Smart Community

Games => Star Citizen => Topic started by: dsmart on November 21, 2016, 03:43:39 PM

Title: Star Citizen Scoops, Musings and Blogs
Post by: dsmart on November 21, 2016, 03:43:39 PM
So CitizenCon came and went. Here are my thoughts (http://www.dereksmart.org/forums/topic/star-citizen-musings/#post-4879).

(http://i.imgur.com/nLyKSdF.gif)

Title: Re: Star Citizen Scoops & Musings
Post by: dsmart on November 22, 2016, 11:50:06 AM
Latest musing

2016 Anniversary Stream (http://www.dereksmart.org/forums/topic/star-citizen-musings/#post-4879)
Title: Re: Star Citizen Scoops, Musings and Blogs
Post by: dsmart on December 13, 2016, 04:31:59 PM
I wrote a new scoop post (http://dereksmart.com/forums/topic/sc-scoop/#post-5064) about the UK financials as well as the current state of affairs.

There is also an active discussion (http://www.dereksmart.com/forum/index.php?topic=9.180) going on about this as well.
Title: Re: Star Citizen Scoops, Musings and Blogs
Post by: dsmart on December 21, 2016, 04:14:35 PM
My write up of the 2016 holiday stream is up! (http://dereksmart.com/forums/topic/star-citizen-musings/#post-5094)
Title: Re: Star Citizen Scoops, Musings and Blogs
Post by: dsmart on December 28, 2016, 06:10:05 AM
My latest in-depth blog, Irreconcilable Differences (http://dereksmart.com/2016/12/star-citizen-irreconcilable-differences/), about Star Citizen's recent switch to Amazon's Lumberyard engine is live. Enjoy.
Title: Re: Star Citizen Scoops, Musings and Blogs
Post by: dsmart on December 29, 2016, 08:00:41 AM
Following statements by Ben Parry regarding the engine switch, I added an UPDATE section to the Irreconcilable Differences (http://dereksmart.com/2016/12/star-citizen-irreconcilable-differences/) blog. It's in the middle, just before THE FUD SQUAD section. It is also pasted below.



Shortly after this blog went live, the link (start here (https://forums.frontier.co.uk/showthread.php/259596-The-Star-Citizen-Thread-v5/page2058)) was posted on the Frontier Dev (makers of competing game, Elite Dangerous (http://elitedangerous.com/)) forum where Ben Parry (https://uk.linkedin.com/in/klumaster), a low-level Star Citizen visual effects programmer who used to work for Frontier, but now works for Foundry 42 (one of the CIG/RSI subsidiary companies in the UK), frequently posts. Taken to task over various inconsistencies in the CIG/RSI  explanation for the Star Engine to Lumberyard switch, his eventual meltdown (https://forums.frontier.co.uk/member.php/27895-Ben-Parry) (all captured to static images, seeing as they are likely to disappear) is an eye-opener, and further evidence as to just how messed up this whole project is now.

Basically, they can’t explain how it is possible for them to have merged a 50% modified derivative CE3.x (Star Engine) with a heavily modified derivative CE3.x (Lumberyard) in two days – and without losing any prior work. So he created a graphic to illustrate what he believes took place.

(http://i.imgur.com/dgepQ40.png)

For the programmers reading this, yes, a programmer is claiming that what Chris Roberts wrote, is what happened. Then said programmer comes up with an illustration that proves otherwise. It needs no explanation, seeing as it clearly proves that they didn’t do any core Lumberyard integration – and especially not in two days. So basically, the claim to be using Lumberyard is currently restricted to basically the swap from Google Compute to Amazon EC2 (as abstracted in Lumberyard), as well as adding the required Lumberyard logo due to them using the Lumberyard implementation of EC2.

Further along the discussion, he finally admitted it.

(http://i.imgur.com/fUycNYr.jpg)

Basically not only proving me right, but also – once again – proving that Chris Roberts is either a liar, or clueless as to what is actually going on with his project.

Ben also had this to say (https://forums.frontier.co.uk/showthread.php/259596-The-Star-Citizen-Thread-v5?p=4943089#post4943089) about Sean Tracy (https://www.linkedin.com/in/seantracy), the Technical Director for the project when someone pointed out that Ben is claiming that even Sean had no clue what CE3.x version they were actually using in Star Engine.

Quote
Sean’s an artist, he doesn’t have much incentive to care about exact version numbers. Despite this, he’s basically right that it’s a branch of 3.7-3.8-ish, and he’s talking openly about it.”

Ben was last seen updating his resume.

Quote
Quote
Though that still will not account for the 50% modification to the engine they claimed to have done
It does account for it. It means they changed nothing to their custom code to accommodate any merge, and thus got nothing from the proper Lumberyard code.

They have their 50% customization or whatever they claim (provided that is true, which who knows?). And they are still "behind" the 3.8 point that LY forker from. Exactly as much "behind" it as they were before.
Quote
Seriously, that graph shows a gross misunderstanding of how git works.
Nope. It shows that the SC branch remained as it were. They are not at the head of LY, lmao (and they are probably laughing their butts off too at that).

Quote
Parry explained it more on the frontier forums, and then some other guy also offered his understanding of it and Parry seems to have agreed.
https://forums.frontier.co.uk/showthread.php/259596-The-Star-Citizen-Thread-v5?p=4943960&viewfull=1#post4943960 (https://forums.frontier.co.uk/showthread.php/259596-The-Star-Citizen-Thread-v5?p=4943960&viewfull=1#post4943960)

Basically, second image shows the trunk red (but it's the same trunk as the first image) because it is now let's say labeled as LumberYard code, even though it is identical to the CryEngine "trunk" up to the point that LY forks off (3.8.x). (Ben or some other guy call it "LumberYard legacy code" up to the point of the fork off CE 3.8, where LumberYard proper begins). SC remains forked off the previous point (3.7) as it was originally.

No actual merge has occurred.

But they are now in "LumberYard" because Amazon has a license that gives them access to the CryEngine source code "history versions" before 3.8 (3.8 being the point where they forked off from and did their own thing); so basically SC can now say its a fork off LumberYard "legacy code" (ie Cryengine 3.7 as it always were) or has switched to LumberYard (marketing speak mainly).

After all is said and done, this was Ben’s stance on such an engine switch, back in Sept 2015. This was also pointed out to him (https://forums.frontier.co.uk/showthread.php/259596-The-Star-Citizen-Thread-v5?p=4943637&viewfull=1#post4943637) in the discussion thread.

(http://i.imgur.com/mQP8FXm.png)
Title: Re: Star Citizen Scoops, Musings and Blogs
Post by: dsmart on December 29, 2016, 08:31:38 AM
No we know what happened to the 50% modification in Star Engine

(https://pbs.twimg.com/media/C02kLuIXcAA3_YE.jpg)
Title: Re: Star Citizen Scoops, Musings and Blogs
Post by: dsmart on January 12, 2017, 06:21:19 AM
My latest Star Citizen update[/url] is now live. Early 2017 Update (http://dereksmart.com/forums/topic/sc-scoop/#post-5174) (includes discussion of finances)
Title: Re: Star Citizen Scoops, Musings and Blogs
Post by: Stan on January 13, 2017, 08:38:19 PM
My latest Star Citizen update (http://dereksmart.com/forums/topic/sc-scoop/#post-5174) is now live.

Thanks.  It is another good read.
Title: Re: Star Citizen Scoops, Musings and Blogs
Post by: Darklegend1 on January 13, 2017, 11:15:47 PM
My latest Star Citizen update (http://dereksmart.com/forums/topic/sc-scoop/#post-5174) is now live.

Thanks.  It is another good read.
+1 waiting for next installment  :)
Title: Re: Star Citizen Scoops, Musings and Blogs
Post by: dsmart on January 14, 2017, 07:51:26 AM
Following the San Francisco DA's lawsuit and TRO freezing the assets of the failed Lily drone project, I wrote a short missive (http://dereksmart.com/forums/topic/star-citizen-musings/#post-5198) outlining why Star Citizen backers need to be paying close attention to that.
Title: Re: Star Citizen Scoops, Musings and Blogs
Post by: Stan on January 14, 2017, 06:44:08 PM
Following the San Francisco DA's lawsuit and TRO freezing the assets of the failed Lily drone project, I wrote a short missive (http://dereksmart.com/forums/topic/star-citizen-musings/#post-5198) outlining why Star Citizen backers need to be paying close attention to that.

So CR might not be hanging on to his MOCAP studios when SC goes tits up.
Title: Re: Star Citizen Scoops, Musings and Blogs
Post by: dsmart on January 15, 2017, 08:19:59 AM
As Chris Roberts has now gone on the record describing Star Citizen as a Ponzi scheme, I wrote a new section "Gamestar interview" update (http://dereksmart.com/forums/topic/star-citizen-musings/#post-5198)
Title: Re: Star Citizen Scoops, Musings and Blogs
Post by: dsmart on February 14, 2017, 09:01:31 AM
I wrote a new mussing about 3.0, SQ42 and a bunch of other things. (http://dereksmart.com/forums/topic/star-citizen-musings/#post-5222)
Title: Re: Star Citizen Scoops, Musings and Blogs
Post by: dsmart on February 14, 2017, 06:21:23 PM
So the other day, someone over on SA was asking about what happened with the cease & desist which I had received from Ortwin last year. An incident which Shitzens kept twisting as they saw fit. Below are the facts.

Basically, after I made it public that Sandi and Chris were in fact married, which as we all know they were hiding (https://youtu.be/IRE2BBQR4tc?t=1761) (and confirmed by several sources to the media), they got mad.

Then some guy went digging, and found his own proof in the form of Sandi's IMDB listings in which she included their children. He then linked those to the same children's appearance in the Star Citizen pitch video (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kp_eYvXhx5c&feature=youtu.be&t=37). He tweeted it, and I re-tweeted it. That was basically it.

Next thing you know, I'm being accused of doxxing, stalking, being the anti-Christ etc. You know, the usual bullshit they do when trying to fit a round peg into a square hole.

Shortly thereafter, in what was the beginning of a litany of epic self-own screw-ups, that glorified moron, Ortwin (https://youtube.com/watch?v=9mhyO26bVVw), sent me a cease & desist (http://dereksmart.com/bin/sc/15-09-30_Cease_Desist_Letter_from_RSI.pdf) on 09/30/15.

I took one look at it, laughed, sent it to my attorneys in CA.

Wasting no time, a few days later, my attorneys shredded him in a response (http://dereksmart.com/bin/sc/15-10-02_Response_To_RSI_Cease_Desist.pdf).

That was the end of that.

And we never heard from them about it again. We were hoping they would sue or file a complaint, thus giving me the "in" I was looking for in order to get them to provide backers with the financials for the project. But I think they suspected that, and just dropped the whole thing. Much like they've dropped every single legal threat they've ever made.
Title: Re: Star Citizen Scoops, Musings and Blogs
Post by: Padrepapp on February 21, 2017, 02:20:31 AM
Next thing you know, I'm being accused of doxxing, stalking, being the anti-Christ etc.

Surely you meant anti-Chris not anti-Christ  :wtchris:
Title: Re: Star Citizen Scoops, Musings and Blogs
Post by: dsmart on February 21, 2017, 05:13:37 AM
Next thing you know, I'm being accused of doxxing, stalking, being the anti-Christ etc.

Surely you meant anti-Chris not anti-Christ  :wtchris:

LOL!! I see what you did there!  :laugh:
Title: Re: Star Citizen Scoops, Musings and Blogs
Post by: dsmart on February 21, 2017, 06:12:21 AM
I've been in this industry for almost 30 years. I've seen many companies, teams and products, fail, succeed, disappear etc. I can tell you - with unbridled certainty - that whatever it is they end up "releasing"; MVP or not, won't make a dent. It won't be another ED. It won't be another Eve. Heck, it won't even be another COD:IW (which was considered a failure simply due to the metrics of previous versions in the series, and not because it was a bad game or a financial loss - which it wasn't).

And there is no chance in hell that it will even approach the likes of the upcoming ME:A (though that's more in competition with SQ42, than SC).

They had a chance. That chance blew past them back in Nov 2014. And that window of opportunity will never come again.

They gambled on money vs product. They chose and won the former. They gained from that because people got jobs, contractors made money, the creators and execs got rich. Off free money by trusting and gullible gamers.

All they had to do was ship the original vision 1.0 in Nov 2014; then use their financial windfall to build on that. It would have bought them a lot of goodwill, leeway etc, but not raise as much money because that "dream" would have been limited compared to the vision 2.0 hallucination. And the only reason they got this far with vision 2.0 and this much money, is because they continued to trade on lies, while abusing the goodwill of our somewhat deluded and gullible gamer friends.

I am going to say it again. They have missed the opportunity, made too many promises, and set unrealistic goals. As a result, there is simply no way on this God's Earth that this ends on any positive note. When the crash (that's slowly playing out behind the scenes) comes - and it surely will - it will be sudden, it will be swift, and it will be shocking. And we will all be here, frantically digging up posts, threads etc (that's why I use Evernote and ClipMate) and stifling the urge to keep copy and pasting our smug "I told you so" anecdotes.

The project is on life support, and there is no reviving it.
Title: Re: Star Citizen Scoops, Musings and Blogs
Post by: Stan on February 21, 2017, 05:56:23 PM
The corvette was a bit moment for me.

It was always  seen to be a banker for CIG and since the Polaris was launched last year that indicated to me that  they needed more cash quickly.

They should be milking the merchandise a bit more and I wonder if we will see discounted in game currency vouchers being sold and much more in game clothing and other skins etc.
Title: Re: Star Citizen Scoops, Musings and Blogs
Post by: dsmart on February 22, 2017, 08:03:23 AM
The only way they are going to be able to fully monetize in-game items, is if there is a use for them. Right now, there isn't.
Title: Re: Star Citizen Scoops, Musings and Blogs
Post by: dsmart on March 15, 2017, 09:07:00 AM
There is a rumor going around that  Amazon may be the new Star Citizen publisher. I wrote about it (http://dereksmart.com/forums/topic/sc-scoop/#post-5224) moments ago.
Title: Re: Star Citizen Scoops, Musings and Blogs
Post by: Flashwit on March 15, 2017, 11:41:34 AM
That seems pretty crazy, although to be honest I was expecting at some point that a publisher would jump in to save them from themselves. I just didn't know if they would be able to find one with how ridiculous their situation is.

In good news, this means that they'll at least probably release a game at some point. Who knows what that game will be though.
Title: Re: Star Citizen Scoops, Musings and Blogs
Post by: nightfire on March 15, 2017, 04:00:19 PM
There is a rumor going around that  Amazon may be the new Star Citizen publisher. I wrote about it (http://dereksmart.com/forums/topic/sc-scoop/#post-5224) moments ago.

On a side note, is it only me, or are the posts in "Star Citizen - The Scoop" in seemingly irregular chronological order? (Top post is from Sep2016 – this Amazon post comes in second despite being more recent, followed by a couple of posts in order, then some chronologically out-of-order posts again). Just asking because I don't want to miss anything, and I habitually only check the top of the thread to see what's new.

Title: Re: Star Citizen Scoops, Musings and Blogs
Post by: dsmart on March 15, 2017, 04:37:55 PM
There is a rumor going around that  Amazon may be the new Star Citizen publisher. I wrote about it (http://dereksmart.com/forums/topic/sc-scoop/#post-5224) moments ago.

On a side note, is it only me, or are the posts in "Star Citizen - The Scoop" in seemingly irregular chronological order? (Top post is from Sep2016 – this Amazon post comes in second despite being more recent, followed by a couple of posts in order, then some chronologically out-of-order posts again). Just asking because I don't want to miss anything, and I habitually only check the top of the thread to see what's new.

No clue. It's probably how they are displayed. The last post I made in that thread was on Jan 12, 2017. So it's below today's post. The Sept 16 one is just the header/sticky; as that's when the thread was created. As a sticky, it will always be at the top.

What are you seeing exactly?
Title: Re: Star Citizen Scoops, Musings and Blogs
Post by: dsmart on March 15, 2017, 04:39:29 PM
That seems pretty crazy, although to be honest I was expecting at some point that a publisher would jump in to save them from themselves. I just didn't know if they would be able to find one with how ridiculous their situation is.

In good news, this means that they'll at least probably release a game at some point. Who knows what that game will be though.

LumberYard needs a boost because it’s not widely adopted. But using it to sell AWS is a tough call because contrary to popular belief the AWS costs can be prohibitive – especially for multiplayer games. And when those games stop making enough money to pay for AWS, well, it’s sunset time. So in the case of Star Citizen, I just don’t see how AMZ buying or publishing this game makes sense. It’s a massive financial and PR liability. And if that were to happen, the end result is that those acting like they are in a cult will just end up blaming AMZ for ruining Chris’s ‘vision‘ if they shipped anything less than what he has promised – even as all indications are that he can’t deliver on said promises anyway. With $145m (if you believe it) to date in liability, what exactly would AMZ be buying for them to even recoup that; let alone make any money? All that money is basically pre-orders with very little room for further monetization. Not even if it came to consoles. It makes no sense for them to do it; which is why I find it hard to believe this rumor. But if AMZ is going to do this as a way of marketing LumberYard + AWS for games, it’s one heck of an expensive spend – aside from it being completely nonsensical.
Title: Re: Star Citizen Scoops, Musings and Blogs
Post by: Motto on March 17, 2017, 11:59:18 AM
Nice try Derek, but of course the Shitizens will not blame the downfall on Amazon even if they would buy it (nobody in their right mind would do such a thing). The one and only blame for the downfall of SC is you, Derek Smart, of course. I'd be hiring several bodyguards if I were you when the downfall is there  :D
Title: Re: Star Citizen Scoops, Musings and Blogs
Post by: dsmart on March 17, 2017, 02:48:05 PM
Nice try Derek, but of course the Shitizens will not blame the downfall on Amazon even if they would buy it (nobody in their right mind would do such a thing). The one and only blame for the downfall of SC is you, Derek Smart, of course. I'd be hiring several bodyguards if I were you when the downfall is there  :D

LOL!! Yeah, I'm already prepared. It was bad enough that croberts called me out and made me a target, but then Shitizens heeded the call and took it several steps further.

The project is FUBAR. There's no going back. All they have to do now is wait and see what comes next. It won't be the game they're expecting.
Title: Re: Star Citizen Scoops, Musings and Blogs
Post by: dsmart on March 28, 2017, 01:01:42 PM
My new blog, The Money Laundromat (http://dereksmart.com/2017/03/star-citizen-money-laundromat/), is live.
Title: Re: Star Citizen Scoops, Musings and Blogs
Post by: Motto on March 28, 2017, 02:46:43 PM
And then you finish with "And from what I’m hearing, it won’t be long now." Oh man, the suspense is killing me. More, more, more  :allears:
Title: Re: Star Citizen Scoops, Musings and Blogs
Post by: dsmart on March 29, 2017, 06:20:31 AM
And then you finish with "And from what I’m hearing, it won’t be long now." Oh man, the suspense is killing me. More, more, more  :allears:

Just wait. It's hilarious in a sick kinda way. These people have no clue what's coming.
Title: Re: Star Citizen Scoops, Musings and Blogs
Post by: nightfire on March 29, 2017, 12:21:14 PM
Quote from: dsmart
I am deliberately holding back on publishing my book on this farce, hoping that I get to give it the conclusion that it deserves.

As a marketing pun, you should do something like accepting referral codes for a $5 discount on the book price and a free JPEG of the cover  :D
Title: Re: Star Citizen Scoops, Musings and Blogs
Post by: dsmart on March 29, 2017, 03:49:36 PM
Quote from: dsmart
I am deliberately holding back on publishing my book on this farce, hoping that I get to give it the conclusion that it deserves.

As a marketing pun, you should do something like accepting referral codes for a $5 discount on the book price and a free JPEG of the cover  :D

I could totally do that!!  :laugh:
Title: Re: Star Citizen Scoops, Musings and Blogs
Post by: dsmart on April 21, 2017, 07:09:31 AM
My latest musing (http://dereksmart.com/forums/topic/star-citizen-musings/#post-5238) about the recently unveiled 3.0 schedule and more.
Title: Re: Star Citizen Scoops, Musings and Blogs
Post by: dsmart on April 21, 2017, 10:45:04 AM
My latest musing (http://dereksmart.com/forums/topic/star-citizen-musings/#post-5254) is up.
Title: My Vblog Broadcasts
Post by: dsmart on May 07, 2017, 05:50:59 AM
May 6th, 2017

Shoutout to /u/OldSchoolCmdr/ (forum thread (http://www.dereksmart.com/forum/index.php?topic=15.30)) on Reddit regarding his stance on Star Citizen community

https://www.pscp.tv/dsmart/1vAxRbeeRorxl

Title: Re: Star Citizen Scoops, Musings and Blogs
Post by: dsmart on May 19, 2017, 04:19:12 PM
Star Citizen has crossed the $150 million mark. (http://dereksmart.com/forums/topic/star-citizen-musings/#post-5256)
Title: Re: Star Citizen Scoops, Musings and Blogs
Post by: dsmart on May 24, 2017, 08:49:14 AM
Star Citizen Multiplayer Instancing (http://dereksmart.com/forums/topic/star-citizen-musings/#post-5263)
Title: Re: Star Citizen Scoops, Musings and Blogs
Post by: mixalot on May 24, 2017, 11:30:29 AM
Star Citizen Multiplayer Instancing (http://dereksmart.com/forums/topic/star-citizen-musings/#post-5263)

That was a really interesting read. Thanks for explaining all of that.

Do you think Roberts should have originally just built a new engine from the ground up to handle the scope of his game? Sort of like the I-Novae engine? Or do you think that would have added too much time and effort? I'm still baffled as to why he chose CryEngine in the first place...is he obsessed with the graphics or something?
Title: Re: Star Citizen Scoops, Musings and Blogs
Post by: nightfire on May 24, 2017, 01:27:59 PM
Star Citizen Multiplayer Instancing (http://dereksmart.com/forums/topic/star-citizen-musings/#post-5263)

Quote
You may have noticed a pattern emerging as you read these Kickstarter horror stories. Famous game designer launches Kickstarter to make a game based on their most famous work. Fans of said game designer pledge every penny they have to see a new installment of their favorite game. Famous game designer bites off more than he can chew and the fans are left to suffer.

