[The E]

...and if that's an actual reason CIG had to do this, they are even more incompetent buffoons than I thought they were.

[Grizzly]

I've seen a few games recommend SSDs at this point, such as Tacoma (which is a good game!), and Arma 3 definitely works a lot better on an SSD then it does on a hard drive because of all the streaming going on there. It's not that outlandish.

Has anyone seen the SQ42 footage they put up on the livestream?

[Mikes]

Has anyone seen the SQ42 footage they put up on the livestream?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hz6bWD9ZVgo

[Colonol Dekker]

As much as i dislike star citizen, i'd like a world where Squadron 42 worked out nicely for us normal people.

[Mikes]

As much as i dislike star citizen, i'd like a world where Squadron 42 worked out nicely for us normal people.

Dito. The combat shown in the video is still pretty crap frankly and the dialogue is incredibly corny ... but that didn't stop Wing Commander 3/4 from being an overall quite enjoyable game either.

The wonkiest part though, I'd say is that the FPS combat looks more solid than the space combat at this point ...   

[Colonol Dekker]

I dislike the fact there's a Pilot involved in CQM when they have "star marines" visbile.

[StarSlayer]

Well it looks nice.  But that was like what, 75% transitting?  Sure it was patrolling but they could at least have had some regular comm chater to break it up.  The atmo portion seemed especially sluggish to me.

The space combat, what little thier was, appeared very simple and uncompelling.   The manuvering was pretty dull, coupled with a lot of spraying lasers and **** at stuff I could barely make out.  (I dunno I prefer dynamic fights with short bursts so maybe its just me)

The FPS component was okay but not anything to write home about.

[BlueFlames]

The wonkiest part though, I'd say is that the FPS combat looks more solid than the space combat at this point ...   

I mean, they're using CryEngine, which was built from the ground up for FPS's.  Where CRoberts (and his money laundering network of companies) has the least technology and fewest gameplay mechanics to build from scratch, there is the least room for crippling ****-ups.

[Aesaar]

I love citizens so much.

[Col. Fishguts]

Has anyone seen the SQ42 footage they put up on the livestream?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hz6bWD9ZVgo

Hallway walking simulator 3.0
What I get from this 1 hour snorefest, is that they are going for the Starlancer vibe. All those prerendered clips in Starlancer where you look around in your quarters, click on little popup texts, walk to the briefing room, sit down in the briefing room, listen to cringey dialogue, etc.... it's all there, but now rendered in real time. It was fun to do exactly once in Starlancer and got boring/tedious very fast, I don't see it getting any better here.

Also the space combat looks like nothing I would like to play, at all.

But hey, according to reddit PC gaming is truly saved, so merry Xmas to you all.

[Spoon]

My thoughts on their 'live'stream.

The voice acting ranges from good to bad. Can't dislike Mark Hamill even though his character is written like a jerk. Player character's voice on the other hand is...
Music seemed to be getting a lot of praise from reddit and twitch chat, I personally wanted to turn it off after 10 minutes, it was incredibly bland and generic. ~Opinions~
Actual sound effects, again, ranging from good to bad. A lot of the supporting sound seemed good, but then the gun sounds are just still. so. bad.

Graphics wise, they showed some really nice setpieces. I love that big asteroid that they flew inbetween with the storm effect and all that. It's just a shame its wasted in such a ****ty game.
The interior of the ship looked alright (not in terms of layout, but that aside), I don't like how poorly lit it all is, but the hallways looked alright.
It's just that everything looks so, incredibly, bland. Nothing jumps out to me, the art direction is just so uninspired and generic. A total lack of color in everything. It's like croberts is trying to revive the brown and bloom first person shooter era. Everything was brown. Lack of color does not immersion make!

Gameplay though. What a ****ing snorefest. It looks offensively unfun to play. Endless walking through hallways, long stretches of flying in a straight line. The first person shooting part was just... done better by so many games.
And the space combat. Oh ye gods, the space combat. Why yes, I love to shoot at a far away spec inside orange targetting brackets. Boy, it sure is fun to not see what is being shot at. Spray and pray at the orange bracket! Golly. Pew pew!

