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StarCitizen Server Meshing Architecture

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Re: StarCitizen Server Meshing Architecture

#31

Post by BowBun »

lolinder wrote: post #22
ojkelly wrote: post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Sure not everyone who bought the game or a ship at this stage has enjoyed it, but a lot of us have. Even in its unfinished state there’s a lot of fun to be had. And, part of the game at this stage is watching it develop. The amount raised/sold so far is massive, but people keep buying because they’re getting something out of it.

What features are built and playable at this point? By its nature, it's hard for me to disentangle the aspirational marketing from the actually-available content, and there's so much critical content about SC over the last decade that it's hard to know which criticisms still apply. What can you actually do in-game?

There are nearly a dozen mission types that net you money and gear that you use to build your inventory + fleet. There are bounty systems that interact with your ability to pirate others and commit crime. There is mining, cave exploration to track down bad guys, literally hundreds of custom-designed ships that are fun to discover and drive for their various missions. And then a whole layer of social emergent gameplay on top of it.

I know I left a few comments like this on this thread already, but I'm a big fan of the game. As a game dev, I have a lot of respect for their ambition, tech, and recent transparency. I'm not sure why people always fixate on the money - people invest and donate to worse things. RSI isn't predatory about it, they're very honest about the progress and expectations (especially recently)

Re: StarCitizen Server Meshing Architecture

#32

Post by [deleted] »

ojkelly wrote: post #12
swarnie wrote: post #6

$600M buys you a lot of TBDs apparently. If this game ever actually comes out and doesn't cure at least one type of cancer the weirdest online people are going to be furious.

Sure not everyone who bought the game or a ship at this stage has enjoyed it, but a lot of us have. Even in its unfinished state there’s a lot of fun to be had. And, part of the game at this stage is watching it develop. The amount raised/sold so far is massive, but people keep buying because they’re getting something out of it.

[deleted]

Re: StarCitizen Server Meshing Architecture

#33

Post by sickofparadox »

lolinder wrote: post #22
ojkelly wrote: post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Sure not everyone who bought the game or a ship at this stage has enjoyed it, but a lot of us have. Even in its unfinished state there’s a lot of fun to be had. And, part of the game at this stage is watching it develop. The amount raised/sold so far is massive, but people keep buying because they’re getting something out of it.

What features are built and playable at this point? By its nature, it's hard for me to disentangle the aspirational marketing from the actually-available content, and there's so much critical content about SC over the last decade that it's hard to know which criticisms still apply. What can you actually do in-game?

There's a fully simulated solar system (Stanton) in game right now with 5 (I think?) populated planets that have cities and towns to visit and more space stations and moons to explore in first person. As for missions, there is fully functional economy with trade or smuggling, salvage, bounty hunting, and piracy. There is also a single player mode focused on dogfighting, and a basically unpopulated pvp FPS mode. There are upwards of 60 ships and 10ish ground vehicles to use in game alongside a small arsenal of small arms and pretty much all of them can be bought with in game currency or obtained in game through other means, though the servers do occasionally wipe when major updates happen (things you bought IRL are not wiped).

Re: StarCitizen Server Meshing Architecture

#34

Post by JJMalina »

lolinder wrote: post #22
ojkelly wrote: post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Sure not everyone who bought the game or a ship at this stage has enjoyed it, but a lot of us have. Even in its unfinished state there’s a lot of fun to be had. And, part of the game at this stage is watching it develop. The amount raised/sold so far is massive, but people keep buying because they’re getting something out of it.

What features are built and playable at this point? By its nature, it's hard for me to disentangle the aspirational marketing from the actually-available content, and there's so much critical content about SC over the last decade that it's hard to know which criticisms still apply. What can you actually do in-game?

There's quite a lot you can do in game and there are tons of ships with many different specializations (cargo, salvaging, mining, exploration, fighters, bombers, corvettes). Some need multiple players to crew effectively

PVE - Cargo delivery missions (from small to large size) - Bounty hunting (in space and on planet) - Mining - Salvaging - Cave exploration/rescue - Escaping from prison

PVP - Bounty/pirate hunting

Just search for Star Citizen content on YouTube. You fill find a lot. My favorites are https://www.youtube.com/@CaptainBerks and https://www.youtube.com/@Morphologis

Re: StarCitizen Server Meshing Architecture

#35

Post by Negitivefrags »

danpalmer wrote: post #3

How does this relate to the technology that Improbable[^0] have built? I gather that their core tech is a massively distributed object graph designed to support the sort of interactions necessary for an MMO game to operate a global instance rather than shard worlds. Improbable seem to have gone a bit... off the rails(?) in recent years, diving into Web3, metaverse, and defence contracting, but I assume the core tech…

Improbable is basically a joke in the games industry.