✅ Check.
✅ Check.
✅ Check.
Title: Re: Star Citizen Scoops, Musings and Blogs
Post by: dsmart on May 24, 2017, 01:30:59 PM
Star Citizen Multiplayer Instancing (http://dereksmart.com/forums/topic/star-citizen-musings/#post-5263)

That was a really interesting read. Thanks for explaining all of that.

Do you think Roberts should have originally just built a new engine from the ground up to handle the scope of his game? Sort of like the I-Novae engine? Or do you think that would have added too much time and effort? I'm still baffled as to why he chose CryEngine in the first place...is he obsessed with the graphics or something?

They should have built an engine from the ground up. At the time they started, even UE4 and Unity needed extensive customizations to build the game they wanted. That's what I was going on about in my first July 2015 blog. Heck, there is a reason that UBIsoft, EA, Activision et al, build their own custom engines.

Title: Re: Star Citizen Scoops, Musings and Blogs
Post by: dsmart on May 24, 2017, 01:32:37 PM
I updated the article

Quote
UPDATE: Shortly after this article went live, some backers were trying to say that "building an MMO" out of Star Citizen, was the $3m stretch goal (https://robertsspaceindustries.com/funding-goals) because it says:

"Citizens with appropriate packages will receive access to the Star Citizen universe with 40 star systems for persistent online play upon release."

That's the single most ridiculous thing I have ever read about this issue. People listen: "persistent online play" does not, and never did, imply that the game will be an MMO. Heck, even CIG themselves proved this point when they released Star Citizen 2.0 in Q4/15 and called it "Persistent Universe", when in fact, nothing about the game is persistent, other than player stats stored and retrieved from a database. By this definition, they are implying that games with leaderboards, stats saving, are all MMO games because they have persistent stats save/restore features. Which would make every Call Of Duty or Battlefield game an MMO. The Star Citizen universe isn't persistent. It's an instance. When the instance closes, everything shuts down. I wrote about this extensively in my Star Citizen - Condition Red (http://dereksmart.com/2016/05/star-citizen-condition-red/) blog from May 2016.
Title: Re: Star Citizen Scoops, Musings and Blogs
Post by: dsmart on May 26, 2017, 05:47:10 PM
(https://pbs.twimg.com/media/DAx5BTvXgAQw1Ja.jpg)

SQUADRON 42 MOVED TO 2018 - ANSWER THE CALL! (http://dereksmart.com/forums/topic/sc-scoop/#post-5276)
Title: Re: Star Citizen Scoops, Musings and Blogs
Post by: Flashwit on May 27, 2017, 11:11:11 AM
Lol, I can't believe that people hadn't questioned it more in the first place since there's been no news about SQ42 for what seems like eons.
Title: Re: Star Citizen Scoops, Musings and Blogs
Post by: dsmart on May 28, 2017, 05:29:25 PM
3 players + 5 Merlins = major lag


Title: Re: Star Citizen Scoops, Musings and Blogs
Post by: dsmart on June 07, 2017, 04:50:29 AM
(https://qph.ec.quoracdn.net/main-qimg-183d903179d1bec28e0897ec78190853-c)
What computer should I buy to play Star Citizen? (https://www.quora.com/What-computer-should-I-buy-to-play-Star-Citizen/answer/Derek-Smart?__nsrc__=4&__snid3__=1135046061) - My response on Quora

UPDATE: A bunch of lunatics who think I don't have better things to do with my time, don't actually know how Quora works, and that people can ask experts direct questions.

(https://pbs.twimg.com/media/DBvapDPXoAM8ddc.jpg)
Title: Star Citizen Scoops, Musings and Blogs
Post by: dsmart on June 10, 2017, 07:37:52 AM
F42 (UK) financials (2016) (https://beta.companieshouse.gov.uk/company/08703814/filing-history) are up. Analysis coming soon. In the meantime, someone did a quick run through of the numbers.

Also read the 2015 analysis (http://dereksmart.com/forums/topic/sc-scoop/#post-5174) done back in Jan 2017

Quote
Foundry 42 Ltd met their deadline and filed their accounts for the year ended 31 December 2016. There's a lot in there but here's some highlights.

It seems HMRC are actually paying over those tax credits now. Up to £3.6m for 2016 and around £8m total in the three years to 31 December 2016. Shame. I'd say it's now correct to add £8m to their funding figure of ~$150m. I doubt HMRC get any ships though.

They disclosed the lease is ~£250k per year. ~5 years left to run.

Average employees were 221 with £10m total wages in 2016 (132 @ £6m in 2015).

Erin's remuneration in F42 rose from £193k to £236k including benefits.

Total costs were up to ~£17.5m for the year (~£14.5m in 2015).

This one is a long one and a bit technical I'm afraid, but it is the most amusing and explains why they have now decided that they got their own turnover wrong by the small amount of £2.4m in 2015. As suspected in my various July blogs they are just moving money around the companies as they need it. Basically they are then retrospectively making up their own turnover figure by basing it on how much actual money was transferred. But they decided to change how they make up this figure which means they have to go back and adjust how they made up the figure in 2015 (because of consistency) and then disclose it:

(https://i.imgur.com/UoAiC1X.jpg)

A single studio is burning about $1.86m *per month*. Yet, when we estimated they had to be burning approx $3m per month worldwide (five studios), some said nuh-uh

Hilarious to me that it's NOW that backers are taking the financial situation seriously (https://www.reddit.com/r/starcitizen/comments/6gfx2v/foundry_42s_financials_released/), despite my past warnings.

FYI:

https://www.reddit.com/r/starcitizen/comments/6gfx2v/foundry_42s_financials_released/diq1peo/

Quote
CIG is $67,240 median as of 2016 releases. Keep in mind though LA is heavily production staff.


Title: Re: Star Citizen Scoops, Musings and Blogs
Post by: dsmart on June 12, 2017, 05:17:23 PM
My analysis (http://dereksmart.com/forums/topic/sc-scoop/#post-5325) of the key elements of the financials is now online.

Title: Re: Star Citizen Scoops, Musings and Blogs
Post by: Flashwit on June 13, 2017, 08:29:05 AM
That salary + bump for Erin is truly outrageous.
Title: Re: Star Citizen Scoops, Musings and Blogs
Post by: dsmart on June 13, 2017, 11:06:49 AM
That salary + bump for Erin is truly outrageous.

It really is; no joke.
Title: Re: Star Citizen Scoops, Musings and Blogs
Post by: dsmart on June 24, 2017, 09:15:21 AM
BREAKING: Star Citizen is in financial distress. Takes out new loan to fund ops.  (http://dereksmart.com/forums/topic/sc-scoop/#post-5346)
Title: Re: Star Citizen Scoops, Musings and Blogs
Post by: StanTheMan on June 24, 2017, 04:50:59 PM
BREAKING: Star Citizen is in financial distress. Takes out new loan to fund ops.  (http://dereksmart.com/forums/topic/sc-scoop/#post-5346)

Backers will be lucky to a get cent on dollar when this plays out.
Title: Re: Star Citizen Scoops, Musings and Blogs
Post by: dsmart on June 26, 2017, 05:54:47 AM
I have moved my write-up about this loan to a new Final Countdown (http://dereksmart.com/2017/06/star-citizen-final-countdown/) blog, and updated (scroll to the bottom) it with an update that now also includes Ortwin's official statement.
Title: Re: My Vblog Broadcasts
Post by: dsmart on June 26, 2017, 03:56:03 PM
https://twitter.com/dsmart/status/879469128607817728
Title: Re: Star Citizen Scoops, Musings and Blogs
Post by: dsmart on June 27, 2017, 01:08:17 PM
For those asking about Star Citizen exec buyout proof, it's in a filing (https://beta.companieshouse.gov.uk/company/08703814/filing-history). They cashed out with backer money.

(https://pbs.twimg.com/media/DDVoVKQXoAAmREG.jpg)
Title: Re: Star Citizen Scoops, Musings and Blogs
Post by: Ghostmaker on June 28, 2017, 05:54:05 PM
For those asking about Star Citizen exec buyout proof, it's in a filing (https://beta.companieshouse.gov.uk/company/08703814/filing-history). They cashed out with backer money.

(https://pbs.twimg.com/media/DDVoVKQXoAAmREG.jpg)
Interesting. Who are Derek Senior and Nicholas Elms?
Title: Re: Star Citizen Scoops, Musings and Blogs
Post by: dsmart on June 29, 2017, 05:12:44 AM
Interesting. Who are Derek Senior and Nicholas Elms?

They are old childhood buddies of Chris and Erin. And Nick was involved with Erin and others in the Gizmondo fiasco which I covered in my Interstellar Pirates and The Money Laundromat blogs
Title: Re: Star Citizen Scoops, Musings and Blogs
Post by: Ghostmaker on June 29, 2017, 10:11:29 AM
Interesting. Who are Derek Senior and Nicholas Elms?

They are old childhood buddies of Chris and Erin. And Nick was involved with Erin and others in the Gizmondo fiasco which I covered in my Interstellar Pirates and The Money Laundromat blogs
OK, I thought those names were familiar. I went back and reread the appropriate blogs.

Which makes me think even LESS of CR, now. Why on earth would you want people associated with such financial skulduggery involved in your business?  :wtchris:

This isn't concession stand money we're talking here, remember? At this point it's over US$150 million. And the fact that Erin, and these two yobs, have decided to punch out of their stock ownership should make anyone's antennae go up.

Remember, SC and its associated games are supposed to be awesome. Game changers. As soon as they release CIG will be able to gold plate their toilets. Right? Right? So why cash out... unless you foresee something VERY bad coming down the road.
Title: Re: Star Citizen Scoops, Musings and Blogs
Post by: StanTheMan on June 29, 2017, 02:53:55 PM
Interesting. Who are Derek Senior and Nicholas Elms?

They are old childhood buddies of Chris and Erin. And Nick was involved with Erin and others in the Gizmondo fiasco which I covered in my Interstellar Pirates and The Money Laundromat blogs
OK, I thought those names were familiar. I went back and reread the appropriate blogs.

Which makes me think even LESS of CR, now. Why on earth would you want people associated with such financial skulduggery involved in your business?  :wtchris:

This isn't concession stand money we're talking here, remember? At this point it's over US$150 million. And the fact that Erin, and these two yobs, have decided to punch out of their stock ownership should make anyone's antennae go up.

Remember, SC and its associated games are supposed to be awesome. Game changers. As soon as they release CIG will be able to gold plate their toilets. Right? Right? So why cash out... unless you foresee something VERY bad coming down the road.

They cash out because it is their sort of business.   

People like this think they are a better type of person than the rest of us and they win by bending and breaking the rules.

Title: Re: Star Citizen Scoops, Musings and Blogs
Post by: dsmart on June 30, 2017, 08:57:05 AM
DOES A BANK NOW OWN STAR CITIZEN? (http://dereksmart.com/forums/topic/star-citizen-musings/#post-5447)

(https://pbs.twimg.com/media/DDXF-UJXgAAXTYp.jpg:large)
Title: Re: My Vblog Broadcasts
Post by: dsmart on July 01, 2017, 06:30:30 AM
https://twitter.com/dsmart/status/881142591248531458

LINK:

Title: Re: Star Citizen Scoops, Musings and Blogs
Post by: dsmart on July 06, 2017, 05:31:37 AM
Happy July Blog Day everyone!!

On this day two years ago, I wrote the Interstellar Citizens (http://www.dereksmart.com/2015/07/interstellar-citizens/) blog which sparked a massive debacle (which is still raging on) over the Star Citizen project's viability and promise.

To mark this occasion, I have written an anniversary blog (http://dereksmart.com/2017/07/july-blog-anniversary/).

Enjoy!
Title: Re: Star Citizen Scoops, Musings and Blogs
Post by: dsmart on July 06, 2017, 12:52:21 PM
I compiled a list of the knee-jerk reactions that CIG and execs have done in response to me.

Title: Re: My Vblog Broadcasts
Post by: Meowz on July 07, 2017, 10:20:04 AM
Listening to the cast, it doesn't matter how right you are, or what CR fails to present. A lot of community involved backers suffer from extreme bias-conformation. ANY progress be it art, feature, etc... will be seen as proof of concept and significant progress towards SC. People act like that when they are scared. Back before SC got big, you didn't really see these reactions because no one was scared. They can only lie to themselves for so long.

There is a HUGE correlation between CR and Shitizens and Trump's core voter base. He has gone back on every promise, and doing everything basically opposite to the reasons they voted for him yet that follow him blindly. Using Trumps own quotes against them isn't even enough. The mental gymnastics and rationalizing they do is absolutely mind numbing. This is the EXACT SAME behavioral pattern you see in the Star Citizen community. Anything that runs contrary is just a "shadow government" out to get them and burn the place down.
Title: Re: My Vblog Broadcasts
Post by: dsmart on July 07, 2017, 01:17:14 PM
Listening to the cast, it doesn't matter how right you are, or what CR fails to present. A lot of community involved backers suffer from extreme bias-conformation. ANY progress be it art, feature, etc... will be seen as proof of concept and significant progress towards SC. People act like that when they are scared. Back before SC got big, you didn't really see these reactions because no one was scared. They can only lie to themselves for so long.

There is a HUGE correlation between CR and Shitizens and Trump's core voter base. He has gone back on every promise, and doing everything basically opposite to the reasons they voted for him yet that follow him blindly. Using Trumps own quotes against them isn't even enough. The mental gymnastics and rationalizing they do is absolutely mind numbing. This is the EXACT SAME behavioral pattern you see in the Star Citizen community. Anything that runs contrary is just a "shadow government" out to get them and burn the place down.

Yes, that's why we keep trolling and making fun of them. They're basically aiding and abetting a protracted scam.
Title: Re: Star Citizen Scoops, Musings and Blogs
Post by: dsmart on July 09, 2017, 06:09:42 AM
Once again, sources are telling me that the performance issues seen in the recent AtV broadcast (my analysis), are thus far insurmountable, and that they don’t know how this upcoming 3.0 patch (analysis of latest dev schedule) is ever getting released without that being addressed. (http://dereksmart.com/forums/topic/sc-scoop/#post-5521)
Title: Re: Star Citizen Scoops, Musings and Blogs
Post by: dsmart on July 17, 2017, 02:18:17 PM
According to my sources, what GameStar wrote about 5-10 systems "at launch", doesn't appear to be true. My thoughts (http://dereksmart.com/forums/topic/star-citizen-musings/#post-5543).
Title: Re: Star Citizen Scoops, Musings and Blogs
Post by: dsmart on July 20, 2017, 08:27:19 AM
WHY THERE ARE NO ACTUAL PLANETS IN 3.0 DESPITE PREVIOUS PROMISES (http://dereksmart.com/forums/topic/star-citizen-musings/#post-5580)
Title: Re: Star Citizen Scoops, Musings and Blogs
Post by: dsmart on July 29, 2017, 10:22:18 AM
Remember back when for two weeks straight the dev schedule release aim date wasn't changed, we all figured out that it was because they were busy selling the Nox and Cyclone vehicles? Yeah. Well, the July 28th schedule just hit, and has another two week delay which is probably bogus anyway. I just wrote an article (http://dereksmart.com/forums/topic/star-citizen-musings/#post-5610) about what the latest means, and where we are now.

Title: Re: Star Citizen Scoops, Musings and Blogs
Post by: Motto on July 29, 2017, 11:16:29 AM
Oh, brilliant this one:

Stop to quote things said by CR before 2016, please. Why? Star Citizen had changed from scope so many times than many of that things said by CR just don't make sense anymore and worst, give fuel to the haters. (https://np.reddit.com/r/starcitizen/comments/6p8v6h/stop_to_quote_things_said_by_cr_before_2016_the/)
Title: Re: Star Citizen Scoops, Musings and Blogs
Post by: StanTheMan on July 29, 2017, 06:55:49 PM
Oh, brilliant this one:

Stop to quote things said by CR before 2016, please. Why? Star Citizen had changed from scope so many times than many of that things said by CR just don't make sense anymore and worst, give fuel to the haters. (https://np.reddit.com/r/starcitizen/comments/6p8v6h/stop_to_quote_things_said_by_cr_before_2016_the/)

That OP has misspelt his name.  From what he's written,  his handle should have been "Gash".

He has made a right C@@@ of himself.

Title: Re: Star Citizen Scoops, Musings and Blogs
Post by: dsmart on July 30, 2017, 08:23:49 AM
UPDATE: So amid the ongoing furor, a CS person from CIG has again issued a statement (https://robertsspaceindustries.com/spectrum/community/SC/forum/3/thread/production-schedule-and-3-0) regarding the recent 3.0 schedule delay. It's as ludicrous as the project itself. To the extent that not only admitting to continue to increase the project scope - when they should be winding down development to release a game - but also somehow justifying a bogus schedule they know is unrealistic. A schedule to which they won't add the actual dates, but instead increase the delays two to three weeks at a time in order to avoid panic.

Meanwhile over there (https://www.reddit.com/r/starcitizen/comments/6qhhx6/production_schedule_and_30_by_will_soulcrusher/)...
Title: Re: Star Citizen Scoops, Musings and Blogs
Post by: Motto on July 30, 2017, 08:43:37 AM
It's just not in our DNA to hold updates and content back. We simply don’t do that. Because we don't have them. They're not there. We can't make them, basically we can't do it at all, so, we can't show it and we can't give it. It is not there. It won't be. Just buy a jpg or two and go away.

Also nice to see that they refer to it just as 3.0 as if the game already exists and this is a major update with new features et cetera. Hello..... it's Alpha build 3.0  :supaburn:

Our goal is to provide you with the most amazing gaming experience ever. Well, that it'll be for sure. The only part missing will be actual playing the game, but that's just a mere detail  :lol:
Title: Re: Star Citizen Scoops, Musings and Blogs
Post by: dsmart on July 30, 2017, 11:32:07 AM
(http://imgur.com/8xX8eJ7.jpg)

Basically their statement is admitting that Chris Roberts LIED to backers. Here's irrefutable evidence.

Title: Re: Star Citizen Scoops, Musings and Blogs
Post by: dsmart on August 25, 2017, 06:25:26 AM
I wrote a quick Star Citizen GC2017 synopsis (http://dereksmart.com/forums/reply/5641/). It also includes a transcript of Chris's interview yesterday.
Title: Re: Star Citizen Scoops, Musings and Blogs
Post by: Knight Solaire on August 25, 2017, 11:39:30 AM
I wrote a quick Star Citizen GC2017 synopsis (http://dereksmart.com/forums/reply/5641/). It also includes a transcript of Chris's interview yesterday.

Good god, Chris can't even spin the illusion of SQ42 progress anymore to a sympathetic reporter. The idea that they've "got the chapters blocked out" as some kind of major achievement is just ludicrous. What does that even mean?
Title: Re: Star Citizen Scoops, Musings and Blogs
Post by: dsmart on August 25, 2017, 11:47:25 AM
I wrote a quick Star Citizen GC2017 synopsis (http://dereksmart.com/forums/reply/5641/). It also includes a transcript of Chris's interview yesterday.

Good god, Chris can't even spin the illusion of SQ42 progress anymore to a sympathetic reporter. The idea that they've "got the chapters blocked out" as some kind of major achievement is just ludicrous. What does that even mean?

Oh that's not all. They've had those blocked out since 2015. You know, back when he had just started lying about the status of that game.
Title: Re: Star Citizen Scoops, Musings and Blogs
Post by: dsmart on August 26, 2017, 10:18:28 AM
GAMESCOM 2017 – CHRIS ROBERTS STAR CITIZEN PRESENTATION

As I mentioned in my GC2017 coverage (http://dereksmart.com/forums/reply/5641/), I am currently writing an article about Chris's presentation (https://youtu.be/OTALpprdtQ4?t=259), and will post it soon. I don't even know where to begin with it, but suffice to say, that presentation had some unexpected results which solidified my opinions that this game can NEVER been made, and that the project is FUBAR. In fact, PC Invasion has the best summary (https://www.pcinvasion.com/star-citizen-gamescom-2017-event-report) so far of the disaster that unfolded before our eyes. You can view the full presentation blooper reel below. It contains most of the presentation highlights of Chris's carefully scripted demo mission fails. Yes, this is a six year project developed by over 500 people (both past and present), and which has thus far raised (and probably burned through) over $156M in crowd-funding alone. I have also made public a private (industry friends and peers) post (http://dereksmart.com/forums/reply/5654/) which I made on Facebook.

Title: Re: Star Citizen Scoops, Musings and Blogs
Post by: Kyrt on August 26, 2017, 01:19:26 PM
Good god, Chris can't even spin the illusion of SQ42 progress anymore to a sympathetic reporter. The idea that they've "got the chapters blocked out" as some kind of major achievement is just ludicrous. What does that even mean?

It means he has S42 storyboarded.

However...as I understand the development of S42 and SC, S42 and SC will be sharing quite a bit.

Same engine, same graphics, same netcode, same worlds. Its why they can develop two games at the same time without breaking the team....ok, they do that but the point is there is AIUI a huge amount of crossover in the codebase of the two.

Upside....its going to save a lot of money. They develop large chunks of S42 for free. There'll be differences but siming for minor.

Downside...S42 can't be ready until the engine, flight model, netcode, etc is ready for S42.

Based on the show we got yesterday...not a total disaster but it really should have been much better controlled, tested and stable for a PUBLIC demonstration...I saw lag and sync issues (assuming all parties were on the same network segment and used best PCs possible for performance optimisation, that's quite a feat and speaks to low quality code) as well as graphical and animation issues, not to mention THE  crash....the foundations still need a lot of work.

And they should be doing THAT before cosmetic work such as eye and head tracking, lip syncing and more. I'm not certain how their plans for VOIP  are going to come about given bandwidth considerations either. FOIP is a system that strikes me as something that should be added much later in the development cycle, once the netcode is nailed down and they have some idea of how much free space they have to play with. Right now though, it seems CR saw it in STBC and said "I want THAT in SC" and shifted resources from the important stuff. The engine...animation and graphics....flight model...netcode....

That stuff just runs the game. FOIP means they get to sell webcams!!! See? No need for ship sales
Title: Re: Star Citizen Scoops, Musings and Blogs
Post by: Andrew on August 26, 2017, 01:41:42 PM
And they should be doing THAT before cosmetic work such as eye and head tracking, lip syncing and more.

