Octopus Overlords

It’s a binary choice, in my eyes. Do you have a game you can meaningfully play after 8 plus years? No? Then it’s nothing. A half built car is just as useful to a driver as no car at all.

hepcat wrote: ↑Sat Oct 10, 2020 11:08 am Do you have a game you can meaningfully play after 8 plus years?

The answer to that question for many people is yes. Also, we clearly differ greatly on what the word nothing means.

That’s cool. We also have different definitions for what a boot is.

The Mighty Jingles opines on this very topic in today's video:

Used to love his WoT videos but after a couple years his constant chucking at himself and his own perceived humor started to grind on me. Now when I hear that stupid laugh I instantly want to punch him.

Brian wrote: ↑Sat Oct 10, 2020 11:50 am The Mighty Jingles opines on this very topic in today's video:

He's pretty much spot on. I disagree with his silly quibble about having to install it on an SSD, but yeah, otherwise it's hard to argue with what he has to say.

I'm a touch late, but am offended that they'd call it a birthday. It's the 8th year since fertilization. Birth has yet to happen.

As previously threatened, I did buy in on the lowest tier during the last sale. Last night I got bored enough that I decided to take a look.

Raw performance is still very uneven but that is to be expected of any alpha, so I'm not concerned with that. Some massive bugs remain though. The bugs themselves seem to be different, but the number of them certainly hasn't dropped.

I thought I'd take a simple courier mission. Collect three packages from a depot, drop them off in three different locations. Collecting was absolutely fine (and I'm delighted to note that ships now show you clearly where their boarding spots are - that was a major bugbear for me), and dropping off the first package was no problem at all.

The second package required me to use a drop-off machine, which I thought I did...only to discover the package didn't disappear from my HUD and the mission wasn't updated. I later learned that I should have used the "machine place" option instead of simply the "place" option (although both would have resulted in the package being placed inside). Silly me...

I thought I'd attempt the third package anyway. This one had to be placed in a locker on a landing pad at New Babbage. After much searching I eventually realised you have to actually land on the pad, which wasn't clear at all. The first time I tried, my ship clipped through the surface of the pad and eventually exploded. On the second attempt I successfully landed, but after exiting the ship my character model clipped through the surface.

Disgusted, I logged out for a break. After logging back in I awoke in the apartments and my ship was effectively ghosted. I couldn't recall it to its hangar, but I couldn't find it on the map either. I eventually learned that my only recourse was to reset my character completely.

It's a shame, because when it works it works well, and I really want to go out and explore, but not until I can be sure of getting the basics done first. I was chatting the whole time with other players who say they play little else. They accept the limitations and are happy to explore what's possible. I won't criticise them for that, but they are surely in a minority. But again, it's an alpha. It's weird how divisive this game is, really.

For my part, I will dip in every now and then, maybe after each major patch. And I am determined to get one bloody courier mission done!

It sounds very much like you're still playing a game development simulator and fighting bugs. It depends on the type of game you want to play.

I've more or less given up on ever playing the game I dumped $160 on. That was a dream.

Yeah I can see why you'd be so pissed off after spending that kind of cash. That's precisely the reason I was only prepared to buy in on the lowest possible tier and during a sale. Worst case scenario I've lost a small amount of cash that I won't fret over, best case scenario is I might have a proper game to play, one day. And if...IF...the scope is fully realised, it will be one hell of a game.

I spent more than twice the amount on Breakpoint and that is money I regret spending.

Great Information was very useful for me.

How do you feel about butter?

Isgrimnur wrote: ↑Fri Feb 19, 2021 6:01 amHow do you feel about butter?

Like you should buy it with diamonds, I'm sure.

The smart move is to buy genuine Star Citizen® brand butter jpegs with your diamonds. Genuine Star Citizen® brand jpegs can only appreciate in value -- they're just like your favorite stonks. Diamond hands! Rockets to the moon!

Honestly, I like my diamond hands to be rough.

(Sadly, these last few posts may be the most fun I've had owning Star Citizen so far)

FYI, poster was banned and spam link in signature removed.

ImLawBoy wrote: ↑Fri Feb 19, 2021 10:31 am FYI, poster was banned and spam link in signature removed.

Nice, just when things were starting to get funny!

BTW, I had never even heard of this game and its...saga until now. How? I have no idea.

But I did watch the video posted above, and wow is that gorgeous. And wow does it make his top notch rig with 64 gig of RAM run like a Commodore 64.

It really looks like you could easily lose yourself in a game world like that for hours on end, just...existing.

However:
It looks like a buggy mess (still!)
Apparently it requires a rig that doesn't even exist yet, to run well, with full graphics options on

I know the guy said that it looked great on medium settings, but my stupid brain would not be able to handle that knowledge (I know, I have a problem). So I will check back in on development in a couple years to see where things are at. Keep pumping money into it, people! I want a decent product in 2 years!

Your arbitrary deadlines mean nothing to an auteur.

Those who fired the spammer have been fired.

But what about the credits?

