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Star Citizen, the largest crowd funded video game effort to date has been under development for some time now, with Robert Space Industries giving backers regular updates on the development process and roadmap to release. So far, the game has been released in modules, with the first person shooter module being one of the most anticipated.
Unfortunately, the ‘Star Marine' FPS game mode has been delayed as it “doesn't live up to the standards” that the development team wants to achieve with Star Citizen. In a new update on the RSI website, Chris Roberts explained: “There are several issues that will need additional time in order to deliver the first iteration of the gameplay we want you to experience. The challenges facing the FPS launch are a mix of technical blockers and gameplay issues.”
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Apparently the largest technical hurdle right now is the networking backend, essentially some legacy code has been dropped and the matchmaking system and the game launcher are being rebuilt from scratch.
It is clear that the complications are significant as the Star Marine module was supposed to launch after PAX East in April. Now, there is no estimate for when the new game mode will launch for backers, although the studio has placed additional resources on that side of the game.
One thing Roberts was keen to point out is that a two month delay on the Star Marine module does not equal a two month delay on Star Citizen as a whole. The studio has a bunch of separate teams all working on different project modules at once and it seems that Roberts thinks things will be back on track soon enough.
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KitGuru Says: Star Citizen is a huge project so we likely won't see the game finished for quite some time. However, getting the FPS module right will play a big role and will hopefully end up being worth the wait for those who have backed the project and are waiting for some new gameplay.
Can’t say I’m surprised, it’s a massive game with big intentions and the FPS module never really had a set release date to begin with.
What they need to understand though is a lot of people have access to beta, and even alpha features of the game if their package stated so so they shouldn’t delay for some bugs, we’re all expecting them and more than willing to help find them. They’re trying to release a finished product at alpha stage (look at the progress, that’s what they consider alpha, it already looks better than a lot of already released FPS games) maybe because of fear of bad PR (they’ve got over $80mil from crowdfunding so one bad article will cause a lot of distress) but again, we’re all expecting things to not work perfectly at this stage.
I think it may be about more than a couple of bugs though, article seems to suggest that there is a fundamental issue possibly regarding networking and online latency along with maybe it not “feeling” right. Of course this is merely conjecture based solely on the contents of this article.
being both a subscriber and a backer that has put nearly $600 into this game in terms of packages and ships and somebody who watches the shows my subscription goes towards funding,the main issue was a piece of code that hard capped the number of players any given match could handle.
I’m not too worried though as they recently opened a studio in Frankfurt and the vast majority of the new employees there are those who created the CryEngine in the very beginning, I think the “weak link” here if there is one is the Illfonic guys who are making the FPS as a few months back Travis Day (who has now left for a job at Blizzard) was sent to Illfonic for the best part of a month to give them the proverbial “kick up the jaxi”.
The last letter from the chairman revealed that we might be getting a intermediate patch minus Star Marine that will allow us to test some of the new functionality while illfonic gets its act together.
At one point I was really excited about Star Citizen, but the more time goes on the more I realize that Chris Roberts isn’t someone trying to save the sorry state of gaming, he is just another con man that wants to up the bar on in-game monetization schemes. He’s a used car salesman who managed to sell the car before it hit the lot and now he wants to milk em’ for all they are willing to fork over on the promise of features the car may or may not have when it arrives. And in some ways he is already failing to offer the in-depth, all-around immersive experience he promised.
After being in contact with them about their in-game purchases: like starting packages, insurance, digital goods, money system, and other things, it is clear that honesty and integrity are not their end goal as a company. It may be a decent game when it is finished, but it is already tainted with pay-to-get-ahead scenarios, and their canned responses to inquires about these things reflect really badly on their management and their approach to customers and business.
Lets face it Chris Roberts, you and your team can argue that you don’t have a pay-to-win platform, but when people can purchase better ships by plunking down real cash, buy in-game money using real cash, buy digital items using real cash–rather than people just being able to purchase the game and progress on an even playing field–you are just arguing semantics. And because of that you have already failed to deliver the game you promised. It hard to enjoy something when you feel like you’ve been conned.