Narratively, the constant push for 'muh immersion and fidelity' is actually causing me to be seriously unimmersed by what they show. It's the little things I would normally accept as "its just a game", like grabbing items off a table, just point the crosshair and zip, its in my inventory now. But with starcitizen they try so hard to emulate real life, it becomes jarring when they fail at it. Like when the pistol just teleports into the commando's hand when he reaches out to grab it from the table. In addition to that, its the 'story' that is being presented being full of dumb ****. Why would slavers go out of their way to engage a military fighter, disable it, just to grab the pilot from it. All that, for a single slave? Why leave the ship there? You'd think military grade hardware would sell for more than a singular slave.
Why do two pilots just disregard the mission they were send out for, and **** off to some planet to go save their fellow pilot single-handedly? Can't they just radio home and get a squad of space commandos to raid the slaver compound that they located? If lieutenant lieutenant lieutenant lieutenant lieutenant fails, gets captured or dies. That little frigate with the hangarbay that has space for like, 3 fighters, is going to be short one fighter and one pilot.

Also that Tonk design is so dumb. As Aesaar already pointed out, with all that empty space, where is engine, suspension, shield generator etc etc? With that angled front armor, shells would just bounce straight into the underside of the turret. Nice shottrap design. Making a tank **** yuuuge like that, just to have it be empty space so a commando can walk inside with a straight back is just. so. dumb.

I love citizens so much.

The goalposts started in the stadium at some point, the citizens have moved them off planet. And each patch they're moving them a few hundred lightyears more.

As much as i dislike star citizen, i'd like a world where Squadron 42 worked out nicely for us normal people.

Same, that what I originally backed for.

[Torchwood]

Has anyone seen the SQ42 footage they put up on the livestream?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hz6bWD9ZVgo

Hallway walking simulator 3.0
What I get from this 1 hour snorefest, is that they are going for the Starlancer vibe. All those prerendered clips in Starlancer where you look around in your quarters, click on little popup texts, walk to the briefing room, sit down in the briefing room, listen to cringey dialogue

Awww, but the gratuitously accented dialogue was the best part about Starlancer.

[Buckshee Rounds]

Has anyone seen the SQ42 footage they put up on the livestream?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hz6bWD9ZVgo

Thanks for link.

Just shy of 26 minutes before the player can actually engage in gameplay.

This exemplifies a wider problem in the AAA industry of games that want to be movies. Why should anyone sit through 10 minute cutscenes and qte instead of playing the bloody game?! Reminds me of Battlefront too. It looks right, but it doesn't play right.

Merry Christmas/Festivus/Yule.

[karajorma]

I love citizens so much.

Someone obviously doesn't understand how software development version numbering works.

[Lorric]

So I watched the Squadron 42 video, but not from seeing it here, Youtube put it in my recommended videos, from the official Star Citizen Youtube. It looks to be a better quality video than the one linked earlier.

I actually enjoyed it and watched it all in one sitting. I wondered what you'd have to say about it, but you've already talked about it, and I'm not surprised to see Spoon stripping it apart. From a gameplay standpoint there wasn't much, but it's fine for this level, as it's clearly the first or a very early level, and giving you a taste of all the gameplay mechanics. They can't have too many things trying to kill you right out of the gate. And it's still not over, it's either unfinished or they just chose to stop there, because you were about to get dragged along with the girl who is hopped up on meds, euphoria and bloodlust on a death rampage through the base. I wonder if you take the option not to give her meds if she won't feel up to going on a killing rampage and will just leave the base with you. It might just be though that she can't move so you'll be stuck there with her until you give her the meds rather than it being a meaningful choice. Or she's just like well **** you then and goes to get her gun and start killing. I'm certainly curious if there will be meaningful choices to be made. I really liked the facial work they did with her, she really looks very eager to go off and massacre everyone in that base and enjoy every second of it immensely. She's got the crazy eyes, you can see her fantasising about what she's going to do...

I'm also sure if you were just trying to get through the mission ASAP, it wouldn't take you 26 minutes to get to the first gameplay, you could skip through a ton of that stuff. However, if that's not the case, I wouldn't buy. All such concerns go away if they just add in the ability to open up a menu and choose to start the mission and you're in the cockpit. Not that I'll be buying anyway if you need a ridiculous monster machine just to be able to. If they actually release at all. Pre-alpha footage just before 2018. Maybe it's called Squadron 42 because '42 is the year it gets released. But I did genuinely enjoy watching it.

[CT27]

https://www.polygon.com/2017/12/29/16827542/star-citizen-3-0-bugs-crash

"Bugs will get you killed"

[Mr_Blastman]

As much as i dislike star citizen, i'd like a world where Squadron 42 worked out nicely for us normal people.

