Since I haven’t seen anyone post this, I thought I’d share the new Star Engine demo video from Cloud Imperium Games.

  • Gork@lemm.ee
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    1 year ago

    Waiting 10 whole minutes to get your ship back is the devs not respecting the player’s time.

    I know why they do it though, they want people to buy more ships so that they have one ready while the original is in a cool down period. This is also a similar tactic used by shitty mobile phone games.

    • teawrecks@sopuli.xyz
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      1 year ago

      Disagree. The intention is for SC to be a space sim sandbox, so I’m surprised they’re only making you wait 10m.

      When you take your car into the shop and have to wait a few hours for it to be repaired, you don’t think “the solution they want me to go with is to buy a second car for this moment”, right? But that’s the argument you’re making here. If this is the lens you see all games through, then it’s impossible for anyone to make a game that’s just literally normal life.

      Conversely, I could argue that mobile games are built around instant dopamine rushes. Any 10m wait is explicitly accompanied with an option to pay the wait away immediately. Afaik, that’s not an option here, if you’re a new player, you have to wait that 10m no matter what. Correct me if I’m wrong. But that’s not a very good job at capitalizing on the wait time.

      • drkt@feddit.dk
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        1 year ago

        The intention is for SC to be a space sim sandbox,

        But it’s not, it’s a tech demo where your ship blows up on the pad for no reason

        • ursakhiin@beehaw.org
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          1 year ago

          This isn’t a good argument, though. You replied to somebody stating the intention with a description of a game that’s in alpha.

          Generally, they want everybody to have a good time, but that’s not realistic right now. Star Citizen isn’t being marketed as a fully functional game is being marketed as an alpha where people can see features that are being worked on.

          Getting mad about one thing working as intended because something else isn’t right now just sounds like your expectations aren’t aligned with reality.

      • thesmokingman@programming.dev
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        1 year ago

        What value do timegates add to video games? How does the user experience improve or degrade if the wait is, say five minutes? One minute? None? Is the point of the simulation to wait for everything? What’s the difference between acceleration humans can’t survive and wait times? What’s the line we can’t cross to suspend disbelief?

        I personally think it’s all made up so making me twiddle my thumbs for 10m is fucking stupid. If I wanted a waiting simulator I’d play “kickstarting Star Citizen” or a less punishing game like Desert Bus.

        • t3rmit3@beehaw.org
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          1 year ago

          What value do timegates add to video games?

          Well, if taming dinos in ARK was instantaneous, it would massively change the game, and turn it into nothing but a constant stream of t-rex (or other large predator monster) battles. Those 1-hour countdowns are a time-gate for balance.

          If reloading in CS:GO was instantaneous, there would be no tactical decision around when you do it, or danger presented by it happening at an inopportune time. Those 3-second reloads are a time-gate for balance.

          There are tons of time-gated mechanics across all sorts of games. You just don’t like this one.

          How does the user experience improve or degrade if the wait is [less]?

          Well, it means that other players may have to contend with them too-quickly returning to a fight as though nothing happened, which would be pretty crappy if you just got finished killing them. It would mean that if you fly across the solar system in a ship with a very fast Quantum Drive, you could potentially just summon your large, slow ship at your destination, effectively obviating the difference in travel time.

          What’s the difference between acceleration humans can’t survive and wait times? What’s the line we can’t cross to suspend disbelief?

          It’s not about realism, it’s about game balance. Your ships are something you need to take care of. Dying is and will have major consequences (loss of items, for instance). Do you think that Eve’s manufacturing timers are about realism, or that they are disrespectful to the players? Should a tiny shuttle take the same amount of time to build as a Titan (the largest ship class in the game)?

          It’s game balance.

        • teawrecks@sopuli.xyz
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          1 year ago

          In spite of your short attention span, these are good questions. The point of a proper simulation isn’t to be fun, and game that wants to be fun is usually not a perfect simulation. A game that wants to be a fun simulation has to find the middle ground. I’ve heard it referred to as “the good suck”: It sucks to have to wait for something in a game to happen, but it contributes to a larger, sometimes desired feeling of immersion. But yeah, there’s always a line where the suck outweighs the fun.

