10:35:

CJ_Parker wrote on Jan 31, 2016, 10:17:
Also, we were promised 50 missions WITHOUT the expansion alone. So they first need to deliver a 50 mission campaign (it is very unlikely that the first two episodes will include that many missions) and then a reasonably sized expansion after that and ONLY THEN are they even allowed to BEGIN considering the milkage of their backers who pledged early enough to get Squadron 42 *and* the expansion for free.

Designing single player missions for space sims doesn't take very long if you have the right tools. I used to code missions for X-Wing and Tie Fighter that were much more complex than anything the games shipped with (and way beyond what Freespace and Wing Commander ever contained). I probably cranked out and tested 50 missions in the course of 6 months, and that was on top of school and homework every day.

If the tech is done, 50 missions in 11 months is a cakewalk for a real games studio.

I know. You are talking about normal development studios though. CIG is anything but.
And with their self-imposed FIDELITY, they have painted themselves into a corner here. Just building the levels for the missions is going to take ages with the level of detail that they are aiming for.

For example, the first (or one of the first) missions is supposed to take you to a super-detailed HIGH FIDELITY mining platform that is several kilometers long. This thing has already taken them frickin' ages to build and continues to do so apparently.

So unless they front load the game by giving us three awesomely detailed missions (environments) and then just recycle everything over and over, they are going to have more than their hands full to ever get to 50 missions. Normally you will not want to have a noticeable drop in quality in a game, right?

I mean just look at the recent videos on YouTube, like the one where Tony Zurovec of the Austin studio talks a bit about the PU roadmap and how they plan to bring new systems (= levels) online with months apart because it is so much work with all the complexity they have piled upon themselves.
Unnecessary complexity if you ask me because there are clearly diminishing returns for all the FIDELITY. This level of polish and detail is something they should have done post-release of the game.

Or let us remember what is really happening here: Squadron 42 in its entirety(!) was originally supposed to be released at the end of 2014. We're now in 2016 and they plan to (maybe) deliver the first episode some time this year, i.e. a mere fraction of what was promised to be done by the end of 2014.
And once again: If you look at recent videos there is plenty of reason to doubt that they will make it this year.

A two years delay for only a fraction of the content is not giving me any confidence that they can all of a sudden somehow magically start cranking out those levels. Besides, they are going to have to go back, do more mo-cap, schedule the actors etc. etc. etc. - comparing this to doing missions for X-Wing or TIE Fighter, well, no offense, dude, but...