That was not a feature. That was a marketing deal. That's why it get's priority, because money.
Title: Re: Star Citizen Scoops, Musings and Blogs
Post by: dsmart on August 26, 2017, 04:13:27 PM
This is a YT video of the Goon chatter on my Discord channel during the GC2017 presentation


Title: Re: Star Citizen Scoops, Musings and Blogs
Post by: GaryII on August 28, 2017, 05:17:50 AM
That stuff just runs the game. FOIP means they get to sell webcams!!! See? No need for ship sales

  I think that this FOIP thing was Sandworn v2.0 - it will never make to the actual game..in case there is a game in the end...

  It was just to show off some "cool" tech and to fill time and create hype for cult whales...

  Anyway now question is: what is next "cool" tech that they will show off in Citcon...
Title: Re: Star Citizen Scoops, Musings and Blogs
Post by: Motto on August 28, 2017, 05:47:52 AM
Probably nothing. The only thing to do is to have 3.0 out by CitizenCon. Another (failing) demo with something new without 3.0 will upset all backers. It's time they offer the crowd something tangible. Something they can play with. Problem is, they are soon done playing with 3.0 because there is nothing really new and exiting in or about it. And then what? Then they start whining for 3.1 or 4.0 or whatever. And Chris can't deliver. Will be fun to watch thought :-)
Title: Re: Star Citizen Scoops, Musings and Blogs
Post by: N0mad on August 28, 2017, 06:01:58 AM
Has anybody seen an analysis of the number of new players who have backed the game over the last few years (I've seen plenty about funding)?

I simply cannot believe that CIG can attract any new backers. I'm sure there will be plenty who will want to play a finished game, but the pool of people willing to spend hundreds of dollars for a jpeg cannot be that large and since SC has been so high profile for so long then that market must have dried up by now. If so, then it can't be long before these big backers stop opening their wallet for every sale without seeing concrete results first. If the Jesus patch is always the "next patch", then surely the funding must start drying up soon.

Just a hypothesis though.
Title: Re: Star Citizen Scoops, Musings and Blogs
Post by: Motto on August 28, 2017, 06:11:53 AM
That is exaxctly why they invented the Referral Contest. Thus attracting new players who have to start at $ 40,- but hopefully can be persuaded to spend more money, now or later. Chris knows he's taken as much out of the whales as he can. So, only a very high priced concept sale, again, won't cut it. Hence the "pay for an unique ship name try-out"(if succesful, apply to all ships) and the introduction of FOIP. He doesn't care about FOIP, he needs the cash from the company that sells the cams. They pay Chris to gain access to those 1.8 m backers. Boy, will that turn out to be a mistake.

Update player statistics would be nice to see. Can't imagine SC being played much anymore.
Title: Re: Star Citizen Scoops, Musings and Blogs
Post by: dsmart on August 28, 2017, 06:31:46 AM
Has anybody seen an analysis of the number of new players who have backed the game over the last few years (I've seen plenty about funding)?

I just posted a new metrics chart with sign-ups (http://www.dereksmart.com/forum/index.php?topic=53.msg3185#msg3185). Will ask our analytics guy for updated citizen count. Last I checked, it was hovering at less than 600K unique accounts.

Quote
I simply cannot believe that CIG can attract any new backers. I'm sure there will be plenty who will want to play a finished game, but the pool of people willing to spend hundreds of dollars for a jpeg cannot be that large and since SC has been so high profile for so long then that market must have dried up by now. If so, then it can't be long before these big backers stop opening their wallet for every sale without seeing concrete results first. If the Jesus patch is always the "next patch", then surely the funding must start drying up soon.

Just a hypothesis though.

Notice how they are no longer doing free fly events around shows anymore? It's because they would rather have people pay $45, then see if they would bother to refund or not.
Title: Re: Star Citizen Scoops, Musings and Blogs
Post by: Motto on August 28, 2017, 06:36:11 AM
Do you have any idea, based on all your intel 'n stuff, how much longer Chris has? At least before the hard signs (like lay-offs) that the ELE is near start showing? Do they make it to Shitizen Con or is that even questionable?
Title: Re: Star Citizen Scoops, Musings and Blogs
Post by: dsmart on August 28, 2017, 06:39:46 AM
Do you have any idea, based on all your intel 'n stuff, how much longer Chris has? At least before the hard signs (like lay-offs) that the ELE is near start showing? Do they make it to Shitizen Con or is that even questionable?

No I don't. Last I heard (that was around the time of the loan), they were in serious financial dire straits and the 3.0 delay wasn't helping.

As of this past weekend, the state of 3.0 remains unchanged (incomplete, bugs, performance issues, needs +6 months to release what's in the dev schedule etc) and the rumors surrounding layoffs (staggered or mass, is unknown) by year end, continue. More people are leaving, than there are being hired. But the information related to their plans for downsizing, is closely held by the top echelon and not likely to leak until people outside that echelon get wind of it. It will leak soon enough. Only a matter of time. I remember when I posted months ago about 3.0, and some people just said my sources were fake, I was making shit up etc. Then the schedule kept shifting; -
 and GC2017 happened. Good times.
Title: Re: Star Citizen Scoops, Musings and Blogs
Post by: Motto on August 28, 2017, 07:00:13 AM
Yeah, but I need more now. I'm hooked. I want to see the downfall every day now. More and more and more. Show all those White Knights and other idiots that we were right all along. So, gimme. Gimme gimme. Your my pusher now. Give. I want it. I need it. Badly. The re-run of Games Com is wearing off now, I need something new...... I'm fighting the Reddit dragons now  :supaburn:
Title: Re: Star Citizen Scoops, Musings and Blogs
Post by: dsmart on August 28, 2017, 07:37:58 AM
Yeah, but I need more now. I'm hooked. I want to see the downfall every day now. More and more and more. Show all those White Knights and other idiots that we were right all along. So, gimme. Gimme gimme. Your my pusher now. Give. I want it. I need it. Badly. The re-run of Games Com is wearing off now, I need something new...... I'm fighting the Reddit dragons now  :supaburn:

It's kinda like wait for Trump to be impeached  :vince:
Title: Re: Star Citizen Scoops, Musings and Blogs
Post by: Motto on August 28, 2017, 08:27:43 AM
Yeah, that's the other one that can't happen soon enough.
Title: Re: Star Citizen Scoops, Musings and Blogs
Post by: dsmart on August 29, 2017, 05:40:20 AM
The final part (http://dereksmart.com/forums/reply/5685/) of my Star Citizen GamesCom 2017 coverage is up.
Title: Re: Star Citizen Scoops, Musings and Blogs
Post by: Motto on August 29, 2017, 06:48:50 AM
Typo? I really do feel story for him because

and: incompetent, lying, scammer, and egotistical con man.

Should scammer not be scamming?
Title: Re: Star Citizen Scoops, Musings and Blogs
Post by: dsmart on August 29, 2017, 07:01:24 AM
Typo? I really do feel story for him because

and: incompetent, lying, scammer, and egotistical con man.

Should scammer not be scamming?

It's correct.

Incompetent + lying scammer + egotistical con man
Title: Re: Star Citizen Scoops, Musings and Blogs
Post by: Motto on August 29, 2017, 07:07:40 AM
You removed the , between lying and scammer  :cop: Now it's correct.

However, story in stead of sorry is still there   :D
Title: Re: Star Citizen Scoops, Musings and Blogs
Post by: dsmart on August 29, 2017, 07:28:12 AM
You removed the , between lying and scammer  :cop: Now it's correct.

However, story in stead of sorry is still there   :D

I am not seeing any of that. Probably cache? Wordpress is weird like that when you use a cache plugin with Cloudflare (which is also a cache). I was also seeing a correction I made at the end as well. So I just now flushed the cache on both the site and Cloudflare. Let me know if you are still seeing those. If you are, then force a browser refresh  on your end, by holding down the SHIFT or CTRL key (depending on your browser) while hitting refresh.
Title: Re: Star Citizen Scoops, Musings and Blogs
Post by: Motto on August 29, 2017, 07:39:00 AM
Now there all okay  :D

See, you're being watched closely  :smuggo:
Title: Re: Star Citizen Scoops, Musings and Blogs
Post by: dsmart on August 29, 2017, 07:50:17 AM
See, you're being watched closely  :smuggo:

Yeah usually I rely on /r/dereksmart/ to have my back  :laugh:
Title: Re: Star Citizen Scoops, Musings and Blogs
Post by: Motto on August 29, 2017, 07:54:13 AM
Who says I'm not there too? :smuggo:
Title: Re: Star Citizen Scoops, Musings and Blogs
Post by: dsmart on September 09, 2017, 12:35:27 PM
I wasn't planning on releasing this until I received some additional information, but since it's already leaked and spreading, I have released this first part anyway.

CIG created a new shell corporation (http://dereksmart.com/forums/reply/5764/)

Title: Re: Star Citizen Scoops, Musings and Blogs
Post by: StanTheMan on September 09, 2017, 06:54:27 PM
I wasn't planning on releasing this until I received some additional information, but since it's already leaked and spreading, I have released this first part anyway.

CIG created a new shell corporation (http://dereksmart.com/forums/reply/5764/)

It is good to know !
Title: Re: Star Citizen Scoops, Musings and Blogs
Post by: dsmart on September 14, 2017, 10:14:02 AM
Star Citizen is moving to early access with 3.0 release (http://dereksmart.com/forums/reply/5785/). My take on this change.
Title: Re: Star Citizen Scoops, Musings and Blogs
Post by: dsmart on September 15, 2017, 02:01:20 PM
Star Citizen - The $45K Refund Debacle (http://dereksmart.com/forums/reply/5807/)
Title: Re: Star Citizen Scoops, Musings and Blogs
Post by: nightfire on September 15, 2017, 02:42:03 PM
Star Citizen - The $45K Refund Debacle (http://dereksmart.com/forums/reply/5807/)

Holy cow. Kastenbrust did that??

(http://static.rogerebert.com/redactor_assets/pictures/52de91c36688b097460000c3/ItsAMadPoster.jpg)
Title: Re: Star Citizen Scoops, Musings and Blogs
Post by: dsmart on September 25, 2017, 03:39:12 PM
I actually looked into this (http://dereksmart.com/forums/reply/5325/) some months back, and from my pov, I believe they sold "something" back to themselves and booked it as an asset. This is curious because F42 doesn't own IP that it could have "sold" to a third-party. So I posting this (https://forums.somethingawful.com/showthread.php?goto=post&postid=476752612#post476752612) here for record keeping in case we need to refer to it post-collapse.

Quote
I'm sure we have some German auditors present, perhaps one could have a go at explaining the £650,198 contradiction in the 2015 accounts for Cloud Imperium Games UK Ltd.

Cloud Imperium Games UK Ltd - Going Concern in 2015 accounts
There is this disclosure note about going concern in the Cloud Imperium Games UK Ltd accounts for the year ending 31 December 2015. You do not ordinarily want to have to write a going concern disclosure, where the directors give their assurances to support the company because of the insolvent balance sheet. However, the disclosure does not match the balance sheet. £186,799 of net liabilities compared to £463,399 of net assets represents a difference of £650,198.

(https://i.imgur.com/AboU8no.jpg)

I've pondered some possibilities to explain this.

1. This disclosure for some reason might be based on the consolidated accounts. However, I'm not sure how this would be arrived at. I know you'd lose the inter-group transactions and the £440k investments would be reversed via journals but it shouldn't change the net position on investments. Looking at Foundry 42 Ltd and RSI INT Ltd, I'm not sure how you'd get to this difference.

2. For those who don't know how some firms handle disclosures, they are often generated generically by software and then edited manually. Something may have changed late on in the accounts and the disclosure was never updated / the wrong set of accounts were sent to Erin to sign and it was never picked up. However, there was the mysterious transaction that showed a profit on disposal of intangible assets of £654,612. If this treatment were changed from a balance sheet liability to a profit and loss item late on during account preparation, along with another minor journal or two it might explain the difference and represent the disclosure being out of date.

3. Something else. I guess it's this?


The Mystery of Cloud Imperium Games UK Ltd and the Intellectual Property.
On the 1st of July 2015 CIG UK paid £1,359,185 for intangible assets, listed as Intellectual Property. At some point during the year 1 January 2015 to 31 December 2015 they sold intangibles for £654,612 and this was considered all profit.

(https://i.imgur.com/2ViBkdC.jpg)

It would appear that these two items are not related to each other? The purchase is considered to still be worth what was paid and the disclosure suggests little activity related to it in the period 1 July 2015 to 31 December 2015.

There's no correspoding entries in the subsidiaries and there is no related disclosure for either Roberts Space Industries Corporation or Cloud Imperium Games LLC. The suggestion then is that this purchase and sale concern "unrelated" parties not controlled by Chris Roberts. Another possibility is that this was a related party transaction and remains undisclosed because it was a late change to the accounts and never adjusted for, see: speculation in section on Going Concern. But that's just speculation.

UPDATE:

Quote
I'm pretty sure I'm half of that 'we' that has looked at this before but anyway, this is the parent company. Not Foundry 42. You can basically summarise the entire activity of the parent company like so:

Summary of the relevant activity of Cloud Imperium Games UK Ltd, incorporation to Dec 2015

Sources of funding:

£710k Long Term Loans
£290k Short Term Creditors
£200k Shareholder Investment [1]
£650k Sale of Intangibles
============
£1.85m Total

Outgoings:

£440k Erin Roberts and others [2]
£ 50k Admin Expenses
£1.36m IP purchase
============
£1.85m Total

It would seem most likely to me that it works backwards. They took money out. They put money in to zero out of the bank balance. So now you have a receipt of £650k that you have to account for. It poses issues. If it's a loan, the balance sheet is insolvent by ~470k (just like the disclosure claims). If you book it as income, you get the position that the accounts/balance sheet do show, however you would have to charge VAT on whatever income it is.

By considering it a disposal of an intangible asset, it may avoid needing to account for VAT (which would have needed to be performed contemporaneously instead of retrospectively on trading income). If this adjustment were made late on, it would mean the disclosure in the accounts is incorrect and was never adjusted and would explain why it does not match the balance sheet. This is my main line of inquiry, does anyone know why the disclosure wouldn't match the balance sheet and yet could actually be correct? There doesn't really seem to be much to work with and this one figure is suspiciously close, throw in something like an additional late £5k accrual for accountancy fees and it would be spot on.

Title: Re: Star Citizen Scoops, Musings and Blogs
Post by: dsmart on September 26, 2017, 10:08:34 AM
I look back at the Jennison letter and how Star Citizen has panned out two years later this month (http://dereksmart.com/forums/reply/5840/).
Title: Re: Star Citizen Scoops, Musings and Blogs
Post by: dsmart on October 10, 2017, 12:11:45 PM
My Evocati 3.0 and Star Citizen inception anniversary article is live. Star Citizen - Five Years Ago (http://dereksmart.com/2017/10/star-citizen-five-years-ago/)
Title: Re: Star Citizen Scoops, Musings and Blogs
Post by: dsmart on October 11, 2017, 06:29:46 AM
I moved my article into a blog, and cleaned it up a bit. Also added new info in the "flight dynamics" Evocati section & other places.
Title: Re: Star Citizen Scoops, Musings and Blogs
Post by: dsmart on October 13, 2017, 11:29:44 AM
Star Citizen 3.0 Evocati Turmoil (http://dereksmart.com/forums/reply/5914/)
Title: Re: Star Citizen Scoops, Musings and Blogs
Post by: nightfire on October 14, 2017, 01:29:44 AM
Star Citizen 3.0 Evocati Turmoil (http://dereksmart.com/forums/reply/5914/)

Everytime I read one of those transcripts, I wonder: can’t these guys ever put together even a single coherent, well-defined sentence? It’s always half-concious babbling with an endless stream of „uhm“, „eh“, „you know“, off-course tangents and a hard time recalling what they actually wanted to say in the first place. If speech and writing are supposed to reflect thought, the mental processes going on in their brains must be chaotic to a degree that’s almost unbelievable.
Title: Re: Star Citizen Scoops, Musings and Blogs
Post by: Spunky Munkee on October 17, 2017, 12:36:06 AM
I know how Robbers could save his game!

He could have an never ending pile of cash!

He could somehow declare Star Citizen cultists to be an ORG and get a credit card made. Then he could make some cash off of all the purchases his little toadies make. Think of it all these man children running around flashing their own personal Star Citizen cards spending UEC to buy Cheez Whiz and Odor Eaters. I can see it now, glorious! http://dereksmart.org/forum/Smileys/default/vince.gif
Title: Re: Star Citizen Scoops, Musings and Blogs
Post by: Meowz on October 17, 2017, 08:43:17 AM
Star Citizen 3.0 Evocati Turmoil (http://dereksmart.com/forums/reply/5914/)

Everytime I read one of those transcripts, I wonder: can’t these guys ever put together even a single coherent, well-defined sentence? It’s always half-concious babbling with an endless stream of „uhm“, „eh“, „you know“, off-course tangents and a hard time recalling what they actually wanted to say in the first place. If speech and writing are supposed to reflect thought, the mental processes going on in their brains must be chaotic to a degree that’s almost unbelievable.

Most people actually talk that way. Unless you are in a formal interview setting, or giving a speech most talk in a way that does not transcribe very well at all. You see this with Trump all the time. Those are faithful word for word transcriptions, but if you listened you'd likely have little trouble understanding what they are saying. They are still morons though hense the reason CIG will likely crash and burn at some point.

What really blows my mind is they recorded and shared CR showing outward disdain towards backers and his choice picked "Testers" and the community is praising him for it? "Thank you for the beating sir, may I have another?!" Damn cucks all of em...
Title: Re: Star Citizen Scoops, Musings and Blogs
Post by: StanTheMan on October 17, 2017, 04:25:36 PM
I know how Robbers could save his game!

He could have an never ending pile of cash!

He could somehow declare Star Citizen cultists to be an ORG and get a credit card made. Then he could make some cash off of all the purchases his little toadies make. Think of it all these man children running around flashing their own personal Star Citizen cards spending UEC to buy Cheez Whiz and Odor Eaters. I can see it now, glorious! http://dereksmart.org/forum/Smileys/default/vince.gif

Yes it is the weakest of arguments. 

One of Serendickshiity's mainstays.
Title: Re: Star Citizen Scoops, Musings and Blogs
Post by: nightfire on October 18, 2017, 12:53:59 AM


He could somehow declare Star Citizen cultists to be an ORG and get a credit card made.
Honestly, I wonder why he didn't actually do such a thing. I mean, even mundane companies like Amazon and eBay offer their own vanity cards, and it would certainly appeal to the kind of people who like to show off their JPEG ships. Heck, he could not only have earned money off each transaction, but with a $1000 entry fee per card as well.
Title: Re: Star Citizen Scoops, Musings and Blogs
Post by: Spunky Munkee on October 18, 2017, 04:21:42 AM
You see, that's what I was thinking. He has all these lemmings all falling in line. They need do nothing but spend money and they help the cause. They could even earn, now get this, in game currency for spending real world dollars. None of those silly airline miles, some nice currency to buy missiles or make ship repairs, maybe even special weapons and ships only available for card holders.

I know it's crazy, and I know it's far fetched but I would not put anything past him. The scary part is that Robbers has low paid minions who scour the web looking for any mention of the game on the web. Can you imagine him actually doing this? Truth is I think a lot of the faithful have reservations at this point he might only get several thousand idiots, the wales, the manatees, and belugas. His point of greatest influence is past but at one point he could have pulled this off. Imagine a desk at the conventions just to sign people up giving away swag just to apply.
Title: Re: Star Citizen Scoops, Musings and Blogs
Post by: Motto on October 18, 2017, 05:49:22 AM
There is no bank willing to be the financer for Chris Roberts / CIG as a credit card company. And the in game currency would build up to gigantic proportions before the game ever got released.
Title: Re: Star Citizen Scoops, Musings and Blogs
Post by: premiumnugz on October 18, 2017, 09:36:13 AM
There is no bank willing to be the financer for Chris Roberts / CIG as a credit card company. And the in game currency would build up to gigantic proportions before the game ever got released.

Credit card processing is not a big deal, even really shit companies can get it nowadays, hell even Paypal do it and anyone can sign up even a convicted fraudster. You could start taking card payments right now if you wanted, it's not hard.

I doubt CIG would get more loans however, they've already handed over all their assets to banks as collateral for their other loans, which may I remind people remain unpaid even though they were only supposed to be temporary loans until they received their tax rebate.  :bahgawd:
Title: Re: Star Citizen Scoops, Musings and Blogs
Post by: dsmart on October 18, 2017, 10:30:42 AM
BREAKING! CIG dev confirms Star Citizen may NEVER be an MMO. I wrote about it

http://dereksmart.com/forums/reply/5949/
Title: Re: Star Citizen Scoops, Musings and Blogs
Post by: nightfire on October 18, 2017, 11:32:31 AM
There is no bank willing to be the financer for Chris Roberts / CIG as a credit card company. And the in game currency would build up to gigantic proportions before the game ever got released.
That ship has sailed for sure now. But still, it’s interesting to imagine that around 2013 or so (?), there might have been a time window in which he still had the credibility with which he could have pulled this CIG vanity credit card thing off. Best of all: credit card TOS could have been isolated from the Star Citizen TOS, possibly allowing them to make one-time and recurring CC fees non-refundable for sure, and unaffected by the wars waging around core game issues with „pledges", „donations", „subscriptions“ etc.

Why waste time with such thoughts, you ask? Hey, we’re entitled to mindless theorycrafting about SC too, not just those Shillizens over there  :laugh:
Title: Re: Star Citizen Scoops, Musings and Blogs
Post by: dsmart on October 26, 2017, 02:55:46 PM
Star Citizen 2016 UK financials. My quick take (http://dereksmart.com/forums/reply/5973/).

Quote
Well even if the Google Sheet was accurate, let’s assume that it is a best case scenario as well, then they have a huge issue, it shows that they have raised $21M so far this year although the cashflow forecast would need them to raise $30M, a difference of $9M. With projected cash reserves of $13M at year end, assuming that their costs were as anticipated and that they did not take in any more debt then cash reserves are probably down to $4M right now. If this trend continues, losing around $1M a month in cashflow, then they would be illiquid by Feb 2018. Again, this is purely speculation based on the forecast, they would have to start reducing team sizes and costs, if not already done so, to try and balance the cashflow. Of course, if they start getting more negative press then this would only detract further pledges from the community leading them into a cash leaking spiral.