          In the case of SC, if the game literally makes you sit and do nothing for 10m, that’s one thing. But my guess is it doesn’t. My guess is you can do other things in the meantime. So it’s basically like any game: you can’t just do anything you want at any time, otherwise it’s not a game, it’s a skinner box.

          • drkt@feddit.dk
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            1 year ago

            In the case of SC, if the game literally makes you sit and do nothing for 10m, that’s one thing. But my guess is it doesn’t. My guess is you can do other things in the meantime

            What do you mean by ‘guess’? Have you not played it?

        • conciselyverbose@kbin.social
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          1 year ago

          It gives combat stakes.

          TTK is obviously substantially longer than an FPS, so instead of the 15 seconds you need for an objective mode there, you need something more substantial for battles to fundamentally work.

      • FaulerFuffi@feddit.de
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        1 year ago

        “But that’s the argument you’re making here”

        That is clearly NOT the argument they are making lol, stop making up stuff! The argument is it’s a game. It’s written there…

    • t3rmit3@beehaw.org
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      1 year ago

      The only time you have to wait for the ship is if it’s destroyed or lost. If you fly it to the station or landing zone and stow it, the delivery is immediate.

      And you can buy and rent ships in-game, using in-game money. This is about preventing you from instantly jumping back in the same ship repeatedly which could have huge implications for PvP, for instance.

      • Gork@lemm.ee
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        1 year ago

        The point still stands though. Arbitrary time restrictions like this make it more difficult to enjoy the game because you don’t get to fly the cool spaceships anymore, now you’re stuck on land or in a station somewhere until the timer expires.

        • t3rmit3@beehaw.org
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          1 year ago

          Or, you know, you could

          a) do stuff there since the landing locations are not just empty waiting rooms,

          b) use another ship that you bought (in-game),

          c) use another ship that you rent (in-game), or

          d) fly/ get a ride with someone else.

          • skrufimonki@lemmynsfw.com
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            1 year ago

            Exactly. One could spend at least 10 mins just getting provisions like food liquids and gear by walking/running across the station and trams. Plenty to do with how spaced out (no pun intended) the facilities are. Maybe they should put ship insurance kiosks near the apts so that by the time you get to the space port you’d have to wait a minimum amount of time.

      • drkt@feddit.dk
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        1 year ago

        Those are excellent points if the game wasn’t a broken mess where your ship will blow up on the pad for no reason. It’s a tech demo, they even say as much, so I don’t understand why you have to insist that it’s a real game that people totally play for realsies. There are like 14 people who play the current iteration seriously, everyone else are just trying to keep up to date on the status of SC.

        I would be a much bigger fan of SC if I didn’t have to grind for days to experience half of what this tech demo wants to demo me. Are we alpha testers or are we suckers? Also the game ate my money, anyway.

        The time restriction will make sense when there is a game to play, not while it’s a tech demo.

        • t3rmit3@beehaw.org
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          1 year ago

          There are like 14 people who play the current iteration seriously, everyone else are just trying to keep up to date on the status of SC.

          At this point you are just flailing.

          If you actually had any clue about SC or had bothered to Google it, you’d know DAU numbers (50,000 average daily players across all regions, in 2022), and you’d never have made such an inane claim.

          And no, CIG does not call it a tech demo, they call it an alpha, the 2 of which are not remotely similar.

          • drkt@feddit.dk
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            1 year ago

            I’d like to meet those 50000 average daily players, because they sure aren’t on any of the server I play on.

            I’m glad you’re having fun. This is not a reasonable response to criticism of your favorite space toy simulator. I have invested money into this, too. I also want it to thrive. I hope you have a lovely day.

            • t3rmit3@beehaw.org
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              1 year ago

              “I’m just spreading literal, factual misinformation, but if you call me out directly then you’re being unreasonable and rude.”