I’m not exactly an expert in them or anything, but the last time I looked at them at all (admittedly many years ago) the whole concept of what they do seemed both very expensive and mostly useless for real games.

Re: StarCitizen Server Meshing Architecture

#36

Post by RNAlfons »

BowBun wrote: post #26
RNAlfons wrote: post #9

Judging from the games performance, this looks probably better than what their dev team has.

Have you built anything comparable? It's in alpha, making performance/presentation comments seems really out of place. If you were well-informed on the project, you would know that they intentionally put performance optimizations on the backburner, because optimizing tech they intended to replace is not a good use of time. Besides, in the last 6 months performance has drastically improved, as anyone that actually pla…

Do I have to build something comparable to be able to comment on the performance issues I have witnessed? I don't think so.

Do I have to accept all those excuses, which like those pictures of ships never run low in this company, to comment on the performance? I don't think so.

They promise a lot. They don't deliver. They break things which were already working and I'm still waiting. Those are clear signs of terrible Project Management and I think, I don't have to know all those cool insiders-excuses to be able to comment on this failure.

So please. Spare me your epigrams. They won't change anything about the facts.

Re: StarCitizen Server Meshing Architecture

#37

Post by postexitus »

danpalmer wrote: post #3

How does this relate to the technology that Improbable[^0] have built? I gather that their core tech is a massively distributed object graph designed to support the sort of interactions necessary for an MMO game to operate a global instance rather than shard worlds. Improbable seem to have gone a bit... off the rails(?) in recent years, diving into Web3, metaverse, and defence contracting, but I assume the core tech…

As someone who glimpsed inside for a little bit during the first days - it's a curse of having too many resources, or too few pressure points. They were well funded from the beginning (read their founding history) and got a lot of additional money throughout the way (well, including but not limited to SoftBank) - so they were free to explore their vision, and gosh did they take their time to do it. They had good ideas coupled with a great engineering team, but the problems they were trying to solve did not exist in the real world - or at the very least - the problems were not important enough that game companies wanted to throw money at it. 1M concurrent online players looks good on paper - but who really cares to play such a game? Or who wants to pay exuberant prices for it when you can have the same amount of fun through sharded servers. So, although their vision materialized to an extent (they had the means to do it), and they had the foresight to know they had to support the engine with enough tooling and partnerships and what not and they built that as well, they were not able to make money out of it. If they set out to set problems that really existed in the world (gaming or otherwise) they could have been profitable by now. Instead, they panicked, restructured and pivoted into the latest hype(s) - they still have the means to go on, but with that culture and "baggage" (they are not nimble like a startup anymore) I give them less than 10% chance to turn a profit ever.

Re: StarCitizen Server Meshing Architecture

#38

Post by chii »

gumballindie wrote: post #28
AlexandrB wrote: post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

These are basically marketing terms meant to try to explain why after 10 years and $600 million dollars in "crowdfunding" the game is still in alpha.

I too wish to find such gullible investors to fund me for 10 years of alpha building.

you just need to sell the vision well enough. The so-called investors are not buying for financial gain, but for that vision.

It's a pretty cool vision, but it's just unlikely to succeed in my eyes, and that's why i didn't buy in.

Re: StarCitizen Server Meshing Architecture

#39

Post by danpalmer »

postexitus wrote: post #37
danpalmer wrote: post #3

How does this relate to the technology that Improbable[^0] have built? I gather that their core tech is a massively distributed object graph designed to support the sort of interactions necessary for an MMO game to operate a global instance rather than shard worlds. Improbable seem to have gone a bit... off the rails(?) in recent years, diving into Web3, metaverse, and defence contracting, but I assume the core tech…

As someone who glimpsed inside for a little bit during the first days - it's a curse of having too many resources, or too few pressure points. They were well funded from the beginning (read their founding history) and got a lot of additional money throughout the way (well, including but not limited to SoftBank) - so they were free to explore their vision, and gosh did they take their time to do it. They had good idea…

Ah. Lack of Product-Market fit. Classic. Thanks!

Re: StarCitizen Server Meshing Architecture

#40

Post by Thaxll »

And yet there is nothing really impressive imo in Star Citizen tech wise, the server is still slow, fps are low, not many people on screen and a lot of issues.

You should do tech improvment to enhance the gameplay, and currently I don't see many gameplay improvements that have real value.

Starfield maybe the first space opera fantasty that will deliver.

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