Title: Re: Star Citizen Scoops, Musings and Blogs
Post by: dsmart on October 26, 2017, 03:52:32 PM
I will be live on the OpenHouse this Star with Star Citizen commentary and shenanigans

https://twitter.com/dsmart/status/923683560631959555
Title: Re: Star Citizen Scoops, Musings and Blogs
Post by: dsmart on October 29, 2017, 06:03:03 AM
The YT link to the stream is live. I come in around the 10 min mark

Title: Re: Star Citizen Scoops, Musings and Blogs
Post by: Motto on October 29, 2017, 06:20:18 AM
It was interesting, but if you've been around since the first blog, not much new(s)  :D
Title: Re: Star Citizen Scoops, Musings and Blogs
Post by: dsmart on October 29, 2017, 06:32:58 AM
It was interesting, but if you've been around since the first blog, not much new(s)  :D

Yeah, the July Blog is the indoctrination  :lol:
Title: Re: Star Citizen Scoops, Musings and Blogs
Post by: Motto on October 29, 2017, 06:52:31 AM
You'd think that by now, you would know how to describe yourself from the viewpoint of a WKCF but to my surprise you stumbled on that one big time  :smug:
Title: Re: Star Citizen Scoops, Musings and Blogs
Post by: krylite on November 03, 2017, 09:15:42 AM
Hi all, my first post here. I'm an ED fan and it irritates and saddens me to see the SC fiasco try to drag down ED with it. ED is excellent and developed realistically by Frontier as a stable business yet shills and troll threads often appear in the ED-forum and unfairly tear it down in comparison to the dream ads and demos of CIG. I remember the early news about both franchises and decided to wait since I never preordered a game. Thanks to Derek's blogs in 2015 and this forum, I dodged that bullet and went with ED. So that's my intro and I'm honored to join this forum. :unsmith:

Ok, I listened through the recorded 'openhouse' stream about citizencon17. After Derek had left, it was hilarious to hear "Florian"s comments when ED was briefly brought up. No wonder, he must be so kool-aided by the RSI dreams or really just a shill and full of bs and ignorance about most dev subjects. I think I've even seen his postings on ED forums also dissing ED. I think the host of "openhouse" let Florian railroad the conversation away from the truth that SC is a scamming ponzi backed by whales who can't face they were wrong.


www.youtube.com/watch?v=HM3JlO45thE&feature=youtu.be&t=6h22m20s    :laugh:

www.youtube.com/watch?v=HM3JlO45thE&feature=youtu.be&t=6h27m50s
Title: Re: Star Citizen Scoops, Musings and Blogs
Post by: dsmart on November 03, 2017, 12:46:58 PM
Yeah, I've told Robin that allowing such incessant trolling is bad for the stream. Oh well.
Title: Re: Star Citizen Scoops, Musings and Blogs
Post by: McDrake on November 03, 2017, 01:06:01 PM
Flo wasn't bad
I like the steams at "open house" anyway.
At least he was willing to speak  and not trolling like a drunken teenager, like the rest in the chat.
Title: Re: Star Citizen Scoops, Musings and Blogs
Post by: Motto on November 03, 2017, 01:17:49 PM
I stopped directly after Derek left; middle of the night here. But most in the chat seemed to be WKCFs desperately trying to heckle Derek. Probably because they needed a break from all the gameplay that the current 2.6.3 build has to offer them.
Title: Re: Star Citizen Scoops, Musings and Blogs
Post by: McDrake on November 03, 2017, 02:28:43 PM
I stopped directly after Derek left; middle of the night here. But most in the chat seemed to be WKCFs desperately trying to heckle Derek. Probably because they needed a break from all the gameplay that the current 2.6.3 build has to offer them.

I listen to the hole thing (like the LOD-stream) on my way to Colonia in ED :D

Title: Re: Star Citizen Scoops, Musings and Blogs
Post by: krylite on November 04, 2017, 01:43:12 AM
Yes, "Florian" was polite and behaved for the most part in requisite but I'd think most would be in that moderated openhouse. It's unfortunate how disingenuous he was (never below 30-40fps, yeah right) and then completely lost credibility to me when he blurted out how he hated ED when it was mentioned.

Well the ED forum thread on Star Citizen has exploded since shillizencon17 with most wisening up to the ponzi from how the posts read.
Title: Re: Star Citizen Scoops, Musings and Blogs
Post by: StanTheMan on November 04, 2017, 06:45:31 PM
Yes, "Florian" was polite and behaved for the most part in requisite but I'd think most would be in that moderated openhouse. It's unfortunate how disingenuous he was (never below 30-40fps, yeah right) and then completely lost credibility to me when he blurted out how he hated ED when it was mentioned.

Well the ED forum thread on Star Citizen has exploded since shillizencon17 with most wisening up to the ponzi from how the posts read.

Yes and demonstrated he has double standards when it comes to ED and SC.  He may not realise it.
Title: Re: Star Citizen Scoops, Musings and Blogs
Post by: dsmart on November 09, 2017, 10:27:34 AM
I wrote an article (http://dereksmart.com/forums/reply/6005/) about everything from Evocati 3.0, refunds and small claims court, to CitizenCon and financial oddities
Title: Re: Star Citizen Scoops, Musings and Blogs
Post by: Ghostmaker on November 09, 2017, 01:04:13 PM
I recall playing City of Heroes, and while CoH was fun, if you got a LOT of people in close proximity with stuff happening (zone wide events, such as alien invasions/zombie invasions, were severely prone to this), the game got pretty slideshow-esque.

And IIRC, CoH zone instances were limited to 40-50 people.

Watching these lugnuts brag about how they're gonna have EVERYONE in the same instance? Sure, pull the other one.
Title: Re: Star Citizen Scoops, Musings and Blogs
Post by: dsmart on November 09, 2017, 02:22:14 PM
It's not even bullshit, it's just flat out lies. They know their audience.
Title: Re: Star Citizen Scoops, Musings and Blogs
Post by: StanTheMan on November 10, 2017, 07:47:00 PM
I wrote an article (http://dereksmart.com/forums/reply/6005/) about everything from Evocati 3.0, refunds and small claims court, to CitizenCon and financial oddities

Do you think they have paid back that Coutts loan (even though we dont know how much it was for) ?



Title: Re: Star Citizen Scoops, Musings and Blogs
Post by: dsmart on November 11, 2017, 05:40:44 AM
I wrote an article (http://dereksmart.com/forums/reply/6005/) about everything from Evocati 3.0, refunds and small claims court, to CitizenCon and financial oddities

Do you think they have paid back that Coutts loan (even though we dont know how much it was for) ?

No way of knowing that until the 2017 financials come out. If they have, it won't be there.
Title: Re: Star Citizen Scoops, Musings and Blogs
Post by: dsmart on November 11, 2017, 08:14:51 PM
BREAKING NEWS!!

Evocati Test Fiasco (http://dereksmart.com/forums/reply/6027/)

Title: Re: Star Citizen Scoops, Musings and Blogs
Post by: dsmart on December 04, 2017, 08:18:33 AM
Tweet storm

https://threadreaderapp.com/thread/937691433322020864
Title: Re: Star Citizen Scoops, Musings and Blogs
Post by: Motto on December 04, 2017, 08:48:46 AM
That threadreaderapp thing really works  :D
Title: Re: Star Citizen Scoops, Musings and Blogs
Post by: dsmart on December 04, 2017, 09:06:48 AM
That threadreaderapp thing really works  :D

Yeah, I could write a whole blog, 280 chars at a time!  :laugh: :supaburn:
Title: Re: Star Citizen Scoops, Musings and Blogs
Post by: dsmart on December 04, 2017, 12:56:36 PM
My Star Citizen Situation Report is online

http://dereksmart.com/forums/reply/6056/
Title: Re: Star Citizen Scoops, Musings and Blogs
Post by: dsmart on December 10, 2017, 02:19:37 PM
https://twitter.com/dsmart/status/939959982728073217

Quote
Just had an amazing chat with @BigfryTV (https://www.youtube.com/user/GamersLive187) Hold onto your butts for this one.
Title: Re: Star Citizen Scoops, Musings and Blogs
Post by: dsmart on December 11, 2017, 02:41:22 PM
My latest Situation Report (http://dereksmart.com/forums/reply/6078/) is live

Title: Re: Star Citizen Scoops, Musings and Blogs
Post by: Motto on December 11, 2017, 04:40:45 PM
I wonder if this hasn't been a final act of bravery by Clive, on purpose. Spilling the beans fully knowing that in a couple of weeks it'll all be over anyway. Blocking Chris' attempt to get away with by tanking the last bit of funding even before the "showing" of SQ42.

Even if not, this single posting is probably what will bring CIG down. Even the biggest whales are arguing how to read all of this. Your sit-rep should open up more eyes. And Chris knows he's fucked now. There is no spinning this anymore. Game Over.

(http://i66.tinypic.com/2nqzcxe.jpg)
Title: Re: Star Citizen Scoops, Musings and Blogs
Post by: dsmart on December 11, 2017, 07:00:19 PM
My hour long interview this past weekend, is live

https://twitter.com/BigfryTV/status/940389264033857537

Title: Re: Star Citizen Scoops, Musings and Blogs
Post by: McDrake on December 12, 2017, 02:11:13 AM
That's why CR never got a publisher for his dream:

I was thinking all the time about SC at this video.

Title: Re: Star Citizen Scoops, Musings and Blogs
Post by: Spunky Munkee on December 12, 2017, 04:48:22 AM
I think Roberts history and reputation followed him around like a piece of stinking cheese. First he swears off working for those awful publishers and large studios. Then he fails in a spectacular way when left to his own in trying to produce Freelancer, then he has another fiasco resulting in criminal investigations and lawsuits with his foray into Film.

After all of that do you think anybody wanted this idiot showing up at their front door? Even if he had the greatest idea ever for a game, even if it COULD be built with the tech we had at the time it would still come attached to Chris Roberts, the guy with the reputation for bitching about a single pixel's color, the guy who drove his own studio into the dirt, the guy who doesn't have a single bit of management skill wants my studio to invest in his game.

Are you fucking kidding me. Tell him I'm out of there office, tell him I died just don't ever give him the chance to waste one minute of my life.

Now if anybody was dumb enough to let him waste their time with his pitch, the 30 things video has so many reasons why Chris Robers ought not be given the time of day.
Title: Re: Star Citizen Scoops, Musings and Blogs
Post by: dsmart on December 12, 2017, 07:13:43 PM
Yeah, so that happened. See if you can make the connection to my recent article.

(https://pbs.twimg.com/media/DQ4rCpdW0AA7Zlg.jpg)
Title: Re: Star Citizen Scoops, Musings and Blogs
Post by: Motto on December 13, 2017, 04:23:44 AM
Quote from SA: (https://forums.somethingawful.com/showthread.php?threadid=3800238&userid=0&perpage=40&pagenumber=3045)

Cloud Imperium Games LLC updated their California Statement of Information on 12/6/17 (2 years late).

The only changes of note are they finally notified the state that they are no longer on Sunset Blvd. and they changed the business activities from "Game Development and Publishing" to "Game Development"

So maybe they need a publisher now?

e: They also created a new LLC on 11/30/17. Roberts Space Industries LLC (a separate entity from Roberts Space Industries Corp)
Title: Re: Star Citizen Scoops, Musings and Blogs
Post by: dsmart on December 13, 2017, 06:35:57 AM
Quote from SA: (https://forums.somethingawful.com/showthread.php?threadid=3800238&userid=0&perpage=40&pagenumber=3045)

Cloud Imperium Games LLC updated their California Statement of Information on 12/6/17 (2 years late).

The only changes of note are they finally notified the state that they are no longer on Sunset Blvd. and they changed the business activities from "Game Development and Publishing" to "Game Development"

So maybe they need a publisher now?

e: They also created a new LLC on 11/30/17. Roberts Space Industries LLC (a separate entity from Roberts Space Industries Corp)

Yeah, we're up to 17 companies now, and I've updated my list (http://dereksmart.org/forums/reply/3698/).

Cloud Imperium Games was never a publisher, that would be RSI (the worldwide parent). They are a game dev entity just like F42 in the UK and GER. So this change makes sense, and is just procedural.
Title: Re: Star Citizen Scoops, Musings and Blogs
Post by: Motto on December 13, 2017, 06:40:15 AM
170 million with 17 companies and still no game. There's a tweet in there somewhere  :smug:
Title: Re: Star Citizen Scoops, Musings and Blogs
Post by: dsmart on December 13, 2017, 06:42:36 AM
They also recently settled (out of court) the lawsuit filed against them couple of years back. Click on this link (http://www.lacourt.org/search/?search=cloud%20imperium), then on the case summary.

Quote
11/06/2017 Request for Entry of Dismissal (OF ENTIRE ACTION WITH PREJUDICE )
Filed by Attorney for Plaintiff

09/19/2017 Notice-Settlement
Filed by Attorney for Plaintiff
Title: Re: Star Citizen Scoops, Musings and Blogs
Post by: Motto on December 13, 2017, 06:46:12 AM
At The Settlement - Episode 1 - Brought to you by Star Citizen backers
Title: Re: Star Citizen Scoops, Musings and Blogs
Post by: dsmart on December 14, 2017, 06:06:10 AM
The interview I did last week is live

Title: Re: Star Citizen Scoops, Musings and Blogs
Post by: CatEars on December 14, 2017, 02:08:07 PM
Expecting a new surprise concept ship sale next week. A dreadnought class spaceship loaded with all kinds of weapons. It is built to withstand heavy close combat and engage in long drawn out battles without resupply. They will call it the Crytek.
Title: Re: Star Citizen Scoops, Musings and Blogs
Post by: nightfire on December 14, 2017, 08:30:12 PM
Expecting a new surprise concept ship sale next week. A dreadnought class spaceship loaded with all kinds of weapons. It is built to withstand heavy close combat and engage in long drawn out battles without resupply. They will call it the Crytek.
Count me in!!

BTW, thinking about those engaging capital ship battles, combat arenas and mechanics in the Dreadnought game... another thing we'll never see in Star Citizen, the self-proclaimed BDSSE.
Title: Re: Star Citizen Scoops, Musings and Blogs
Post by: dsmart on December 15, 2017, 11:06:26 AM
Today's tweet storm starts here (https://twitter.com/dsmart/status/941678676529373184). It's +2hrs long
Title: Re: Star Citizen Scoops, Musings and Blogs
Post by: dsmart on December 17, 2017, 07:38:53 AM
In today's Tweet storm, I unleash against the Shillizens (https://threadreaderapp.com/thread/942373527893798912.html)

Title: Re: Star Citizen Scoops, Musings and Blogs
Post by: Flashwit on December 17, 2017, 11:14:24 AM
Huh, Skadden is even bigger than I expected. Crytek is really going for it here.

4th largest law firm in the world (by revenue). Can you even imagine Ortwin going up against these guys? It would be a massacre.
Title: Re: Star Citizen Scoops, Musings and Blogs
Post by: StanTheMan on December 17, 2017, 11:36:05 AM
Huh, Skadden is even bigger than I expected. Crytek is really going for it here.

4th largest law firm in the world (by revenue). Can you even imagine Ortwin going up against these guys? It would be a massacre.

The bigger they come the harder they fall...

The thing is .. Skadden think there is meat here...from one side or the other and a reasonable issue that suits their business model...thats why the little o is screwed.



Title: Re: Star Citizen Scoops, Musings and Blogs
Post by: N0mad on December 17, 2017, 12:37:29 PM
Reading your Tweets about Skadden really put it in perspective, I knew CIG were screwed, but this is being screwed on a different magnitude.

It was interesting that Leonard French thought that the case, as written, probably indicated that they want a settlement. I'd guess that Crytek have a solid case (hence getting Skadden on board) but don't want to make too much of a fuss and just want a cut of the action as originally promised.

I'd be putting my money on CIG trying to string things out as much as possible, so no early settlement, then hoping that everyone forgets about the case in the new year and buys more ships in the next sale. However that might depend on what other bad stuff is going to happen next week !!   :supaburn:
Title: Re: Star Citizen Scoops, Musings and Blogs
Post by: Greggy_D on December 17, 2017, 02:03:04 PM
I'd wager CIG do not have the money to settle.
Title: Re: Star Citizen Scoops, Musings and Blogs
Post by: Spunky Munkee on December 17, 2017, 02:24:37 PM
Ditto. Aside from that Ortwin may still be a major partner with Robbers. If so it might behove him to provide sufficient legal services to keep the cash cow making milk. I'm sure he will charge CIG for his services and the backers will pay every dime of the cost. THey won't figure out that the whole situation was created by the wonder twins trying to scam Crytek and now CIG was scamming the backers doubly.  What a bunch of Nimrods.
Title: Re: Star Citizen Scoops, Musings and Blogs
Post by: dsmart on December 18, 2017, 08:19:44 AM
Today's update (https://threadreaderapp.com/thread/942753856332685312.html)
Title: Re: Star Citizen Scoops, Musings and Blogs
Post by: dsmart on December 18, 2017, 03:03:25 PM
We are live!

https://www.facebook.com/GameTalkLive/videos/2079980148897050
Title: Re: Star Citizen Scoops, Musings and Blogs
Post by: Motto on December 18, 2017, 04:16:58 PM
Yeah, about that. I am wondering about it, what's the point? This Facebook thing had 90 viewers, the Open House got stuck somewhere around 70 if I remember correctly. What is the purpose / use of it all when there barely is an audience? Especially since most of the viewers are either Goons (who know the story) or Cultists (who probably just want to dick around) in the first place.

Those outlets don't seem to have massive following or attract lots of people, so what value does it add?
Title: Re: Star Citizen Scoops, Musings and Blogs
Post by: N0mad on December 18, 2017, 04:24:54 PM
I've just started watching, it says 1.9K views.
Title: Re: Star Citizen Scoops, Musings and Blogs
Post by: Motto on December 18, 2017, 04:32:13 PM
Maybe that's the total? In the live stream there were 91, at least at the end.
Title: Re: Star Citizen Scoops, Musings and Blogs
Post by: dsmart on December 18, 2017, 04:52:43 PM
Man, those Goons. The show is barely over, and the memes have started.

(https://i.imgur.com/OHGSX38.gif)

"Is Star Citizen out yet?
Title: Re: Star Citizen Scoops, Musings and Blogs
Post by: dsmart on December 18, 2017, 05:07:38 PM
Yeah, about that. I am wondering about it, what's the point? This Facebook thing had 90 viewers, the Open House got stuck somewhere around 70 if I remember correctly. What is the purpose / use of it all when there barely is an audience? Especially since most of the viewers are either Goons (who know the story) or Cultists (who probably just want to dick around) in the first place.

Those outlets don't seem to have massive following or attract lots of people, so what value does it add?

It has over 1.6K views when I glanced at it during the stream. FB live is weird like that. Right now, after the show, it shows 2.3K views.
Title: Re: Star Citizen Scoops, Musings and Blogs
Post by: Meowz on December 18, 2017, 07:17:04 PM
I think everyone was very well reasoned and thoughtful and even respectful considering what you three could easily say. The fact that no one came to bat for CIG speaks volumes and tells me CIG feels like its under siege so its hunkered down behind the high walls of it cult echo chamber.
Title: Re: Star Citizen Scoops, Musings and Blogs
Post by: justme on December 19, 2017, 04:08:40 AM
We are live!

https://www.facebook.com/GameTalkLive/videos/2079980148897050

i missed it (different time zone), but i liked, that it was no bashing the project,
it was real critiques. but of course, this will be misunderstood by the white knights.
and maybe i will get banned from spectrum by posting the link :D

i'm still supporting the project, but you spoke out of my heart :D
Title: Re: Star Citizen Scoops, Musings and Blogs
Post by: dsmart on December 19, 2017, 05:42:06 AM
i missed it (different time zone), but i liked, that it was no bashing the project,
it was real critiques. but of course, this will be misunderstood by the white knights.
and maybe i will get banned from spectrum by posting the link :D

i'm still supporting the project, but you spoke out of my heart :D

But the morons are still doing what they do:

https://twitter.com/dsmart/status/943093896413876225
Quote
For those of us with a command of English and comprehension, there is no contradiction. It's hilarious that even when I'm NOT bashing the game, you guys still find something to attack me over. And you all wonder why Star Citizen is now the LAUGHING STOCK OF THE INDUSTRY

https://twitter.com/dsmart/status/943093164994453506
Quote
TarkaRoshe, we know you guys are a special kind of stupid. How does me hoping backers get some form of "game", contract me expecting that'll crash & burn. I mean, seriously, you guys are embarrassingly BAD at this. Also coward. You're blocked, but still snipping. Desperate much?

Do you have a link to your Spectrum post?

Title: Re: Star Citizen Scoops, Musings and Blogs
Post by: justme on December 19, 2017, 07:45:05 AM
sent you a pm, because my answer is blocked by clean talk.
maybe you could edit it in here for me.
Title: Re: Star Citizen Scoops, Musings and Blogs
Post by: dsmart on December 19, 2017, 08:13:03 AM
sent you a pm, because my answer is blocked by clean talk.
maybe you could edit it in here for me.

What response did you receive from CleanTalk? I think it's because you are a new user, and your post has more than 1 link in the message.

Anyway, below I have copied and pasted from your PM.

hey.

i'm sorry, but i cannot pass the filter to reply my answer. i don't know how.
so here is my answer to the gametalklive video:


at first i posted it just in the chat, knowing that there is a mod, but maybe he won't check the link.
later in the forums, but it is a bit risky, to speak up things clearly. also there is a cultural difference
between all the users, so my way to write would harm other users.
http://www.robertsspaceindustries.com/spectrum/community/SC/forum/57219/thread/gametalklive-without-pro-speakers (http://www.robertsspaceindustries.com/spectrum/community/SC/forum/57219/thread/gametalklive-without-pro-speakers)

i'm sorry that there are such people out there, but i hope that you don't care about. the star citizen community is not represented
but these white knights.

when i was a customer of star wars the old republic, also a game with a very horrible community support, the new producer linked
a article from the former star wars galaxies creative director: raph koster.
i think this is a must read for every dev and also for the customers, supporting the development.
http://www.robertsspaceindustries.com/spectrum/community/SC/forum/50182/thread/on-getting-criticism-by-raph-koster (http://www.robertsspaceindustries.com/spectrum/community/SC/forum/50182/thread/on-getting-criticism-by-raph-koster)
Title: Re: Star Citizen Scoops, Musings and Blogs
Post by: krylite on December 20, 2017, 12:45:29 AM
At the end of the video I agree with Michael, let the SC fiasco end for good. Frontier and ED will more than make up for the "lost opportunity" of SC after they get spacelegs and inside cruiser/city/jungle-hunting gameplay working and fulfill their 10 year stretch goals while still being a game company led with decent integrity.
Title: Re: Star Citizen Scoops, Musings and Blogs
Post by: justme on December 20, 2017, 01:44:45 AM
hmm. i don't think so.

of course there are some space games out there, but the most backers i spoke to, are not fans of these games,
and i think that the biggest problem for the most is, to accept that they invested in an endless hole. and so i would
say, the majority will just stop playing spacegames.

also the most backers are 30+ years old. if they get this objectcontainer streaming and the network issues done,
i would says the full release would not happen before 2025. so a lot time for selling more awesame concept sales,
until the most don't care about anymore :D


i think i found the right words in spectrum, not to be banned :D
Title: Re: Star Citizen Scoops, Musings and Blogs
Post by: dsmart on December 21, 2017, 08:41:57 AM
My new article is up.

