Star Citizen is a true Kickstarter juggernaut, in-fact it seems to raise a few million dollars every time we check in on how it's doing, but with so many backers looking forward to the release- there isn't any room for disappointment. It's because of this that the dog fighting module, which was due to release at the end of this month, has officially been delayed, Chris Roberts has revealed:
“I feel that the Dogfighting module, especially with Star Citizen’s greatly increased profile, needs to be more polished than a typical ‘alpha'. There are a lot of eyes on the game, and more than a few people wanting us to fail. Because Dogfighting is the first module that will involve significant gameplay, it has to be good – I don’t feel that we will get a pass just because it is pre-pre alpha.”
Roberts ended up at a bit of a crossroads, he explains in the lengthy update: “either fork development and spend time building something that would involve throwing away work in order to meet the December deadline and deliver something that wouldn’t have the level of polish I’m happy with, or stay on course to build something that would lead directly into the finished game.”
It's not all bad news though, the time is being used to develop a much stronger game which includes a custom server backend rather than using CryEngine's built-in netcode for dogfighting. In addition to this, there will be improvements to the HUD, damage states and various FX, which Roberts admits are looking good but “aren't quite ready for prime time”.
KitGuru Says: It makes sense that they want to take the extra time to ensure that the game meets expectations, there are a lot of eyes on this and nobody wants to be the guy who ruined the biggest Kickstarter game ever. Dogfighting will be back in a few months, in the mean time the game will probably generate a ton of money which will go towards making the game even better.
Source: Roberts Space Industries