I admit, i like the old series with the 'Kilrathi', and especially 'Privateer'.

Now when Mr. Roberts said he would make a new up-to-date version, if different from this "earlier universe" concept, i was one of the first to support him with this kickstarter project.

Now this company has amassed an insane amount of money, so all "stretch goals" can be easily achieved or so he says, but it is already much, much more. And i get regular updates what has been done, and made. Impressing, no doubt. But today i got a "racing" update, where i could buy something like the 0.9 beta race, and an absolutely cheap (highly cynical here) race pack for 450 Dollars.

What?

Also, one of the later ships (still to be made?) cost around 400 bucks as well. Is this the new simulation way ?

I've glanced at it a few times because the concept is cool.

But it seems like a money grab in some ways at this point. They've got like 30 million now, right? What do they even need "stretch goals" for or racing packs with that kind if budget? Finish the game with the kings random you've raised and sell it for a reasonable price.

Sorry, I've just begun to despise the nickel and dime, enteral beta state of PC games these days.

No, not lost it per se.

The racing feature was one of the first to be announced way back in November 2012, that's when I got my M50, it was my second ship.
All ships etc. can be purchased in game for in game currency when the game is released.

The worst thing is the market will get flooded with copycats. They'll want to try to fund with silly goals too. It will be hard to tell which games will turn out to be good games and which are vaporware in neverending "alpha". Bad for gaming and bad for that type of funding. I predict a return to publishers for the big claim titles like that in the next few years.

Yeah, my initial enthausiasm has washed away too, I backed them on the first day of the problematic launch of the RSI site for the minimum amount that would let me play ($35 I think) and never went beyond it despite the promises made.
I think he should concentrate to get the core game done (Starlancer/Privateer clone) because the project is in danger of overstretching itself beyond salvation and no amount of money can rescue it, thus becoming the biggest crowdfunding disaster in history.
Up to this point I think Elite: Dangerous is shaping up a lot better even though I still haven't played it, the hangar and dogfight module of SC left me indifferent to be honest.

They're actually at 54...

And still no letter

I liked WC and Privateer a lot, but I´ll wait until the final release.

I bought into the premium beta of ED though. What I see there is looking already very good.

For $450 ?

Really ?

What's the spaceship called ? 'Audacity' ?

Man, I don't think Chris has lost the plot but the backers....... certainly

They did a nice Top Gear spoof though:

That's probably the major problem I have with Star Citizen, so far they seem to spend more time and money on making fancy commercials instead of getting the game out.
It seems almost like they don't want to finish making the game as long as people are bringing in funds.

I'm scratching my head to think of one that costs $450, I have not seen one my self.
The Vanduul Scythe was $300 when it was released during the kickstarter campaign but there were only 300 of them, the Idris was $1000 back then too, but it was very limited numbers and they sold out in minutes. I have not heard of one coming for sale at $450 either.

This seems reminiscent of the "Fighter Ops" days.

It is to get more obscenely priced ship sales pledges. Every time they do a commercial, more people spend money. To be fair, $54 million is a decent amount but not a whole lot for a AAA game. Battlefield 3 spent about $300 million if I recall? Average AA games are $40-80 million if I am not mistaken.

The issue is people seem to think more money = more features. True to a point. Two years into the game and throwing $100 million at them does not mean the game will suddenly be a lot better unless they backtrack and redo major parts of the game with a higher budget.

My main issue is that I know the ships will cost a lot of money in the final game when mechanic wise all they are is a basic space shooter model with extremely simple weapon systems similar to every generic space game. I would have hoped for more detail. That being said it isn't a bad thing, but the prices for what you get are. Compare the effort put into a Star Citizen ship (outside of artwork) compared to a DCS level plane for much less and it looks like a ripoff.

I think the game will be decent, just very over hyped.

I'm a BIG fan of Wing Commander and Privateer and backed SC with some 40-50 bucks.

Can't say I'm too happy about what I've seen in the last 6 or so months.

More detail will be coming.

The problem is that people expect it to be done instantly, that everything is ready and to be shown 2 days after the kickstarter is finished. This is one of the pitfalls of kickstarting game development.

Elite Dangerous is doing their testing one way, by releasing basically most of the game concept, in a very small setting (like 12-36 systems). Their pitfall is that people will have "finished" the game before it's released.

Star Citizen is doing it differently, by creating smaller, seemingly unrelated, modules which allows them to test certain features which are vital to the finished product, but which doesn't show off core game features.

LOL! Well, no... it's definitely not THAT bad.

As for Elite pitfall, that's hardly so.
As of now, in Standard beta one, only very few basic game mechanics, not gameplay, is there. All the fun I'm getting is closer to meta-gaming than gaming per sé.

Ask anyone who is into this, EVERYONE is dying to finally get more than buy/jump/sell/shoot.

It is still better than other games at release states, but there's nothing to finish there.

You have six ships out of twentyfive, outfitting is a hair more than a placeholder, there's little to do. Next Beta is being awaited as the second coming, it's sick. But understandable. We want the rest. And even that adds some but hardly much.

Considering that release is going to be by the end of the year my personal opinion about the development is pretty positive.

Not even remotely perfect but a very valid anf auspicious procedure.

What's more is that the best part will be granted an year from now, planetary landing and atmospheric flight (self contained in ONE DLC).

Right in time to rekindle whoever cooled down.
Not to mention the continuing work on the persistent universe.

When both are done and released, I will happily get both Elite and SC (provided they don't go down the X: Rebirth route).

Until then, I'll do something else.

I didn't get involved in the kickstarted but I am interested in the final product. I don't think they've lost it but a lot of stuff does seem a little gimmicky (although I don't follow everything either so I'm not in the know).

For sure they are both going to be benchmarks of space games.

It's a great time to be a PC gamer.