SQUADRON 42 PUSHED TO 2019 (http://dereksmart.com/forums/reply/6129/)
Title: Re: Star Citizen Scoops, Musings and Blogs
Post by: helimoth on December 21, 2017, 08:48:20 AM
My new article is up.

SQUADRON 42 PUSHED TO 2019 (http://dereksmart.com/forums/reply/6129/)

christmas came early  :toot:
Title: Re: Star Citizen Scoops, Musings and Blogs
Post by: Spunky Munkee on December 21, 2017, 04:02:48 PM
How am I not surprised that another Chris Roberts game has no meaningful progress and is being pushed back another year? The SC refunds subreddit will be a busy place....

I have to admit that I have lost my patience over there. The current batch of refunds are less and less sympathetic as many are of the  "I still love the project and will buy in again" variety who still have not learned their lessons. I suppose there is no reason to go there an longer as I couldn't care less about them or their refunds except that it hurts Chris Roberts efforts. I should rephrase that, It hurts Chris Roberts corporate financials  for his cash cow (and probably his private finances as well). He really does not make any real effort since the more he is involved the less gets done on the project.
Title: Re: Star Citizen Scoops, Musings and Blogs
Post by: dsmart on December 21, 2017, 05:02:09 PM
Well if there's no game coming, I don't see how they can buy back in  :smuggo:
Title: Re: Star Citizen Scoops, Musings and Blogs
Post by: dsmart on January 11, 2018, 04:38:05 PM
My take on the UK financials filing (https://threadreaderapp.com/thread/951589475855032325.html)
Title: Re: Star Citizen Scoops, Musings and Blogs
Post by: jwh1701 on January 11, 2018, 04:56:31 PM
Hello Derek,

Thank you for taking the time to research this, I have a question about the cash.
Does F42 need to have any cash on hand? Would CIG send them payments needed
for operation on a monthly or biweekly basis? As I don't understand the company structure do they even need to have cash on hand would not CIG hold all the money?

Thank you



My take on the UK financials filing (https://threadreaderapp.com/thread/951589475855032325.html)
Title: Re: Star Citizen Scoops, Musings and Blogs
Post by: dsmart on January 11, 2018, 07:40:20 PM
All companies should have cash on hand. The fact that they don't, means they're running on empty and just spending what's being paid to them by the parent company.

Which makes the payday loan they took out in Summer 2017 make more sense now.
Title: Re: Star Citizen Scoops, Musings and Blogs
Post by: Wipeout on January 12, 2018, 02:14:39 AM
My take on the UK financials filing (https://threadreaderapp.com/thread/951589475855032325.html)

A few things I have seen someone else mention on another forum, and they do make a good point.

This filing is for the period ending June 2017.  June 2017 is also when they got that cotus loan.  So it makes sense it would still be in their filings, since that loan was only like a week or 2 old by the end of June 2017.  It is also a loan for their tax incentive, and they do not get that tax incentive till Fall 2018.  Since this is basically a pay day loan, it makes sense it would not be paid off till some time Fall/Winter 2018.  We won't know when it is paid off till we see their filings for period ending December 2018, which we won't see that filing till June or July 2019.

Your part about employees being paid less I felt can easily be misunderstood.  Some people might think you are talking about F42 is spending less total money on employee wages compared to last year, which is not correct, they are actually spending more money over all this year on employees because they increased the employee count.  In 2016 they spent 8.5 Million on employee wages, this year they are set to spend approximately 10.5 million on employee wages.  I am sure you knew this, and you were talking about the over all average wage per employee was going down, which according to one person I saw another forum is equal to about 135 less per month per employee on the average, which could be explained by hiring more QA/Junior level developers.
Title: Re: Star Citizen Scoops, Musings and Blogs
Post by: Kyrt on January 12, 2018, 02:20:33 AM
A few things I have seen someone else mention on another forum, and they do make a good point.

This filing is for the period ending June 2017.  June 2017 is also when they got that cotus loan.  So it makes sense it would still be in their filings, since that loan was only like a week or 2 old by the end of June 2017.  It is also a loan for their tax incentive, and they do not get that tax incentive till Fall 2018.  Since this is basically a pay day loan, it makes sense it would not be paid off till some time Fall/Winter 2018.  We won't know when it is paid off till we see their filings for period ending December 2018, which we won't see that filing till June or July 2019.

Your part about employees being paid less I felt can easily be misunderstood.  Some people might think you are talking about F42 is spending less total money on employee wages compared to last year, which is not correct, they are actually spending more money over all this year on employees because they increased the employee count.  In 2016 they spent 8.5 Million on employee wages, this year they are set to spend approximately 10.5 million on employee wages.  I am sure you knew this, and you were talking about the over all average wage per employee was going down, which according to one person I saw another forum is equal to about 135 less per month per employee on the average, which could be explained by hiring more QA/Junior level developers.

I'd comment on the financials, but unlike the GLA where I can operate...to a degree...on a WYSIWYG principle, I know nothing about accounting
Title: Re: Star Citizen Scoops, Musings and Blogs
Post by: Wipeout on January 12, 2018, 02:27:40 AM
I'd comment on the financials, but unlike the GLA where I can operate...to a degree...on a WYSIWYG principle, I know nothing about accounting

In this case, it really is a WYSIWYG thing.  When I first read his rollout I took it as they spent 8.5 million in the last 6 months of 2016, and then in the first 6 months of 2017 they spent that 5.25 million, while increasing their employee count.  Till I saw someone mention that the 2016 number shown in his roll out is for the whole 2016 year and the 2017 number is only for the first 6 months.  So in this case it really does not need any kind of accounting understanding to see what is being shown there once you realize the 206 number is for the whole year and the 2017 number is only for the first half of the year.

The part about the loan is just knowing that the loan happened in June 2017, and this filling is for period ending June 2017 which it states the period ending June 2017.

Everything else in that report is all jibber jabber for me.
Title: Re: Star Citizen Scoops, Musings and Blogs
Post by: dsmart on January 12, 2018, 07:00:40 AM
The amount of tax credits is also directly tied to employee count. If they are saving money in one area, while increasing employee count at the same or higher cost, that means they are either hiring low tier employees, or they are reducing (which they are not, AFAICT in this filing) costs in other areas which makes up for the increased cost of the increased employee count.

Either way, they are operating on a month-to-month basis as a studio being funded by a parent company. They have no outside income, and their structure is no different from any publisher-owned external studio. If the parent stops sending money, or runs into financial trouble, the studio is dead.

Title: Re: Star Citizen Scoops, Musings and Blogs
Post by: Flashwit on January 12, 2018, 09:29:41 AM
As a side note, is the UK known to pay low wages like this or is this just a CIG thing? Obviously we just have the average available through these filings but it still gives an idea. Being in Canada, it's not an outrageous difference but it's still slightly less than what I would expect and certainly in comparison to the States it's way down there.
Title: Re: Star Citizen Scoops, Musings and Blogs
Post by: Wipeout on January 13, 2018, 12:34:21 AM
As a side note, is the UK known to pay low wages like this or is this just a CIG thing? Obviously we just have the average available through these filings but it still gives an idea. Being in Canada, it's not an outrageous difference but it's still slightly less than what I would expect and certainly in comparison to the States it's way down there.

I found this:
https://www.prospects.ac.uk/job-profiles/games-developer

Salary
Typical starting salaries for artists/animators and programmers in games development are around £19,000 to £25,000. Entry-level roles, such as quality assurance tester, may attract a lower salary.
Once you have a few years' experience, you may earn salaries in the region of £35,000 up to £50,000.
At the higher end of the scale, technical directors, developers, producers and team managers can earn up to £70,000 and beyond.
Title: Re: Star Citizen Scoops, Musings and Blogs
Post by: dsmart on January 27, 2018, 03:33:05 PM
My latest Star Citizen blog is live.

http://dereksmart.com/2018/01/star-citizen-the-fall/
Title: Re: Star Citizen Scoops, Musings and Blogs
Post by: jwh1701 on January 27, 2018, 05:36:50 PM
My latest Star Citizen blog is live.

http://dereksmart.com/2018/01/star-citizen-the-fall/

Great write up and an lot of links to read over as well, crazy all the promises that have been made.
Seeing his words written down it seems if he goes off script like with vr and sq42 you get almost incoherent tech talk.
Title: Re: Star Citizen Scoops, Musings and Blogs
Post by: dsmart on January 28, 2018, 08:08:27 AM
It's amazing to me that he has been doing this same shit for 6 years straight.
Title: Re: Star Citizen Scoops, Musings and Blogs
Post by: David-2 on January 28, 2018, 12:10:25 PM
It's amazing to me that he has been doing this same shit for 6 years straight.

Those interview transcripts are remarkable.  I understand that when people talk off-the-cuff in response to questions the answer, for most people untrained to it, is most likely to be a "stream of consciousness". 

But "consciousness" means "the state of being awake and aware of one's surroundings" and I see precious little of that in his remarks. 

So maybe I'd call it a kind of circumstantial speech (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Circumstantial_speech) or disordered thoughts (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thought_disorder) - or maybe just "stream of fantasy".

Whatever it is it is certainly not conducive to getting a game out.
Title: Re: Star Citizen Scoops, Musings and Blogs
Post by: Spunky Munkee on January 28, 2018, 01:32:03 PM
Imagine sitting through daily meetings as a dept head having to have to listen to that for direction...How can they fail to fail.
Title: Re: Star Citizen Scoops, Musings and Blogs
Post by: Bubba on January 28, 2018, 02:13:16 PM
I played the twitch video whence the transcript comes and showed it to someone not following SC at all. The comment: "Four times his face and ears turn red like he's lying"
Title: Re: Star Citizen Scoops, Musings and Blogs
Post by: StanTheMan on January 28, 2018, 04:16:18 PM
Those interview transcripts are remarkable.  I understand that when people talk off-the-cuff in response to questions the answer, for most people untrained to it, is most likely to be a "stream of consciousness". 

But "consciousness" means "the state of being awake and aware of one's surroundings" and I see precious little of that in his remarks. 

So maybe I'd call it a kind of circumstantial speech (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Circumstantial_speech) or disordered thoughts (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thought_disorder) - or maybe just "stream of fantasy".

Whatever it is it is certainly not conducive to getting a game out.

Yes.  He talks like someone that hasn't been asked many probing questions and had to reply honestly.

He waffles and his thought processes are disjointed.

He has never really had to discipline himself because he has had a relatively easy ride through life.
Title: Re: Star Citizen Scoops, Musings and Blogs
Post by: dsmart on January 29, 2018, 07:48:41 AM
Those interview transcripts are remarkable.  I understand that when people talk off-the-cuff in response to questions the answer, for most people untrained to it, is most likely to be a "stream of consciousness". 

But "consciousness" means "the state of being awake and aware of one's surroundings" and I see precious little of that in his remarks. 

So maybe I'd call it a kind of circumstantial speech (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Circumstantial_speech) or disordered thoughts (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thought_disorder) - or maybe just "stream of fantasy".

Whatever it is it is certainly not conducive to getting a game out.

That's the mark of an inexperienced con man. Also, zero accountability means that he never has to be concerned about the shit he is saying. If he had a publisher or investors to answer to, things would be different.
Title: Re: Star Citizen Scoops, Musings and Blogs
Post by: dsmart on February 22, 2018, 06:33:05 AM
My latest Star Citizen blog is live.

http://dereksmart.com/2018/01/star-citizen-the-fall/

With this nonsense (Chris Roberts on Multiplayer, Single Player and Instancing (https://robertsspaceindustries.com/comm-link/engineering/12770-Chris-Roberts-On-Multiplayer-Single-Player-And-Instancing)) from 2012.

Excerpt:

Quote
"In Star Citizen there is going to be one persistent universe server that everyone exists on. So you will never be separated from your friends, and if you want you’ll be able to join up and adventure together, you can. Due to the fidelity of the dogfighting and physics simulation we can’t however handle thousands of players in the same area of space. Even if you had enough internet bandwidth to handle the data going back and forth and a super computer for the server there’s no PC, even with quad SLI that could render that many spaceships with Star Citizen’s fidelity.” – Chris Roberts, Nov 11, 2012

And this word salad below from Feb 2016:


Quote
Q: What type of work is being done to increase the server population capacity? Should we expect to see 24 or 32 player instances in the near future?

A: The answer to that is ABSOLUTELY, I think, ah, if you've been watching some of the chatter on the recent, ah, PTU RELEASES, and, ah, you know, what's gonna be in 2.2... eh, it is, ah, gonna be 24 players, so we've been working, ah, ah, HARD on sort of optimizing areas so we can sort of scale more, I think I've mentioned before that the, you know, the biggest issue that we have is uhm, uh, just the overhead that the ships have because they're very complicated, they have multiple... items that have all this functionality, they need to talk to each other over the network... they're attached to SHIPS, a ship isn't just one entity you know, in the case of a HORNET it can be fifty or sixty, in the case of a BIGGER ship it's a lot more than... fifty or sixty, so they're very heavy, ah, sort of PROCESSING WISE and the SERVER in terms of just SIMULATION and also in... in network, um, sort of TRAFFIC... So, in general, that's, em, you know, more the limiting... FACTOR which... we've been WORKING ON, so we're... we're REFACTORING a lot of things to... make it much more, ah, SMART about when it has to UPDATE, ah, and all the other things and that sort of ties into the work that we've done in the past on the ZONE SYSTEM, we're doing sort of a, uh, whatever you wanna call it, a NETWORK LOD and an UPDATE LOD that sort of scopes depending on, you know, whether you can SEE THINGS, how FAR AWAY they are, whether they are ACTIVE, whether it's another PLAYER, whether it's relevant to YOU and... so hopefully all that stuff em, you know, helps... increase the load that we can do and we're doing things like we're... we're... you know, pushing more and more into MULTIPLE CORES, more... MULTI-THREADING to, you know, be able to do more... you know... PHYSICS PROCESSING at the same time as we're doing more sort of entity updating and simulation. So ehm you know, part of the benef... part of the result of that is moving to more players in, eh, CRUSADER, we'll continue and we're expecting to continue to sort of push that over time, eh, to get more and more and uh, you know we're actually working on... some ah, BACK END SERVER MESH TECH uhm, that will allow us to ah, sort of MESH A LOT MORE... players all in essentially what will be kind of sort of the same, ah, INSTANCE, uhm so but that's sort of ah, you know a LITTLE further along, but, eh, it's ahh... yeah, I think EXCITING so I think we'll be able to DELIVER probably more players than we were thinking originally... in concurrent areas... ah... so... when I think, actually there's a question about that so... I maybe talk a bit more about it then...

Title: Re: Star Citizen Scoops, Musings and Blogs
Post by: dsmart on March 24, 2018, 09:41:19 AM
I wrote a short thread on the latest "poll" drama (https://threadreaderapp.com/thread/977577935958892544.html).
Title: Re: Star Citizen Scoops, Musings and Blogs
Post by: lurker_404 on March 25, 2018, 02:54:17 AM
Star Citizen development is like driving toward the sun at sunset: we are cruising, the journey is awesome and it will never end by reaching the horizon, but when we run out of petrol.
Title: Re: Star Citizen Scoops, Musings and Blogs
Post by: David-2 on March 25, 2018, 09:58:12 AM
Star Citizen development is like driving toward the sun at sunset: we are cruising, the journey is awesome and it will never end by reaching the horizon, but when we run out of petrol.

Running out of gas?  I'm anticipating it being more like Vanishing Point (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bOb2BqiGZGA).
Title: Re: Star Citizen Scoops, Musings and Blogs
Post by: dsmart on April 02, 2018, 03:25:53 PM
My latest musings

https://threadreaderapp.com/thread/980886181641678848.html
Title: Re: Star Citizen Scoops, Musings and Blogs
Post by: jwh1701 on April 02, 2018, 03:39:45 PM
My latest musings

https://threadreaderapp.com/thread/980886181641678848.html

That is not surprising, but I honestly thought they would have put every resource possible into getting everything crytek out now at least considering the lawsuit. 
Title: Re: Star Citizen Scoops, Musings and Blogs
Post by: dsmart on April 02, 2018, 04:00:24 PM
That is not surprising, but I honestly thought they would have put every resource possible into getting everything crytek out now at least considering the lawsuit.

Apparently they are trying, but they are still in a no-win situation.

The Crytek lawsuit is particularly dangerous because if the court finds that they had no right to switch, but did, they're screwed. If it finds that they do have a right to switch, but they didn't, they're screwed.

Title: Re: Star Citizen Scoops, Musings and Blogs
Post by: dsmart on April 03, 2018, 11:49:02 AM
My latest musing...

https://threadreaderapp.com/thread/981151680489230336.html

(https://i.imgur.com/1QuMpFS.png)
Title: Re: Star Citizen Scoops, Musings and Blogs
Post by: dsmart on April 04, 2018, 08:20:25 AM
The "sale" vs "pledge" discussion continues

https://threadreaderapp.com/thread/981532232497147905.html
Title: Re: Star Citizen Scoops, Musings and Blogs
Post by: jwh1701 on April 04, 2018, 07:05:32 PM
The "sale" vs "pledge" discussion continues

https://threadreaderapp.com/thread/981532232497147905.html

The whole sale vs pledge is so crazy, I do not remember a gaming company having to clarify the two words.
Title: Re: Star Citizen Scoops, Musings and Blogs
Post by: dsmart on April 05, 2018, 09:03:29 AM
The whole sale vs pledge is so crazy, I do not remember a gaming company having to clarify the two words.

That's what happens when you have to keep lying.
Title: Re: Star Citizen Scoops, Musings and Blogs
Post by: dsmart on April 05, 2018, 10:42:34 AM
When it rains, it pours. Something is happening at CIG, so I took the opportunity to issue a recap ahead of what's coming.

https://threadreaderapp.com/thread/981930410673360896.html
Title: Re: Star Citizen Scoops, Musings and Blogs
Post by: StanTheMan on April 05, 2018, 01:53:50 PM
When it rains, it pours. Something is happening at CIG, so I took the opportunity to issue a recap ahead of what's coming.

https://threadreaderapp.com/thread/981930410673360896.html

"they're just focused on check boxes that result in backers spending money, rather than focusing on MAKING AN ACTUAL GAME."

That is so true.

"You have to ask yourself why would a company that - according to them - is publicly raising about $100K per month, resist giving refunds to people for as little as $60. "

Or why they wouldnt just pay off Crytek years ago and keep them on side.

Title: Re: Star Citizen Scoops, Musings and Blogs
Post by: dsmart on April 05, 2018, 04:27:23 PM
"they're just focused on check boxes that result in backers spending money, rather than focusing on MAKING AN ACTUAL GAME."

That is so true.

"You have to ask yourself why would a company that - according to them - is publicly raising about $100K per month, resist giving refunds to people for as little as $60. "

Or why they wouldnt just pay off Crytek years ago and keep them on side.

Because they believe they can do anything they like - including screwing their partners - with impunity.
Title: Re: Star Citizen Scoops, Musings and Blogs
Post by: dsmart on April 06, 2018, 07:45:30 AM
LOL!! Holy Shit! We had a 3.1 rollback :emot-lol:

https://twitter.com/dsmart/status/982252867934347264
Title: Re: Star Citizen Scoops, Musings and Blogs
Post by: jwh1701 on April 06, 2018, 09:01:14 AM
LOL!! Holy Shit! We had a 3.1 rollback :emot-lol:

https://twitter.com/dsmart/status/982252867934347264

Like seeing all the old references,

 :emot-lol:"implemented to balance insurance claims and the expedite process will also be rolled back temporarily."
Title: Re: Star Citizen Scoops, Musings and Blogs
Post by: dsmart on April 06, 2018, 09:04:40 AM
Yeah, but don't worry though; the Reclaimer is still on sale!
Title: Re: Star Citizen Scoops, Musings and Blogs
Post by: Meowz on April 06, 2018, 11:54:44 AM
Yeah, but don't worry though; the Reclaimer is still on sale!
whew, thank God! I thought I lost the chance to throw my money at a ship CIG is unable to satisfactory deliver that's still missing all it's unique gameplay mechanics!
Title: Re: Star Citizen Scoops, Musings and Blogs
Post by: dsmart on April 09, 2018, 11:41:59 AM
Star Citizen - State Of The Farce (http://dereksmart.com/forums/reply/6268/)
Title: Re: Star Citizen Scoops, Musings and Blogs
Post by: Greggy_D on April 09, 2018, 05:25:54 PM
Star Citizen - State Of The Farce (http://dereksmart.com/forums/reply/6268/)

A PLEDGE IS NOT THE SAME AS A SALE

Derek, you also need to hammer home the fact that CIG is collecting taxes on "pledges".  Either that is grossly illegal, or their "pledges" are in fact, "sales".
Title: Re: Star Citizen Scoops, Musings and Blogs
Post by: dsmart on April 09, 2018, 07:05:08 PM
A PLEDGE IS NOT THE SAME AS A SALE

Derek, you also need to hammer home the fact that CIG is collecting taxes on "pledges".  Either that is grossly illegal, or their "pledges" are in fact, "sales".

Yeah, I have in the past. The fact that they are collecting taxes proves that they are selling things.
Title: Re: Star Citizen Scoops, Musings and Blogs
Post by: dsmart on May 09, 2018, 06:19:49 AM
For those of you who don't Twitter. Thread.

https://twitter.com/dsmart/status/993979761532854272

Quote
BREAKING!! VERY BAD Star Citizen news. It's been in the works for some time now, but like the Crytek lawsuit, I couldn't talk about it.

