S42 Primary Tech Hurdles
Content
Most of our base technology is now complete
Still in Progress:
Subsumption
- Pathfinding Logic
- Full Animation Integration
- Improved Combat Logic
- Mission System Integration
- Enhanced Fight AI
Object Container Streaming
CPU and GPU Optimizations
S42 Status Update
Content
- All chapters and gameplay features at grey-box or better
- Taking one chapter to final ship quality - flushes out any technical, integration and polish issues.
- Building Technology & Systems for the long term and the whole SC universe - no short cuts!
theyarecomingforyou wrote on Oct 13, 2016, 20:46:grudgebearer wrote on Oct 13, 2016, 18:43:The hangar was the initial module, followed by Arena Commander (which introduced flight, combat and racing), the Social Module (introducing the first planetside location and social hub) and the Persistent Universe (which introduced multi-crew ships, local physics grids, 64-bit precision, missions, repair, FPS combat, currency, shopping and refuelling mechanics, etc). Star Marine is due out imminently, which will hone the FPS mechanics. Alpha 3.0 is due out later this year / early next year, which will introduce procedural planets, cargo mechanics, trading, etc.
How is anything that has been released by CIG so far, anywhere close to the WoW alpha, much less the beta?
You have a hangar where you can look at the polygons you've spent money on, and a box in space where you can fly a limited number of ships around and shoot things. Other than an exercise in flight mechanics, what has actually been released to the backers that shows the project is actually on track to completing the proposed project plan?
Last year at CitizenCon in October they showed off Alpha 2.0 and it was released in December of that year. The time from being revealed to being playable was relatively short. In other words we'll soon have what was showed off here. From there each patch will be more substantial and take the game that much closer to where it needs to go.jdreyer wrote on Oct 13, 2016, 17:42:With NMS the developers deliberately concealed the gameplay mechanics and misrepresented what the game was. With SC the developers have been very openly and working with the community to develop features. They couldn't be further apart.
The tech is coming along nicely, sure. So was No Man's Sky's tech.jdreyer wrote on Oct 13, 2016, 17:42:The game is consistently pulling in $30m each year, which is easily enough to sustain development and more. As the game gets closer to release it will attract more people who were unwilling to make a speculative purchase like the early backers. Certainly it's reasonable to question the sustainability of the funding but momentum has only been building and we still haven't had the Squadron 42 reveal. For now it's simply not a concern.
The question is, will they have enough funds to finish it? I've been amazed at their ability to pull in cash, but their progress has been slowww, and that money is going to dry up at some point. They've got at least another year of work on the engine, and years of work for the content. Do they have years of funding? Will they continue to get "donations" to the tune of $30M a year? It's got to start to decline at some point.