Carpet_pissr wrote: ↑Fri Feb 19, 2021 11:50 amIt looks like a buggy mess (still!)
Apparently it requires a rig that doesn't even exist yet, to run well, with full graphics options on

My brother-in-law always wants to spend an evening or two playing when he stops in for a week. We did last week, too.

It was a less buggy mess than 6 months prior, but still mostly not worth playing. I've got a computer I spent $1800 on a couple years ago and the game was a slideshow in some areas on "medium" visual settings. Things kept breaking - couldn't sit in a chair without turning around three times and tapping your head twice kind of issues. Turrets were bugged. One person got pushed out of an elevator and into a ship's hull. So much lag on issuing commands that you'd accidentally openclose things. We played for maybe 90 minutes and quit.

He thinks the bugs are funny and enjoys finding ways to exploit or work around them. I'd rather play a game that doesn't shit itself.

Reminder: This is a game that was conceptualized and founded in 2010, and development began in 2012. We're into 8 years now, and it's an unplayable mess. With a $300m budget.

In all honesty, I don't ever expect this to become a playable experience. It's so well funded that development can continue for the next 20 years without breaking a sweat.

So I picked this up years ago at the kick starter and invested a more into it later. I have yet to really play it. I tried once or twice but it gave me motion sickness. Haven't tried it in probably a year or two. I have been tempted to offload my account but does anyone know a good place to do so? I have never really tried to sell a game account before.

Genghis wrote: ↑Tue Sep 21, 2021 9:46 amI have yet to really play it.

Even people who'd logged tens or hundreds of hours have yet to actually play it. They're mostly playing Bug Quest. I saw areas that were just dripping with detail and richness, but at the same time they made Klendathu look like an ant hill.

I'm in such a disinterested place with the game that if it was completed tomorrow I'd probably just keep playing whatever else was on my list for the foreseeable future.

As for offloading your account? I honestly don't know why anyone would buy it - but there are always fools willing to be parted from their money.

This story is both sad and maddening..and maybe a bit funny. I roll my eyes at it all.

Credit to Blues News.


When to Expect Star Citizen and Squadron 42... and Sequels?

As for Star Citizen, we're presented with a scenario where five years from now it is operating as a "very large" MMORPG:

Sure sure. Aaaaaany day now.

I'm pretty sure that Star Citzen already is a metaMMORPG.

I was given this by a friend to play together. I really need to grit my teeth and just jump into the learning curve. I keep putting it off because it seems like yet another project requiring a commitment when I'm already neck deep in other projects.

How does the developer have any money left to continue the project? Selling Star Citizen cookies?

I'm going to guess that at this point it's some kind of money laundering scheme.

dbt1949 wrote: ↑Thu Jan 13, 2022 1:32 pm How does the developer have any money left to continue the project? Selling Star Citizen cookies?

Star Citizen is more of a fund-raising project than a software development project.

If you're a cynic, they sell JPEGs. If you're a believer, they sell dreams. If you're a realist, they harpoon whales.

Star Citizen is doing 'bedsheet deformation' physics now, because of course it is

Star Citizen has been in development for well over a decade now, during which time it has raised more than $450 million in crowdfunding, and if you're wondering why it's still in an alpha state after all that time and money, the latest update from developer Cloud Imperium Games might hold a clue.

It all comes down to something called "bedsheet deformation," which is exactly what it sounds like: Ensuring that blankets on beds are mussed up accurately, just like they would be in real life. This is important because the "sleep and bed relaxation" element of Squadron 42, the singleplayer portion of Star Citizen, was recently updated so NPCs are now able to find and enter their beds, and then sleep until they're scheduled to get up.

"We knew early on that, to hit the fidelity we expect for Sq42, we would need to do some R&D on bedsheet deformation," the AI Content team explained, apparently straight-faced. "This work is currently underway and, if successful, will allow the AI to deform their sheets when entering, exiting, or sleeping inside them. This is a challenging assignment and expands the complexity of the feature. For example, what happens to the sheets if the AI needs to exit the bed in an emergency?"

So far, none of the discussion I've seen in this little issue seems to have homed in on the fact that this was the first item in the April update newsletter (it covers April, so isn't sent out until May). Of course, this is Star Citizen so that might just be a coincidence...

I forget, can you fly fighters and shoot things in this one?

Yes, but presumably your performance is degraded if you don't get a good night's sleep (in real time?) in a bed with crisp, freshly laundered sheets.

Max Peck wrote: ↑Sun May 08, 2022 7:14 am Yes, but presumably your performance is degraded if you don't get a good night's sleep (in real time?) in a bed with crisp, freshly laundered sheets.

Of course, you'll first need to buy new sheets in the real-money store. Just $99.99 each for the basic version.

I was just starting a movie and noticed a "Chris Roberts" producer credit, so I pulled up Wikipedia to check whether it was that Chris Roberts (it was). However, I also noticed this little gem that someone slipped in:

Max Peck wrote: ↑Mon May 30, 2022 1:00 pm <snip>

First live Citizen Con happening now.

Here's a 23 minute video on where the game engine, StarEngine, stands today...

From my view they've mired themselves down with micro stuff that doesn't matter.

Why is a guy in a spacesuit experiencing a nose bleed featured at the end of that video?