Standby...
Title: Re: Star Citizen Scoops, Musings and Blogs
Post by: N0mad on May 09, 2018, 06:23:27 AM
:emot-supaburn: :emot-supaburn: :emot-supaburn: :emot-supaburn:

Quite excited now, is Part 2 on the way?
Title: Re: Star Citizen Scoops, Musings and Blogs
Post by: dsmart on May 09, 2018, 06:45:07 AM
It's a blog now, while I await for a response from my attorney (don't want to jeopardize my liability insurance)  :cat2:
Title: Re: Star Citizen Scoops, Musings and Blogs
Post by: Motto on May 09, 2018, 09:59:57 AM
While you wait, maybe you can play a game. I have a suggestion  :cool:
Title: Re: Star Citizen Scoops, Musings and Blogs
Post by: jwh1701 on May 09, 2018, 10:15:50 AM
It's a blog now, while I await for a response from my attorney (don't want to jeopardize my liability insurance)  :cat2:

Glad I checked in, cannot wait to see the news.
Title: Re: Star Citizen Scoops, Musings and Blogs
Post by: Resin on May 10, 2018, 10:37:33 PM
When is the blog going to be published?


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk Pro
Title: Re: Star Citizen Scoops, Musings and Blogs
Post by: N0mad on May 11, 2018, 12:49:13 AM
If the blog has to be checked with Lawyers then it's going to be a major reveal and CIG aren't going to be happy.

Did I read your Tweets correctly: you have a former CIG employee as a source whose NDA has expired?
Title: Re: Star Citizen Scoops, Musings and Blogs
Post by: Bubba on May 11, 2018, 07:09:12 AM
Here's the information so far released:

Quote
You see, the thing about companies, banks and people doing due diligence is that you just never know who they're going to reach out to.

And we're all 6 degrees removed from the next person in any chain sequence.

So word gets around.

FYI: mutual NDA expired
"We're all 6 degrees removed from the next person in any chain sequence" probably means "At most, there are six degrees of separation between any two people. But in a small industry, there are much fewer, and word gets around faster."

The key is the first line: "doing due diligence". Ideally, the laws provide additional protection to consumers in business/consumer relations. The idea is that the relationship is asymmetrical: the business side is professional, and the consumer side is not, so the business can screw the consumer any number of ways, and the law tries to protect consumers. Of course, that's the whole point of things like binding arbitration causes: to tip the balance back in the favor of the businesses.

Businesses dealing with businesses, professional investors, banks and the like, are treated as equals, and therefore, before any collaboration, investment, loan or the like, are required to do "due diligence", where they evaluate the company's operational basis, identify any risks, unsafe practices, what their cashflow is like, etc.: the specifics depend on for what the diligence is done (obligatory wikipedia link: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Due_diligence).

To take a case: when CIG (or RSI or whatever shell company it was) applied for the Coutts loan, someone over in Coutts had to do due diligence. In a case like that, it would not be unexpected to say "Let's look at the books"; one of the major factors in determining whether to give a loan and on what terms would be how likely the company is to pay it back.
If I were to speculate, for a specialized field, they might call in an outside consultant to give their opinion. IANAL, but such a persone person would have to sign an NDA, and, while that NDA might have an expiration date, that doesn't mean that a person with access to privileged information could speak freely about that information, especially in a way that might be damaging to the business.
My best guess: he's got some "big source" that confirms what we've all known -- CIG and its 20 other manifestations are nearly out of money, and have been trying behind the scenes to keep afloat by proposing gruesome arrangements to third parties. But that's a guess, and it could be anything: for example, that Ortwin, Chris and Erin got kicked out of the Concorde Room for performing Satanic rituals and animal sacrifices while blasting the latest Kanye West album.
Title: Re: Star Citizen Scoops, Musings and Blogs
Post by: Motto on May 11, 2018, 07:21:21 AM
So, it's breaking bad?
Title: Re: Star Citizen Scoops, Musings and Blogs
Post by: N0mad on May 11, 2018, 07:23:09 AM
I was working from memory with my previous post, but yes, he makes it sound like an outside consultant who had access to the financial records. The problem with a professional (accountant, financial consultant etc) is that even after an NDA expires they wouldn't leak any info as their business will depend on keep client confidentiality.

My best guess is that a bank etc reached out to an industry expert for an opinion, someone who makes games who doesn't have any incentive to keep quiet after an NDA expires - someone who knows Derek Smart of course.
Title: Re: Star Citizen Scoops, Musings and Blogs
Post by: dsmart on May 15, 2018, 06:54:27 AM
Tweet storm!

https://twitter.com/dsmart/status/996382327449227269
Title: Re: Star Citizen Scoops, Musings and Blogs
Post by: jwh1701 on May 15, 2018, 07:33:06 AM
Tweet storm!

https://twitter.com/dsmart/status/996382327449227269

Nice that progress is being made and hopefully you can determine that the information is legitimate.
Title: Re: Star Citizen Scoops, Musings and Blogs
Post by: premiumnugz on May 15, 2018, 09:24:04 AM
I was working from memory with my previous post, but yes, he makes it sound like an outside consultant who had access to the financial records. The problem with a professional (accountant, financial consultant etc) is that even after an NDA expires they wouldn't leak any info as their business will depend on keep client confidentiality.

My best guess is that a bank etc reached out to an industry expert for an opinion, someone who makes games who doesn't have any incentive to keep quiet after an NDA expires - someone who knows Derek Smart of course.

The thing is there's a million ways companies and banks use to vet potential clients and other companies, not all of those ways are legal but almost every financial institution I've worked with still uses them. PI's for example can easily get hold of target's bank records, despite that being illegal in almost every first world country, also divorce lawyers regularly scour opponents financial records etc.

We already know CIG banks with at least Coutts and RBS in the UK as they have loans with them, so it's not rocket science to get hold of their complete financial records, anyone with a few grand and the right investigative connections could do it. Also UK company accounts are audited and public, so the information can be easily verified.
Title: Re: Star Citizen Scoops, Musings and Blogs
Post by: Motto on May 15, 2018, 11:02:38 AM
https://twitter.com/ballroom_blitz/status/995446013857943552/photo/1

fixed your link
Title: Re: Star Citizen Scoops, Musings and Blogs
Post by: dsmart on May 15, 2018, 12:03:10 PM
https://twitter.com/banditloaf/status/994991142851641344

Moving employees to contract status is cheaper, no benefits etc.

But that's just the tip of the iceberg. Wait.
Title: Re: Star Citizen Scoops, Musings and Blogs
Post by: Motto on May 15, 2018, 12:14:17 PM
How long? Gimme gimme gimme now Puhuleeeeeese  :emot-supaburn:
Title: Re: Star Citizen Scoops, Musings and Blogs
Post by: ecg on May 15, 2018, 01:15:32 PM
...and it seemed not so long ago #banditloaf was a favorite son. First a demotion and now it seems he is being kicked to the curb.
 Better be careful if they stop at any tollbooths on the drive east.
Title: Re: Star Citizen Scoops, Musings and Blogs
Post by: GaryII on May 16, 2018, 03:25:00 AM
But that's just the tip of the iceberg. Wait.

 Those two at this point probably are not very important to the project anyway...
 So I guess that "Big project" for Ben was "Quiet Exit from CIG"... 
Title: Re: Star Citizen Scoops, Musings and Blogs
Post by: dsmart on May 18, 2018, 01:17:18 PM
State Of The Farce

http://dereksmart.com/forums/reply/6291/
Title: Re: Star Citizen Scoops, Musings and Blogs
Post by: Motto on May 18, 2018, 01:24:39 PM
Not much has exchanged – except that

you might want to correct that  :wink:
Title: Re: Star Citizen Scoops, Musings and Blogs
Post by: dsmart on May 18, 2018, 05:06:47 PM
You were reading an older Cloudflare cache version. I have since cleared the cache after I made other edits.
Title: Re: Star Citizen Scoops, Musings and Blogs
Post by: dsmart on May 25, 2018, 08:07:39 AM
How Star Citizen mirrors the Theranos collapse (https://twitter.com/dsmart/status/1000000463981465600)
Title: Re: Star Citizen Scoops, Musings and Blogs
Post by: David-2 on May 25, 2018, 10:50:08 AM
I thought of the parallel when I read the article this morning (amazing stuff!) but ... to be fair, at least CR doesn't go around in black turtlenecks.
Title: Re: Star Citizen Scoops, Musings and Blogs
Post by: dsmart on May 29, 2018, 03:50:47 PM
A thread. Read it.

https://twitter.com/dsmart/status/1001593621152485376
Title: Re: Star Citizen Scoops, Musings and Blogs
Post by: krylite on May 29, 2018, 05:48:33 PM
Looking forward to the full reveal. Mostly as I was expecting, the actual "unjust enrichment". Sounds like it should be worthy enough for the meaty second act (3rd act of stashing funds and hard assets in holes in the ground and clawback attempts of foreign bank accounts, spent luxuries, along with the arrest, possible extradition, and indictment proceedings) of a Stacy Keach narrated "CNBC: American Greed" ponzi episode.
Title: Re: Star Citizen Scoops, Musings and Blogs
Post by: LordSolarMacharius on May 29, 2018, 06:01:49 PM
A thread. Read it.

https://twitter.com/dsmart/status/1001593621152485376

I think anyone really paying attention figured that there was a really good reason for all the shell companies and financial shenanigans including reneging on their promise of financial transparency. I'm sure now matter how clever they think they've been stashing and transferring around money that investigators will find enough evidence of wrongdoing to get some convictions.
Title: Re: Star Citizen Scoops, Musings and Blogs
Post by: dsmart on June 04, 2018, 07:05:00 AM
Chris Roberts is trying to bail on Star Citizen (https://threadreaderapp.com/thread/1003627388473872385.html)
Title: Re: Star Citizen Scoops, Musings and Blogs
Post by: dsmart on June 05, 2018, 06:42:54 AM
I posted this on another board. So I'm just pasting it here for posterity.



Quote
If I was Chris Roberts at this point, I would take one month’s income (what is that now, a couple million?) and secretly hire a smaller, talented, up-and-coming game development house to create a basic SP (with a rudimentary AI) version of the game with many (but not all) of the promised features. Give them two years to complete the basic, functioning game.

At the same time, hire another dev house to do nothing but create functioning 3D models of all of the ships that were sold as jpegs. Maybe budget another million for that. Give them the same two years.

Then, when the basic game universe is finished, import all of those ships into it and ship the damn thing. BAM. You’ve now got something impressive to show, and it’s playable. Your customers are pleased that they can actually fly around in the ships that they paid for. THEN you continue to milk them for money to make it even better. Such as adding multi-player functionality. You could milk them for years with that, and they’d be happy because they’ve got a fully playable SP game with their actual ships in it.

Hmm. Thinking further, this plan might have worked if it was implemented two or three years ago.
But even then, it would have been difficult to execute this in secret. How would you, for instance, explain why you laid off most of your own employees? Unless you kept them all employed just to maintain the illusion that they were working on the game.

Okay, I’m just free-thinking now. They long ago already had the talent in place to make this game, or some lesser version of it (that would have been better). So there was no need to contract a different dev house like I just suggested.

I suppose the reason I came up with that plan of mine was because I envisioned that a great game could have been made if only a solid plan for it was given to another dev house.

But being as they already had great talent employed, the real problem was/is the lack of a solid plan in place. Also, solid leadership would have helped.

MORAL: Make a plan and stick to it, else you’ll end up making something like this post.

It's almost as if you haven't been around [the game industry] for long. You are aware that over 90% of games just flat out fail, right? And that even the indies who make them on the cheap, tend to not even make enough money for another game? It's basically the reason that I kept making my style of games because I didn't want to take the risk of trying to do something else, then failing, while losing my pre-existing install base. It's why we have the likes of COD VII, BF XXI etc. It's why I kept making sequels and derivative games (http://3000ad.com/games/) for the past 30 years. You absolutely cannot underestimate the power that an existing install base wields.

Even if croberts had taken that $2M and built the original game, there's no guarantee that it would have succeeded; let alone made enough money for them to do another game.

e.g. I made LOD Tactics (http://lodgame.com/tactics/), my first RTS game for under $500K. And for the entire 14 months, I hardly slept the whole time. Not from dev, but from angst associated with losing that money, let alone turning a profit. And why did I do it? Because after 6 f*cking years of tooling around with the larger Line Of Defense (http://lodgame.com) game, and having Microsoft kill the underlying engine, I was facing another $1M and 18+ months porting it to UE4 (http://lodgame.com/16-11-01-state-of-play/). So I needed a Plan B.

Luckily, Tactics made its money back, and turned a profit (due to mobile and XB1 sales) - which, on reflection, meant that a publisher probably would never have made it due to the profit margin. But it was enough for me to say "Screw this shit, I'm not making a sequel or DLC as planned". Instead, I went back to my gamers who were already harassing me for "skipping the current generation of space combat resurgence" because of Elite Dangerous, Star Citizen, X4, Dual Universe, Infinity Battlespace etc. So I made a plan to improve on my last big Universal Combat game (http://3000ad.com/games/universal-combat-lyrius-conflict/) (which was released back in 2009, and which shockingly was still selling) and came up with a plan (https://trello.com/b/5p4AlFoL/universal-combat-the-lyrius-conflic) to just improve on it via DLC, rather than spending another +5 years and money I cannot afford to lose at my age (though all this, my daughter just graduated high school last month, and is off to college!), to build a new sequel from scratch.

So right now, the LOD port to UE4 isn't even 50% there yet, and I'm still pissing around with the UCCE improvement DLC.

Thing is, most devs will always try to get something else lined up before finishing what they are presently working on. If you don't have a Plan B in the works, you're literally writing your own death warrant. I mean, look what happened to CliffyB's Boss Key studios. They apparently saw it coming when Lawbreakers failed, but their Plan B (Radical Heights) was completely ineffective. So they shutdown less than 3 weeks after it went live.

The fact that croberts has two games in the works, isn't the issue. The issue is that neither one of them is anywhere near completion. And the one which was most likely to be completed, Squadron 42 (https://robertsspaceindustries.com/squadron42), cannot be completed because it relies on the same incomplete shitty engine and assets that Star Citizen requires.

And having been MIA for years, take a look at the SQ42 vertical slice from the Dec 2017 presentation, and see if you spot anything special which leads you to believe that it is in any way, shape or form, a title which would have made millions were it released as a standard game.


It's why those chuckleheads have zero incentive to ship a game - of any kind. The minute they do that, it's going to get judged - and subsequently trashed - on merits. So they've front-loaded a vast majority of the money - which they would never have earned in a standard sales channel. Which means that the vast majority of people who would have paid for these games, already have entitlements to them. And that they're selling EACH game separately for $45, is the pinnacle of hilarity.

So no, there is no way that croberts could have gone for any plan other than the one he embarked on. Selling promises, while generating and accumulating engineering debt, is how he made millions. His was a case of perfect timing and copious amount of luck. That he ended up perpetrating an absolute scam (knowing he was incapable of delivering on what he was selling) in order to raise money, is why he has failed.

As I said earlier, because he made all this money by selling promises - not a game - he couldn’t simply go back and release a smaller game, having taken the money to make a larger one. So he's stuck. And the only way forward is straight toward the disastrous ending that he has plotted. Which, if you look at the timeline (http://www.dereksmart.org/2015/08/star-citizen-how-i-got-involved/) (updated) of how they came after me (of all people!) when I sounded the alarm, it's easy to see that three years ago in 2015, they knew I was onto something. At that point, they were already three years into what is now a 6 year scam. And neither of the two games is near release.

Here's the thing. Him and his friends and family, made millions from this. And they are likely to get away with it. At least in the short term.
Title: Re: Star Citizen Scoops, Musings and Blogs
Post by: David-2 on June 05, 2018, 06:59:18 AM
Fascinating read, thanks.  But, you're making it all sound preplanned - if you think so maybe you should change your tagline from This is Spinal Tap to The Producers (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xGdY4jfhKRM)?
Title: Re: Star Citizen Scoops, Musings and Blogs
Post by: dsmart on June 20, 2018, 10:16:24 AM
I wrote a thing

https://threadreaderapp.com/thread/1009461708006535168.html

https://twitter.com/dsmart/status/1009510293557432321
Quote
Clarification:

Prospector mining ship, in game since 3.0 (Dec '17)

Vulture salvage ship is a JPEG

You can't mine in 3.2 without a Prospector - which is not on sale atm

BUT if you buy a Vulture, you get a Prospector as a loaner.

I shit you not. It's all true.
Title: Re: Star Citizen Scoops, Musings and Blogs
Post by: jwh1701 on June 20, 2018, 04:35:57 PM
I wrote a thing

https://threadreaderapp.com/thread/1009461708006535168.html

https://twitter.com/dsmart/status/1009510293557432321

Great write up, I can always use a refresher for my reddit posts.
Title: Re: Star Citizen Scoops, Musings and Blogs
Post by: dsmart on June 27, 2018, 03:25:58 PM
LOL!! Read the Star Citizen part

http://www.alleywatch.com/2018/06/an-analysis-of-jibo-what-went-wrong/
Title: Re: Star Citizen Scoops, Musings and Blogs
Post by: jwh1701 on June 27, 2018, 04:00:58 PM
LOL!! Read the Star Citizen part

http://www.alleywatch.com/2018/06/an-analysis-of-jibo-what-went-wrong/


That is very much an LOL, once the word gets out and Chris sees that this is emotionally hurting his employees like the escapist article they will get one of these soon.

https://web.archive.org/web/20170119204013/https://robertsspaceindustries.com/comm-link/transmission/14979-Chairmans-Response-To-The-Escapist
Title: Re: Star Citizen Scoops, Musings and Blogs
Post by: dsmart on June 27, 2018, 05:08:46 PM
God, I hope so. That's why I've Tweeted it, and posted it on Facebook. :emot-lol:
Title: Re: Star Citizen Scoops, Musings and Blogs
Post by: dsmart on June 29, 2018, 12:39:06 PM
Star Citizen - The Next Generation Of Shillizens (http://dereksmart.com/forums/reply/6418/)
Title: Re: Star Citizen Scoops, Musings and Blogs
Post by: dsmart on June 30, 2018, 06:04:09 AM
Star Citizen - The Next Generation Of Shillizens (http://dereksmart.com/forums/reply/6418/)

I have made some edits to the original article. Also added more info to the SQ42 section due to the broadcast going live after I had published the article.
Title: Re: Star Citizen Scoops, Musings and Blogs
Post by: jwh1701 on June 30, 2018, 11:41:39 AM
I have made some edits to the original article. Also added more info to the SQ42 section due to the broadcast going live after I had published the article.

Great write up, few commenters in reddit still stating you never got anything right and few yesterday still pushing that you doxxed Chris and family.
Title: Re: Star Citizen Scoops, Musings and Blogs
Post by: dsmart on June 30, 2018, 02:04:16 PM
Great write up, few commenters in reddit still stating you never got anything right and few yesterday still pushing that you doxxed Chris and family.

That's why we keep laughing at those guys. They're in full-on denial mode. It's hilariously glorious.
Title: Re: Star Citizen Scoops, Musings and Blogs
Post by: dsmart on July 06, 2018, 07:54:48 AM
Three years ago today, I published the famous July Blog. Today's recap.

https://twitter.com/dsmart/status/1015234704709246976
Title: Re: Star Citizen Scoops, Musings and Blogs
Post by: dsmart on July 14, 2018, 07:11:00 AM
I wrote a thing in which I also cover the recent court case loss by a backer

https://threadreaderapp.com/thread/1018111910598889472.html
Title: Re: Star Citizen Scoops, Musings and Blogs
Post by: jwh1701 on July 14, 2018, 09:21:56 AM
I wrote a thing in which I also cover the recent court case loss by a backer

https://threadreaderapp.com/thread/1018111910598889472.html

Great write up trying to constantly expose the TOS changes got one account banned.
Title: Re: Star Citizen Scoops, Musings and Blogs
Post by: StanTheMan on July 14, 2018, 07:13:26 PM
Great write up trying to constantly expose the TOS changes got one account banned.

Yep...Got to love those Chucklefucks ...
Title: Re: Star Citizen Scoops, Musings and Blogs
Post by: dsmart on July 16, 2018, 01:10:05 PM
I wrote a bit more about the legal issues surrounding the refunds

https://threadreaderapp.com/thread/1018927889818046464.html
Title: Re: Star Citizen Scoops, Musings and Blogs
Post by: dsmart on July 18, 2018, 06:54:30 AM
I wrote a blog about the recent backer lawsuit, but have been considering doing a YT video instead. But I need some suggestions. I am not going to be discussing this in two places. So if you want to pitch in, or just keep track of the project, go to the #starcitizen_around_the_farce channel on my Discord (invite code: https://discord.gg/7nUXA9u) server.

Title: Re: Star Citizen Scoops, Musings and Blogs
Post by: dsmart on July 19, 2018, 01:19:58 PM
I wrote a blog about the recent lawsuit fiasco, and also did a video narrative of it

ARTICLE:

http://dereksmart.com/forums/reply/6474/

VIDEO:
 

AUDIO:

https://soundcloud.com/derek-smart-9/2018-07-19-star-citizen-around-the-farce


Title: Re: Star Citizen Scoops, Musings and Blogs
Post by: Meowz on July 19, 2018, 06:08:34 PM
I wrote a blog about the recent lawsuit fiasco, and also did a video narrative of it

http://dereksmart.com/forums/reply/6474/
 

Really liked the video, made it pretty clear for the layman. Hope there is more in the future!

So considering the seemingly iron clad TOS now, is there any hope that those at the top of this scam will be held accountable in the end?
Title: Re: Star Citizen Scoops, Musings and Blogs
Post by: Resin on July 20, 2018, 01:15:10 AM
Really liked the video, made it pretty clear for the layman. Hope there is more in the future!

So considering the seemingly iron clad TOS now, is there any hope that those at the top of this scam will be held accountable in the end?

TOS is iron clad in US. Would be interesting to see actions against CIG in countries where consumer protection is stronger like in Germany or Australia.
Title: Re: Star Citizen Scoops, Musings and Blogs
Post by: dsmart on July 20, 2018, 05:38:25 AM
Really liked the video, made it pretty clear for the layman. Hope there is more in the future!

Thanks. We'll see.

I also converted it to MP3 format for podcast listening. It's on SoundCloud. The link is in my previous post.

Quote
So considering the seemingly iron clad TOS now, is there any hope that those at the top of this scam will be held accountable in the end?