Dito. The combat shown in the video is still pretty crap frankly and the dialogue is incredibly corny ... but that didn't stop Wing Commander 3/4 from being an overall quite enjoyable game either.

The wonkiest part though, I'd say is that the FPS combat looks more solid than the space combat at this point ...   

This is because for some strange reason Chris Roberts is clinging to Interactive Mode, where mouse players have an extreme advantage by having direct zero order control over their gimbal weapons.  Allowing this turns space combat into a snooze fest.  Strangely... Chris refuses to accept that doing so creates more negatives than positives for the overall game, and forgets his original pledge which meant supporting joystick users.  If the input schemes were balanced properly, the quality of the space combat experience would likely increase.

[Torchwood]

As much as i dislike star citizen, i'd like a world where Squadron 42 worked out nicely for us normal people.

Dito. The combat shown in the video is still pretty crap frankly and the dialogue is incredibly corny ... but that didn't stop Wing Commander 3/4 from being an overall quite enjoyable game either.

The wonkiest part though, I'd say is that the FPS combat looks more solid than the space combat at this point ...   

This is because for some strange reason Chris Roberts is clinging to Interactive Mode, where mouse players have an extreme advantage by having direct zero order control over their gimbal weapons.  Allowing this turns space combat into a snooze fest.  Strangely... Chris refuses to accept that doing so creates more negatives than positives for the overall game, and forgets his original pledge which meant supporting joystick users.  If the input schemes were balanced properly, the quality of the space combat experience would likely increase.

Nonsense. Balance? There has never been balance. If anything we shall remove all balance!
-Ulyaoth, CIG game design consultant

In all seriousness, this is just a continuation of a pay-to-win scheme that started the moment buyable ships became a thing. The hardcore fans want this sort of thing - to be on the top floor of the next big thing, among the chosen to be rewarded for their devotion. To be among those who get all the cool toys like starting out with superheavy fighers or access to capital ships that can only be reasonably countered by torpedoes - which, of ocurse, are also a premium user privilege. It is, of course, unfair if you consider it from an angle of "Who would win - one highly skilled but poor user vs. one mediocore pay-to-win whale", but in the minds of those who believe they deserve good things for sticking to their subculture when its future is uncertain, it is only just that they get to lord over the Johnny-Come-Lately peasants and bandwagoners.

[666maslo666]

This is because for some strange reason Chris Roberts is clinging to Interactive Mode, where mouse players have an extreme advantage by having direct zero order control over their gimbal weapons. 

I believe this is supposed to be balanced by gimbal weapons being weaker than fixed weapons. Not sure what else would you want to do. Remove gimbal weapons completely?

[Aesaar]

Nonsense. Balance? There has never been balance. If anything we shall remove all balance!
-Ulyaoth, CIG game design consultant

In all seriousness, this is just a continuation of a pay-to-win scheme that started the moment buyable ships became a thing. The hardcore fans want this sort of thing - to be on the top floor of the next big thing, among the chosen to be rewarded for their devotion. To be among those who get all the cool toys like starting out with superheavy fighers or access to capital ships that can only be reasonably countered by torpedoes - which, of ocurse, are also a premium user privilege. It is, of course, unfair if you consider it from an angle of "Who would win - one highly skilled but poor user vs. one mediocore pay-to-win whale", but in the minds of those who believe they deserve good things for sticking to their subculture when its future is uncertain, it is only just that they get to lord over the Johnny-Come-Lately peasants and bandwagoners.

If this game ever comes out, this is going to be hilarious.  Either ships will take so long to earn you'll have to buy credits with real money to pay for them, or they'll take a sensible amount of time to earn and the people who paid 600$ for their ship will be pissed that the people who didn't back (or, god forbid, refunded) can earn it without paying real money.  Those tears will be delicious.

I believe this is supposed to be balanced by gimbal weapons being weaker than fixed weapons. Not sure what else would you want to do. Remove gimbal weapons completely?

Like everythingelse  SC tries to do, there are games that have done gimballed weapons before and done them better.

Either, yeah, remove them completely because they don't fit the game's style of dogfight (which they definitely don't), or do like Elite Dangerous: make it so they're weaker than fixed weapons, they track automatically, but they're also trivial to spoof with standard countermeasures.