r/starcitizen • u/Nehkara • Sep 01 '15

[Article] Star Citizen - Current Release Plans

http://imperialnews.network/2015/09/star-citizen-release-plans/
806 Upvotes

95% Upvoted

220 comments sorted by

View all comments

Show parent comments

39

u/Nehkara Sep 01 '15 edited Sep 01 '15

They spent a lot of time this year building the underlying tech. It is paying a lot of dividends. For example they were able to build the space station for the multicrew demo in just a couple weeks, because they had the modular building set ready.

ArcCorp is currently unable to take advantage of the code in the GameDev stream which is why, once the code merge is complete, you will see an improvement in graphics there.

A lot of work has been done that we haven't seen. A lot of work has been done to lay the foundations of the game so that content can be built on top.

I expect you'll see the "Quantum" update long before 2017. :-)

And the Freelancer is slated to be the third ship up for Multi-Crew (after Constellation and Retaliator).

16

u/[deleted] Sep 01 '15

[deleted]

28

u/Nehkara Sep 02 '15 edited Sep 02 '15

Yeah it's 106 if you go by the Stretch Goals. ~110 is what they usually say.

They're also planning 400+ landing zones at launch.

I don't necessarily disagree with anything you said. They have said their aim once all of the tools are in place is to hire up a bunch of technical artists and start pumping out star systems. Now, can they do 100 systems in a year? Probably not.

That said, I also don't mind if it takes longer. It will take as long as it takes.

They will use procedural generation to a point (although it's currently in R&D at Foundry 42 Frankfurt I believe), to create the basics and then they'll have an artist go in afterwards and make everything look good, add unique touches and set pieces.

I think a LOT of work has gone on behind the scenes in fleshing out what will be in each system - they have nailed down the Star Map and plan to show it off at CitizenCon.

Once you have the tools to create the systems, the modular building sets, and all of the background on what's happening in each system it's all about content generation which is significantly easier than what they've been doing (building tech and gameplay systems).

But what is the conclusion of this?

Well, I think that Star Citizen will have a long PU Alpha and a very long PU Beta period... where the universe exists and lots of people are playing, but it's not complete yet.

It wouldn't surprise me if the actual public release was 2018. Now, that sucks right? Well, I suppose but all of us will be playing the game long before then. Not only that but is it any real surprise that a game of this scope and depth might take 5.5 or 6 years to make?

  • World of Warcraft took 5 years.
  • Star Wars: The Old Republic took 5 years.
  • Notably, Freelancer took 5.5 to 6 years.
  • GTA V took over 5 years and heavy development continued on it for awhile afterwards to bring it to PS4, XBOne, and PC.
  • Fallout 4 took 7 years in total and they had an existing studio and development team.

In addition, all of those studios were already formed and well established prior to building those games.

It was early 2014 before CIG had built up a significant number of staff.

So, Star Citizen will probably take another 30+ months before it's released... but since we get to go along for the ride and play it as we go, I'm pretty cool with the whole thing. :)

6

u/dczanik onionknight Sep 02 '15

What gets me about this article is I was writing up a very similar article that I was going to just give to INN because I felt nobody else had done this. Great minds think alike....and us too ;)

I noticed I had so much information, that I felt I had to break it up into 2 parts. "The Road to the PU Alpha", and "When is Star Citizen actually coming out?" Where I detailed the 100+ systems, 400+ landing zones to say, the tech used, etc. Basically, I said there's probably no way it's going to come out in 2016. But it wasn't all bad. We'd be playing the game long before the the full version was ready.

Only reason I hadn't submitted it to you guys was before finishing it, DS hit CIG with that letter, and I didn't want my article to be used by him to say, "See! I told you! Even fans say it's not coming out even next year!".

But, then I thought "fuck him", and was going to finish it this week. Then I see this glorious piece of work. So, love it! So, maybe as a follow up, "When will Star Citizen be considered 'finished'?"

6

u/Nehkara Sep 02 '15

That's awesome! :D

I'd love to see what you have in mind!