Not in a court of law, no. At least not as far as backers are concerned. If an investor, bank, govt etc were involved, then of course they could take legal action for other issues. And of course they aren't tied to their bs TOS.
Title: Re: Star Citizen Scoops, Musings and Blogs
Post by: jwh1701 on July 20, 2018, 06:37:44 PM
I wrote a bit more about the legal issues surrounding the refunds

https://threadreaderapp.com/thread/1018927889818046464.html

Another great read and I hope to finish watching your video when I get back into VA by Sunday.
For some reason I find the guy walking around to be so amusing considering all
they hype on proc-gen walking. I'm hoping the video helps people see a more personal view of you talking about SC. Because on reddit and other forums they are fed a complete false narrative about
your character on a daily basis.
Title: Re: Star Citizen Scoops, Musings and Blogs
Post by: Motto on July 21, 2018, 01:20:06 AM
You tweeted a YT Lawyer explaining why nobody isn't entitled for a refund. Maybe you should add to it that that only applies to the US. Under EU law, it considered a pre-order that has better protection. We just need one European to sue them  :grin:
Title: Re: Star Citizen Scoops, Musings and Blogs
Post by: dsmart on July 21, 2018, 07:56:01 AM
You tweeted a YT Lawyer explaining why nobody isn't entitled for a refund. Maybe you should add to it that that only applies to the US. Under EU law, it considered a pre-order that has better protection. We just need one European to sue them  :grin:

As I responded to someone in my YT video comment (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HYEAPspG92U&lc=Ugyr-fjdI5opAr1Ear14AaABAg), I really don't care about other countries.

Quote
I'm not out to save the world, and my video wasn't about saving or helping anyone.

Also, I'm not in the least bit interested in what happens in other countries. If I have to do it for one country, then I would have to do it for all countries. What makes Germany different from Australia, or UK, or Canada? So why would I then do it for one country, but not the other?

So how could I possibly write about the impact in countries where I neither reside, nor have in-depth knowledge of how their legal process and consumer rights work? And why can't someone else in those countries do what I do? Why does it have to be me?
Title: Re: Star Citizen Scoops, Musings and Blogs
Post by: Motto on July 21, 2018, 09:32:09 AM
Why does it have to be me?

Well, you ARE the Great, the Mighty, the One and Only Internet Warlord. That's why. And to stick it to Chris of course. And maybe, to not discourage any European backer to try to get a refund by sueing. Did I mention YOU are the Great, the Mighty, the One and Only Internet Warlord?
Title: Re: Star Citizen Scoops, Musings and Blogs
Post by: Backer42 on July 21, 2018, 03:43:09 PM
TOS is iron clad in US. Would be interesting to see actions against CIG in countries where consumer protection is stronger like in Germany or Australia.
For Germany it's pretty simple: ToS may not contain "surprising" clauses. These get invalidated in court on a regular basis. The same applies to "unfair" clauses, meaning anything that puts the consumer at a severe disadvantage.

So "you completely waive your right to sue us" and "you pay us money, but are not entitled to anything" hidden in fine print doesn't stand a chance in Germany.
Title: Re: Star Citizen Scoops, Musings and Blogs
Post by: Resin on July 22, 2018, 03:29:20 AM
For Germany it's pretty simple: ToS may not contain "surprising" clauses. These get invalidated in court on a regular basis. The same applies to "unfair" clauses, meaning anything that puts the consumer at a severe disadvantage.

So "you completely waive your right to sue us" and "you pay us money, but are not entitled to anything" hidden in fine print doesn't stand a chance in Germany.

I know. I think that’s the case in most EU countries since there are EU consumer protection in place but some countries like Germany, have even better consumer protection.
Title: Re: Star Citizen Scoops, Musings and Blogs
Post by: Resin on July 22, 2018, 03:29:51 AM
For Germany it's pretty simple: ToS may not contain "surprising" clauses. These get invalidated in court on a regular basis. The same applies to "unfair" clauses, meaning anything that puts the consumer at a severe disadvantage.

So "you completely waive your right to sue us" and "you pay us money, but are not entitled to anything" hidden in fine print doesn't stand a chance in Germany.

I know. I think that’s the case in most EU countries since there are EU consumer protection in place but some countries like Germany, have even better consumer protection.
Title: Re: Star Citizen Scoops, Musings and Blogs
Post by: Motto on July 22, 2018, 05:37:26 AM
But where is the backer who's willing to sue them? That's the 190M dollar question.
Title: Re: Star Citizen Scoops, Musings and Blogs
Post by: DemonInvestor on July 22, 2018, 06:07:47 AM
But where is the backer who's willing to sue them? That's the 190M dollar question.

You don't necessarily need a backer to sue them.
You've got consumer protection agencies and competitors who might be able to sue RSI if they not adhere to a lot of consumer protection laws. Though naturally those agencies most often only get involved after someone informs them about bad situations.
Title: Re: Star Citizen Scoops, Musings and Blogs
Post by: dsmart on July 26, 2018, 05:23:41 PM
New filings over at F42-UK

https://threadreaderapp.com/thread/1022628907139440640.html
Title: Re: Star Citizen Scoops, Musings and Blogs
Post by: dsmart on July 27, 2018, 08:08:59 AM
Goon accountant in the UK

(https://pbs.twimg.com/media/DjHuTjoXsAAR9-R.jpg)
Title: Re: Star Citizen Scoops, Musings and Blogs
Post by: jwh1701 on July 27, 2018, 08:51:19 AM
New filings over at F42-UK

https://threadreaderapp.com/thread/1022628907139440640.html

That is interesting but I wonder why they would spend another 17k if they are hurting for funds, but it seems they maybe were forced to do so? It seems to me that they are still thinking they are viable for the long-term since they are issuing for shares? I tried to research that to understand if they could use that for quick gains if CIG was coming to an end but could not find information on it.
Title: Re: Star Citizen Scoops, Musings and Blogs
Post by: Motto on July 27, 2018, 08:53:37 AM
It's my understanding that if they hadn't done this, they would have to file their financials shortly. And they really really can't have that now, they need  to hide the scamming and ripping off as long as possible.
Title: Re: Star Citizen Scoops, Musings and Blogs
Post by: jwh1701 on July 27, 2018, 08:54:33 AM
It's my understanding that if they hadn't done this, they would have to file their financials shortly. And they really really can't have that now, they need  to hide the scamming and ripping off as long as possible.

Thank you that makes it sound even more insane as if you willing to spend 17k to hide something it has to be big.
Title: Re: Star Citizen Scoops, Musings and Blogs
Post by: dsmart on July 27, 2018, 12:26:23 PM
It's my understanding that if they hadn't done this, they would have to file their financials shortly. And they really really can't have that now, they need  to hide the scamming and ripping off as long as possible.

That is correct. Also, it will probably show that they are really doing badly financially. The last thing they want right now, is that sort of bad news.

ps: Apollo medical ship is a bust btw
Title: Re: Star Citizen Scoops, Musings and Blogs
Post by: jwh1701 on July 27, 2018, 01:18:05 PM
That is correct. Also, it will probably show that they are really doing badly financially. The last thing they want right now, is that sort of bad news.

ps: Apollo medical ship is a bust btw


There was a whole lot of discussion on previous ships that had lost medical beds, makes sense now. Even given
the backers total blindness I would think a med ship at this juncture would have been a hard sell. Hope
this forces them to come up with ridiculous ship concepts or buzzwords we can meme.
Title: Re: Star Citizen Scoops, Musings and Blogs
Post by: N0mad on July 27, 2018, 01:22:23 PM
So if the Apollo was a failure, and CIG are desperate then what are they going to try next?

Let's face it, flying round the 'verse picking up the injured is not a glamorous way to play a game that doesn't exist. People want something exciting: combat, exploration, living life on the edge; something glamorous...

How about a space fire engine? Everyone wants to be a firefighter!

Title: Re: Star Citizen Scoops, Musings and Blogs
Post by: jwh1701 on July 27, 2018, 02:41:35 PM
So if the Apollo was a failure, and CIG are desperate then what are they going to try next?

Let's face it, flying round the 'verse picking up the injured is not a glamorous way to play a game that doesn't exist. People want something exciting: combat, exploration, living life on the edge; something glamorous...

How about a space fire engine? Everyone wants to be a firefighter!

LOL I will ask for this later on, good idea.
Title: Re: Star Citizen Scoops, Musings and Blogs
Post by: dsmart on July 27, 2018, 03:31:54 PM

There was a whole lot of discussion on previous ships that had lost medical beds, makes sense now. Even given
the backers total blindness I would think a med ship at this juncture would have been a hard sell. Hope
this forces them to come up with ridiculous ship concepts or buzzwords we can meme.

I was having a discussion with a backer about this earlier today. I tried explaining to him that the Apollo was just a scope creep + cash grab because they already had Cutlass Red which had a medical facility. Instead of doing that feature, they came up with a whole new ship because they make money that way.

https://twitter.com/dsmart/status/1022830338438057985

https://twitter.com/dsmart/status/1022837682257494017

https://twitter.com/dsmart/status/1022837289813266433
Title: Re: Star Citizen Scoops, Musings and Blogs
Post by: jwh1701 on July 27, 2018, 03:52:23 PM
I was having a discussion with a backer about this earlier today. I tried explaining to him that the Apollo was just a scope creep + cash grab because they already had Cutlass Red which had a medical facility. Instead of doing that feature, they came up with a whole new ship because they make money that way.

https://twitter.com/dsmart/status/1022830338438057985

https://twitter.com/dsmart/status/1022837682257494017

https://twitter.com/dsmart/status/1022837289813266433

Yep they do not seem to get it at all, my karma has been annihilated this week..
Title: Re: Star Citizen Scoops, Musings and Blogs
Post by: StanTheMan on July 27, 2018, 04:09:10 PM
Yep they do not seem to get it at all, my karma has been annihilated this week..

It is only like a remake of a popular movie from a decade or so ago...
Title: Re: Star Citizen Scoops, Musings and Blogs
Post by: dsmart on August 03, 2018, 09:02:48 AM
F42 released their 2017 financial accounting for YE DEC 2017. My take.

https://threadreaderapp.com/thread/1025395271050715136.html
Title: Re: Star Citizen Scoops, Musings and Blogs
Post by: dsmart on August 05, 2018, 07:37:36 AM
Sunday Around The Farce

https://threadreaderapp.com/thread/1026100168704380929.html
Title: Re: Star Citizen Scoops, Musings and Blogs
Post by: jwh1701 on August 05, 2018, 06:50:13 PM
Sunday Around The Farce

https://threadreaderapp.com/thread/1026100168704380929.html


Great write up I had forgotten about the cross purchasing from themselves, I don't understand how that is even allowed and I will try an research that.
Title: Re: Star Citizen Scoops, Musings and Blogs
Post by: dsmart on August 16, 2018, 08:42:33 AM
New article. Includes updated Crytek lawsuit, as well as recent UK financials

http://dereksmart.com/forums/reply/6560/
Title: Re: Star Citizen Scoops, Musings and Blogs
Post by: StanTheMan on August 17, 2018, 05:05:33 AM
New article. Includes updated Crytek lawsuit, as well as recent UK financials

http://dereksmart.com/forums/reply/6560/

Dont see anything added re Crytek filing after this ruling ....I may need some glasses..

Found on your Twitter feed..

https://www.docdroid.net/Btqzzhy/031128797590.pdf#page=2 (https://www.docdroid.net/Btqzzhy/031128797590.pdf#page=2)
Title: Re: Star Citizen Scoops, Musings and Blogs
Post by: dsmart on August 17, 2018, 05:47:12 AM
I haven't added anything. You're looking at a post made yesterday. I only posted about the new filing this morning on Twitter.
Title: Re: Star Citizen Scoops, Musings and Blogs
Post by: StanTheMan on August 17, 2018, 05:56:04 AM
I haven't added anything. You're looking at a post made yesterday. I only posted about the new filing this morning on Twitter.

I am getting a refund on my new glasses then...

(https://i.imgur.com/Vybb1IX.jpg?1)

Obviously this is just another frivolous lawsuit...

Title: Re: Star Citizen Scoops, Musings and Blogs
Post by: dsmart on August 31, 2018, 08:10:08 AM
My latest on CitizenConned

http://dereksmart.com/forums/reply/6601/
Title: Re: Star Citizen Scoops, Musings and Blogs
Post by: dsmart on September 08, 2018, 09:27:03 AM
My latest on the startling statements by the devs

http://dereksmart.com/forums/reply/6615/
Title: Re: Star Citizen Scoops, Musings and Blogs
Post by: dsmart on September 21, 2018, 08:07:03 AM
My latest in the on-going FUD campaign :)

https://threadreaderapp.com/thread/1043135376041357312.html
Title: Re: Star Citizen Scoops, Musings and Blogs
Post by: Greggy_D on September 21, 2018, 09:34:14 AM
That was a good one also.  You can't argue when the facts are laid out right before oneself.
Title: Re: Star Citizen Scoops, Musings and Blogs
Post by: dsmart on September 21, 2018, 02:59:38 PM
That was a good one also.  You can't argue when the facts are laid out right before oneself.

Have you been to Reddit lately? :)
Title: Re: Star Citizen Scoops, Musings and Blogs
Post by: dsmart on September 24, 2018, 11:19:28 AM
My latest missive is live

http://dereksmart.com/forums/reply/6639/
Title: Re: Star Citizen Scoops, Musings and Blogs
Post by: Resin on September 24, 2018, 01:06:29 PM
My latest missive is live

http://dereksmart.com/forums/reply/6639/

Any idea why these links never work with Tapatalk? For example this link jumps to Squadron 42 Dev progress watch thread message from 2017.

If I select ”open in Chrome” it opens the correct one.
Title: Re: Star Citizen Scoops, Musings and Blogs
Post by: jwh1701 on September 24, 2018, 03:27:10 PM
My latest missive is live

http://dereksmart.com/forums/reply/6639/

Great write up, the avenger pic was absolute genius.
Title: Re: Star Citizen Scoops, Musings and Blogs
Post by: krylite on October 03, 2018, 05:06:38 AM
Great write up, the avenger pic was absolute genius.

yes, that was funny. Sadly I "predict" 14,000,605 more dollars could still be siphoned off by the CIG-ponzi from these last extreme smart-spite and sunk-cost backers before it all collapses.
Title: Re: Star Citizen Scoops, Musings and Blogs
Post by: jwh1701 on October 03, 2018, 06:31:45 PM
yes, that was funny. Sadly I "predict" 14,000,605 more dollars could still be siphoned off by the CIG-ponzi from these last extreme smart-spite and sunk-cost backers before it all collapses.


LOL I agree with you since they appear be able to gloss over anything that happens before they can think rationally.
Title: Re: Star Citizen Scoops, Musings and Blogs
Post by: dsmart on October 04, 2018, 12:39:37 PM
Twitter thread

https://twitter.com/dsmart/status/1047925528479653888
Title: Re: Star Citizen Scoops, Musings and Blogs
Post by: jwh1701 on October 04, 2018, 03:12:44 PM
Twitter thread

https://twitter.com/dsmart/status/1047925528479653888

Sounds great if they get to go forward with discovery, I hope all the shell companies get pulled into this as well.
Title: Re: Star Citizen Scoops, Musings and Blogs
Post by: dsmart on October 06, 2018, 04:49:24 AM
Sounds great if they get to go forward with discovery, I hope all the shell companies get pulled into this as well.

They have no choice. As Crytek said, unraveling the myriad of companies is the only way to know which one of them was party to the violations. Remember how the judge already ruled that RSI was party to the lawsuit after CIG objected. So for now, both CIG and RSI are party to it. I expect that F42 and the others will be too. That's what discovery is for.
Title: Re: Star Citizen Scoops, Musings and Blogs
Post by: dsmart on October 15, 2018, 06:56:34 PM
My latest on CitizenCon 2018 and everything else

http://dereksmart.com/forums/reply/6682/
Title: Re: Star Citizen Scoops, Musings and Blogs
Post by: jwh1701 on October 15, 2018, 08:25:43 PM
My latest on CitizenCon 2018 and everything else

http://dereksmart.com/forums/reply/6682/

Excellent write up I enjoy seeing you discuss the game technologies that you used and how they relate to CIG.
This was an excellent comment concerning sq42, considering what Chris had planned for sq42.


If they have yet to build the complete game world – or even a fraction of it – how then are they going to complete and release Squadron 42 in the short term?
Title: Re: Star Citizen Scoops, Musings and Blogs
Post by: dsmart on October 16, 2018, 03:25:45 AM
Excellent write up I enjoy seeing you discuss the game technologies that you used and how they relate to CIG.
This was an excellent comment concerning sq42, considering what Chris had planned for sq42.


If they have yet to build the complete game world – or even a fraction of it – how then are they going to complete and release Squadron 42 in the short term?

Indeed. And this CitizenCon had more clues that the project was in serious trouble, than most realize. Just wait.
Title: Re: Star Citizen Scoops, Musings and Blogs
Post by: dsmart on October 16, 2018, 04:13:12 AM
My latest on CitizenCon 2018 and everything else

http://dereksmart.com/forums/reply/6682/

I updated my article with a section on the 2017 financial filings for RSI (UK). I was waiting to do it for both RSI and CIG (which is late), since F42 already filed. But since someone else had already done the leg work for RSI filing, I just used theirs.
Title: Re: Star Citizen Scoops, Musings and Blogs
Post by: StanTheMan on October 16, 2018, 08:54:46 PM
Quote
backers have paid for a Golden chest, but are going to end up with a cardboard box – without a lid.

with a little piece of dried shit in the bottom to play with for the hundreds or thousands of dollars they have spent on buying JPEGS.

Title: Re: Star Citizen Scoops, Musings and Blogs
Post by: Motto on October 19, 2018, 04:37:32 PM
Don't make fun so quickly. It'll come with Single Distance Field in the future!
Title: Re: Star Citizen Scoops, Musings and Blogs
Post by: jwh1701 on October 19, 2018, 05:35:20 PM
So you remember that new Kraken (totally not scope creep though) ship from the Star Citizen event last week? Sure you do. It's so special that it's invite only to BUY it. And it's sold in waves (totally not kidding). The whale call just went out from CIG.



When I went to the sale it said something along the lines that more information was needed and I was not eligible. But reddit is still in overdrive over foip and being able to see your friend in the ship and click a button to bring him up the elevator. I was wondering also why anyone would buy it if ship purchasing is going in soon.  I really want to see what people are going to earn in terms of cr per hour as well. One max cutter build in EH is just under 900m, which if I really worked hard would take under 9 hours to accumulate. I'm betting Chris will make payment the only way to progress to large ships.
Title: Re: Star Citizen Scoops, Musings and Blogs
Post by: Greggy_D on October 20, 2018, 05:20:07 AM
"it's a game changer"

Nah....not P2W whatsoever.
Title: Re: Star Citizen Scoops, Musings and Blogs
Post by: dsmart on October 20, 2018, 06:11:10 AM

I was wondering also why anyone would buy it if ship purchasing is going in soon. 

That's only coming to Arena Commander soon, not the PU.
Title: Re: Star Citizen Scoops, Musings and Blogs
Post by: jwh1701 on October 20, 2018, 07:49:49 AM
That's only coming to Arena Commander soon, not the PU.


I took tons of screens during scamcitizen, this one lead me people to believe it was going in 3.3.

(https://i.postimg.cc/TyDwCvtC/screenshot-15.png) (https://postimg.cc/TyDwCvtC)
Title: Re: Star Citizen Scoops, Musings and Blogs
Post by: dsmart on October 20, 2018, 07:51:49 AM
It's already in the 3.3 dev schedule. It's AC only.
Title: Re: Star Citizen Scoops, Musings and Blogs
Post by: jwh1701 on October 20, 2018, 08:53:27 AM
It's already in the 3.3 dev schedule. It's AC only.

Ah lol when I saw that I did not believe it.
Title: Re: Star Citizen Scoops, Musings and Blogs
Post by: dsmart on October 20, 2018, 09:40:08 AM
A Sat rant

https://threadreaderapp.com/thread/1053666019816980480.html
Title: Re: Star Citizen Scoops, Musings and Blogs
Post by: jwh1701 on October 20, 2018, 10:38:05 AM
A Sat rant

https://threadreaderapp.com/thread/1053666019816980480.html

LOL
Those whales are a special kind of stupid.

For anyone not see the artificially created excitement and buy before you think mantra you really have to be dense. The figures on the ship sale are really just a drop in the bucket for them. I can't wait to see the uk financials get posted. I have also lost over 24 karma today on reddit but its been fun with the new jpg sale.
Title: Re: Star Citizen Scoops, Musings and Blogs
Post by: Motto on October 20, 2018, 02:44:57 PM
about 200 whales for 1400,- each makes about 250K to 300K. That's gonna last them another week. It's serious shit now, what'll they do for X-Mas? An even bigger and better ship than Kraken for 2000,-? Oh, CIG is so screwed right now. Wonder if they make it to Christmas at all.
Title: Re: Star Citizen Scoops, Musings and Blogs
Post by: jwh1701 on October 20, 2018, 02:55:27 PM
about 200 whales for 1400,- each makes about 250K to 300K. That's gonna last them another week. It's serious shit now, what'll they do for X-Mas? An even bigger and better ship than Kraken for 2000,-? Oh, CIG is so screwed right now. Wonder if they make it to Christmas at all.

Guess Chris's private backers get to start chipping into development? LOL
Title: Re: Star Citizen Scoops, Musings and Blogs
Post by: krylite on October 26, 2018, 05:23:59 AM
A Sat rant

https://threadreaderapp.com/thread/1053666019816980480.html

Entertaining read and update, thanks. Wow, that "Battle Smurf" fan, sad. If he wanted a cylon looking ship, ED has the cobra and aspscout. With the guardian and shock weapons or multi-cannons and some shipkits & cheap color extras from the store, he could make it look similar to either the old bsg cylon raider or the latter bsg2003. Yeah, totally agreed it's one big ponzi scam, with CR-crew stashing away their getaway loot probably preparing for the fallout. I hope the fbi, and the upcoming "American Greed" episode blow it all open and dig the stash holes as some of those delusional and spite-ing backers will want (or need) some clawback probably. ED and Frontier are imo, a metaphorical quantum higher state of financial and industry professionalism different than this scam.

I really want to see what people are going to earn in terms of cr per hour as well. One max cutter build in EH is just under 900m, which if I really worked hard would take under 9 hours to accumulate. I'm betting Chris will make payment the only way to progress to large ships.

Amazing, took me over nine months for my first billion cr, and I saw you hit 10 billion cr already. It kind of makes me want to try to step up and do some more passenger or other lucrative objectives in ED before they change the bgs structure and the rest of Beyond drops. I think I only went to Robigo once out of curiosity.

Title: Re: Star Citizen Scoops, Musings and Blogs
Post by: dsmart on October 26, 2018, 05:45:41 AM
Amazing, took me over nine months for my first billion cr, and I saw you hit 10 billion cr already. It kind of makes me want to try to step up and do some more passenger or other lucrative objectives in ED before they change the bgs structure and the rest of Beyond drops. I think I only went to Robigo once out of curiosity.

The difference is that grind in a game that works, is completely different from one that's in a massive clusterf*ck of a train-wreck.
Title: Re: Star Citizen Scoops, Musings and Blogs
Post by: dsmart on October 27, 2018, 09:10:02 AM
My latest article is live

http://dereksmart.com/forums/reply/6723/
Title: Re: Star Citizen Scoops, Musings and Blogs
Post by: jwh1701 on October 28, 2018, 07:28:17 AM
My latest article is live

http://dereksmart.com/forums/reply/6723/

Great write up, all the accounting stuff that has been brought out over the years makes one wonder if they using SC for all it's worth.
Title: Re: Star Citizen Scoops, Musings and Blogs
Post by: dsmart on October 28, 2018, 08:12:26 AM
Great write up, all the accounting stuff that has been brought out over the years makes one wonder if they using SC for all it worth.

Well both SC and SQ42 are their primary IP assets. They don't get money from anything else.

Also...

I dunno, but if I was paying an accounting firm £26K to do my books, even if they're cooking them, I'd hope that they would be correct.

(https://imgur.com/awlbWzq.png)
Title: Re: Star Citizen Scoops, Musings and Blogs
Post by: dsmart on October 28, 2018, 10:13:57 AM
For context

(https://i.imgur.com/5EJzsyy.png)
Title: Re: Star Citizen Scoops, Musings and Blogs
Post by: dsmart on October 28, 2018, 10:37:24 AM
On p21 under "Bridge Crew", croberts claims that US labor costs then double that of the EU. This is correct because traditionally the math is about x2.1; which is why companies tend to outsource if at all possible.

Quote
“We try to be quite smart about development costs, so we do a lot in the UK and two-thirds of our developers are in Europe. It’s far more cost effective. Over here you can have two developers for the price of one in the US. In the places where there’s game development in the US, the price of living is really high. We’re up in Manchester and it’s a lot cheaper to live there than in LA. The average salaries in the industry are less for that reason.”

It’s not just the cost of living, though: “We get basically 25 per cent of the UK cost back from the government. And that allows us to hire more people. We wouldn’t have as big an office in the UK if that deal wasn’t there. I think that was a very good move for the government to do that, because now we have around 250 in the UK, by far our biggest group of people"

https://issuu.com/newbayeurope/docs/mcv928_27th_october

So if they raised $34M in 2017, and the 318 people in the EU cost them $23M (64% of total funding), well how much do you think the 132 people in the US cost them in 2017?

Nope, those guys aren't very bright. But hey, they're funding JPEGs via an active scam. So.
Title: Re: Star Citizen Scoops, Musings and Blogs
Post by: StanTheMan on October 28, 2018, 04:47:52 PM
And if the figures are correct . .they have to keep doing this year after year because any game is at least 3-4 years off.  Then there is the law suit.
Title: Re: Star Citizen Scoops, Musings and Blogs
Post by: dsmart on October 29, 2018, 04:53:34 AM
And if the figures are correct . .they have to keep doing this year after year because any game is at least 3-4 years off.  Then there is the law suit.

They are basically operating on a month to month basis, and as I mentioned in my article (since updated that section), it's no different from the legacy dev<->publisher relationship.
Title: Re: Star Citizen Scoops, Musings and Blogs
Post by: jwh1701 on October 30, 2018, 06:17:51 PM
Well both SC and SQ42 are their primary IP assets. They don't get money from anything else.

Also...

I dunno, but if I was paying an accounting firm £26K to do my books, even if they're cooking them, I'd hope that they would be correct.

With such obvious mistakes I believe the accounting firm is located in Chris's bank account. I really believe they are just taking as much money as possible from the project.
Title: Re: Star Citizen Scoops, Musings and Blogs
Post by: dsmart on October 31, 2018, 06:54:33 AM
With such obvious mistakes I believe the accounting firm is located in Chris's bank account. I really believe they are just taking as much money as possible from the project.

Cooking the books is easy; covering your tracks isn't.
Title: Re: Star Citizen Scoops, Musings and Blogs
Post by: dsmart on November 07, 2018, 11:53:30 AM
**BREAKING** Foundry 42 (Squadron 42 devs) has created a new studio manager position headed by one of the guys from back in the old days.

I'm not going to name him, but he's one of the good guys, and this move makes zero sense to me.

This is pretty significant.

Thread: https://twitter.com/dsmart/status/1060238479806947328
Title: Re: Star Citizen Scoops, Musings and Blogs
Post by: jwh1701 on November 07, 2018, 05:19:30 PM
**BREAKING** Foundry 42 (Squadron 42 devs) has created a new studio manager position headed by one of the guys from back in the old days.

I'm not going to name him, but he's one of the good guys, and this move makes zero sense to me.

This is pretty significant.

Thread: https://twitter.com/dsmart/status/1060238479806947328


Very interesting update, it seems like they are best at jpgs and continually wasting backer money.
Title: Re: Star Citizen Scoops, Musings and Blogs
Post by: StanTheMan on November 07, 2018, 06:23:31 PM

Very interesting update, it seems like they are best at jpgs and continually wasting backer money.

It looks more like Erin wants to effectively disappear and they don't think (or care) they are going to lose anyone internally because they are mightily pissed off they were not given an opportunity to apply for the role...

I would imagine at some point Croberts desperately wanted to get SQ42 out the door as he imagined he could lord it around the Hollywood scene showing off MOCAP actors for years to come, irrespective of what happened to the PU.
Title: Re: Star Citizen Scoops, Musings and Blogs
Post by: N0mad on November 08, 2018, 04:10:06 AM
The news about the new appointment is curious.

CIG desperately need a take-over to sort out the project and release something, just like the Digital Anvil / Microsoft  / Freelancer debacle in the old days. In the absence of anyone willing to buy Chris out maybe they're trying to get someone experienced to take over SQ42 and get it out the door. As long as the cash doesn't run out and more importantly Chris doesn't interfere they might just pull it off. However I can't see Chris backing away from any of this whilst he's still in charge.
Title: Re: Star Citizen Scoops, Musings and Blogs
Post by: jwh1701 on November 08, 2018, 07:32:07 AM
It looks more like Erin wants to effectively disappear and they don't think (or care) they are going to lose anyone internally because they are mightily pissed off they were not given an opportunity to apply for the role...

I would imagine at some point Croberts desperately wanted to get SQ42 out the door as he imagined he could lord it around the Hollywood scene showing off MOCAP actors for years to come, irrespective of what happened to the PU.

I absolutely agree about sq42 and his Hollywood dream, who in the right mind would jump to AAA actors and mo-capping before the ground work was even finalized.
Title: Re: Star Citizen Scoops, Musings and Blogs
Post by: jwh1701 on November 08, 2018, 07:46:04 AM
The news about the new appointment is curious.

CIG desperately need a take-over to sort out the project and release something, just like the Digital Anvil / Microsoft  / Freelancer debacle in the old days. In the absence of anyone willing to buy Chris out maybe they're trying to get someone experienced to take over SQ42 and get it out the door. As long as the cash doesn't run out and more importantly Chris doesn't interfere they might just pull it off. However I can't see Chris backing away from any of this whilst he's still in charge.

I would agree but even if they hire someone I wonder if they are not in development hell. I oversaw a project based in Ireland years ago for a new server for IBM. The Ireland team ended up 9 months late and we went through 23 iterations of server boards and even then still required a bunch of bypass wires. They failed to delivery on every aspect of the project and did not meet any of the metrics. IBM had to pay for expedited shipping worldwide for each server board iteration not including the cost of changing them out. Plus each board required a reset to the test cycles, bios developers etc.  IBM let the entire engineering team go and never produced another server there. I often wonder if they have reached a point of no where the code / development is beyond salvageable.
Title: Re: Star Citizen Scoops, Musings and Blogs
Post by: StanTheMan on November 08, 2018, 06:47:32 PM
The news about the new appointment is curious.

CIG desperately need a take-over to sort out the project and release something, just like the Digital Anvil / Microsoft  / Freelancer debacle in the old days. In the absence of anyone willing to buy Chris out maybe they're trying to get someone experienced to take over SQ42 and get it out the door. As long as the cash doesn't run out and more importantly Chris doesn't interfere they might just pull it off. However I can't see Chris backing away from any of this whilst he's still in charge.

Yes but they already pre sold it and spent the money...

Not as if many would buy additional chapters unless the buyers can engineer a miracle.

Plus it is collateral on the Coutts loans
Title: Re: Star Citizen Scoops, Musings and Blogs
Post by: Spunky Munkee on November 08, 2018, 08:17:26 PM
It's not as if the ROberts family will give up their Two Million dollar a year collective salary for mismanaging this dumpster fire. All they need to do is show minimal progress, sell a few concept ships and keep these idiots believing and funding for another year for that money.

They dont need to actually turn out a game, backers wont hold them to that standard. They just need to keep their hopes from being dashed to collect several million dollars in compensation every year, plus whatever other things they get like corporate flights, fancy car leases, housing allowance, health care, security, clothing allotments for the Mrs, possible plastic surgery, and the chance to buy his skanky wife a spot in a b movie.

I'm sure they are busy setting themselves up in the next venture that is waiting in the wings. Be that Mocap, B movies ect.

Star Citizen Squadron 42, The Movie!
Trying to pitch the ministries to HBO, I wouldnt put it past him.
Title: Re: Star Citizen Scoops, Musings and Blogs
Post by: Caveat Emptor on November 08, 2018, 11:03:52 PM
How do you know the Roberts family are pulling $2 million per annum?
Title: Re: Star Citizen Scoops, Musings and Blogs
Post by: Spunky Munkee on November 08, 2018, 11:51:16 PM
I believe his salary was shown in a tax filing possibly both of theirs. Regardless, it was out there some time ago.
We know his brother makes over 250K a year.
Keep your ear to the ground long enough and you will see these things pop up.
Title: Re: Star Citizen Scoops, Musings and Blogs
Post by: StanTheMan on November 09, 2018, 09:57:20 AM
It's not as if the ROberts family will give up their Two Million dollar a year collective salary for mismanaging this dumpster fire. All they need to do is show minimal progress, sell a few concept ships and keep these idiots believing and funding for another year for that money.

They dont need to actually turn out a game, backers wont hold them to that standard. They just need to keep their hopes from being dashed to collect several million dollars in compensation every year, plus whatever other things they get like corporate flights, fancy car leases, housing allowance, health care, security, clothing allotments for the Mrs, possible plastic surgery, and the chance to buy his skanky wife a spot in a b movie.

I'm sure they are busy setting themselves up in the next venture that is waiting in the wings. Be that Mocap, B movies ect.

Star Citizen Squadron 42, The Movie!
Trying to pitch the ministries to HBO, I wouldnt put it past him.

Yes and justifying it to themselves is relatively easy by thinking about the number of jobs it is paying for.
Title: Re: Star Citizen Scoops, Musings and Blogs
Post by: dsmart on November 09, 2018, 12:26:32 PM
I believe his salary was shown in a tax filing possibly both of theirs. Regardless, it was out there some time ago.
We know his brother makes over 250K a year.

Yes, it's in the F42-UK filings. And he has increased his salary and pension each year. In 2017 he doubled his pension contribution.

Title: Re: Star Citizen Scoops, Musings and Blogs
Post by: dsmart on November 14, 2018, 05:23:59 PM
My latest musings on Lorville in 3.3.5

https://threadreaderapp.com/thread/1062830508827205632.html
Title: Re: Star Citizen Scoops, Musings and Blogs
Post by: jwh1701 on November 15, 2018, 09:36:13 PM
My latest musings on Lorville in 3.3.5

https://threadreaderapp.com/thread/1062830508827205632.html


Great write finally got time to go back through all the videos linked.
Title: Re: Star Citizen Scoops, Musings and Blogs
Post by: dsmart on November 17, 2018, 08:34:38 AM
Sat morning $200m milestone rant

https://threadreaderapp.com/thread/1063803838057058305.html
Title: Re: Star Citizen Scoops, Musings and Blogs
Post by: krylite on November 20, 2018, 09:23:03 PM
Enjoyed reading the rant. So CR had long passed the point of making a responsible change or creation of an engine to make something work, instead of the ponzi scam of year after year of cry-lumber level demos with art texture glut and trailer ads. He can't make or announce the changes needed now as that would be tantamount to publicly admitting how they were screwing around all along siphoning the brainwashed then the DS-spite whales, 7 years and $200 million wasted later.
Title: Re: Star Citizen Scoops, Musings and Blogs
Post by: dsmart on November 21, 2018, 07:30:34 AM
Enjoyed reading the rant. So CR had long passed the point of making a responsible change or creation of an engine to make something work, instead of the ponzi scam of year after year of cry-lumber level demos with art texture glut and trailer ads. He can't make or announce the changes needed now as that would be tantamount to publicly admitting how they were screwing around all along siphoning the brainwashed then the DS-spite whales, 7 years and $200 million wasted later.

He's never going to admit to anything. When this whole thing finally collapses (I remain 100% certain that it will, before any product is delivered), he will just lament the fact that the tech couldn't catch up or some nonsense like that.
Title: Re: Star Citizen Scoops, Musings and Blogs
Post by: Resin on November 21, 2018, 12:07:36 PM
He's never going to admit to anything. When this whole thing finally collapses (I remain 100% certain that it will, before any product is delivered), he will just lament the fact that the tech couldn't catch up or some nonsense like that.


Then again one could argue that when you are trying to make game you sold beforehand it’s probably not the best design choice to go for things that are not yet technically possible? If your purpose was never to actually release anything because someone talked so much out of their ass that anything you make can never live up to the expectations.

It’s then easier to make just pretty screenshot software and sell beautiful spaceships and images of them.
Title: Re: Star Citizen Scoops, Musings and Blogs
Post by: dsmart on November 21, 2018, 12:30:17 PM

Then again one could argue that when you are trying to make game you sold beforehand it’s probably not the best design choice to go for things that are not yet technically possible? If your purpose was never to actually release anything because someone talked so much out of their ass that anything you make can never live up to the expectations.

It’s then easier to make just pretty screenshot software and sell beautiful spaceships and images of them.

Well yeah, there's that. :emot-lol:
Title: Re: Star Citizen Scoops, Musings and Blogs
Post by: StanTheMan on November 21, 2018, 05:02:11 PM
Looks like Croberts had a successful pop career in the 70's

(https://t2.genius.com/unsafe/108x0/https%3A%2F%2Fimages.genius.com%2Ff63c5b3b2e1287f8e93bd26d03827cd3.300x296x1.jpg)

I give you ...

Have sun In Your Heart.

https://genius.com/Chris-roberts-hab-sonne-im-herzen-lyrics (https://genius.com/Chris-roberts-hab-sonne-im-herzen-lyrics)

I can't find anything relating to space
Title: Re: Star Citizen Scoops, Musings and Blogs
Post by: dsmart on November 23, 2018, 06:19:10 AM
I made this effort post in another forum. I am posting it here for bookmarking

POSTER

I had been noodling about the “clients within close proximity” aspect as well. I’ve not been able yet to understand how that would degrade a given program’s performance due (I hope) mainly to my ignorance of software (game engine specifically) functionality in this case.

But from a macro viewpoint, I would assume that if having multiple clients in close proximity does degrade performance in an MMO, then it should follow that increasing the game space available should spread out those clients and, therefor, improve performance (albeit artificially)?

Could the performance improvements that I am quite sure I have observed recently be just due to the increased size of the “play area” recently introduce in SC and therefor be the result of the decreased “density” of other clients?

If the 50 client max per virtual server instance is still correct, and the area of play has increased, then my proximity to other clients should be reduced, right? And from experience I can definitely say I do encounter fewer PCs in SC now (while the number of NPS has increased).

Sorry if I ramble on! This is all very interesting to me.

DSMART

NONE of the above. And it’s far too technical to explain to a layman. Here is a brief overview which I hope helps.

Having 8 clients within proximity inside a box, is less process (graphics, ai, networking etc) intensive than having 50 clients within the same proximity.

Having the same number of clients inside a larger box, doesn’t change anything.

A client inside a larger box doesn’t see any increase|decrease in performance because of the increased play area because it all depends on what is inside the box - and within view of the client - as well as how many clients are within proximity

CryEngine and Lumberyard are “level” based games. Meaning the world is created inside an editor - just like all games which aren’t procedurally generated. The larger the level, the more assets in it - the more the performance decrease when clients are inside. This is why even before moons were introduced in 3.0, performance which sucked before, became worse. Then they had to do something about it via OCS + NBC before they could increase the world size again in 3.3.

Since they couldn’t do it in time, they split 3.3 into two parts. First releasing 3.3 with the WIP versions of OCS+NBC, then 3.3.5 which had Hurston/Lorville with improved versions. It didn’t do anything to improve performance during a standard “gameplay” session. All it did was improve performance for a group of clients within an area that’s not heavily populated. It’s why some people are claiming 60 fps, then going to Lorville and getting 20 fps or less - with few clients.

SC is constructed like a series of interconnected boxes. Think of the PU start location Port Olisar (Crusader) hub, Levski (Delamar moon), and Lorville (Hurston) as 3 separate but connected boxes - all created inside an editor. It’s how they were able to disable Area 18 (shopping which was previously accessible from a menu like Arena Commander, Star Marine) and move all the shops to Port Olisar. It’s also how both AC and SM can be played separately, as they are just separate level boxes.

Each box has a different level of complexity and content which determines the performance requirements.

Welcome to Stanton (https://starcitizen.tools/Stanton) key locations currently implemented. The number at the end of each line is my approximation of the level of processing required for 16 (standard number) clients within proximity (clients can see and interact with each other) of each other.

(https://imgur.com/wGiDGTr.jpg)

- Space: (empty) - 4
- Space: (areas with hubs such as security hub Kera orbits Cellin, Covalex orbits Daymar, various rest stops) - 7
- Hub: Port Olisar - 6
- Moon (surface) - 4
- Planetoid (surface) - 4
- Planet (surface): 5
- Hub: GrimHEX (Yella) - 6
- Hub: Levski (Delamar) - 6
- City: Lorville (Hurston) - 20

So if you were getting an average of 30 fps in 3.2, then getting 50 fps in 3.3, it has to do with the OCS+NBC implementation. However, it’s sporadic because all those do is - in some cases - prevent the loading of assets inside boxes (and within a certain range of the current box) that the player can neither see, nor located in. But, as most have now seen, it breaks a LOT of things. Heck, even when in the same box, you can see clients and ships being removed prematurely, even if they are in the same box you’re in, within proximity etc. And when clients are all within the same box or within visual interaction distance, guess what happens? If you guessed that performance tanks again because now everything within the same box is processed, then you would be correct.

And THAT is how we end up with these fps spikes which go from bad to worse during “gameplay” interactions between clients. It’s also why you would be hard-pressed to find gameplay related videos which aren’t totally shit. Citizens and streamers instead focus on taking screen shots and nav videos because the game’s visual fidelity is mostly what sells it outside the backer base.

Performance in space is better than inside hubs and on the planets because there’s hardly anything in space. Also, performance on the moon/planet terrain is better because most of the assets (rocks, fauna etc) are procedurally generated like in all games. Meaning, an artist didn’t sit down and place every rock, or tree manually in the editor, as that would be an impossible amount of work.

The reason that Lorville is such a performance hog is because it is the largest box, and has the most assets. And they attempted to reduce the performance demands by preventing players from flying too close and within the city by adding no-fly-zones. Otherwise, anyone getting 20 fps right now flying outside those zones, will be getting about 5 fps or less flying within the city. So imagine what happens if several clients are in that city. And THAT is why, even after touting it for over a year, they had to take it out of 3.3 in order to implement performance improvements via OCS+NBC. When they brought it into 3.3.5, they added those zones once they discovered that even OCS+NBC won’t help because 1) the engine is shit and can’t handle that sort of thing 2) the visual fidelity of the assets is just to great a burden - and CryEngine/Lumberyard are notorious performance hogs in EVERY aspect

And what they did with Lorville, is precisely what they are going to have to do with Microtech (https://starcitizen.tools/MicroTech_(planet)) (the next planet) which they have also promoted as a city on a planet. For a hearty lol, take a look at the concept art and descriptions (https://robertsspaceindustries.com/comm-link/spectrum-dispatch/13141-Stanton-System) for these locations, which they were touting as far back as 2013.

Further reading (my articles on OCS + NBC and why they didn’t yield the expected results)

10/27/2018 http://dereksmart.com/forums/reply/6723/
10/15/2018 http://dereksmart.com/forums/reply/6682/
09/22/2018 http://dereksmart.com/forums/reply/6639/
09/08/2018 http://dereksmart.com/forums/reply/6615/
02/20/2018 http://dereksmart.com/forums/reply/6239/
12/11/2017 http://dereksmart.com/forums/reply/6078/
Title: Re: Star Citizen Scoops, Musings and Blogs
Post by: jwh1701 on November 23, 2018, 08:13:48 AM
I made this effort post in another forum. I am posting it here for bookmarking


Great write I like hearing about design details.
I would have to find the video but they already stated that the bulk of the microtech planet will not be available to the player.
Unity city demo is so far ahead of cig and I saw a similar demo from unreal, unreal also has spacial os support to.
Title: Re: Star Citizen Scoops, Musings and Blogs
Post by: dsmart on November 23, 2018, 08:15:41 AM
Yeah, remember when over a year ago they were showcasing how they create the game world?


Title: Re: Star Citizen Scoops, Musings and Blogs
Post by: dsmart on November 30, 2018, 03:11:21 PM
I wrote a new blog. Star Citizen - Year Six (http://dereksmart.com/2018/11/star-citizen-year-six/)
Title: Re: Star Citizen Scoops, Musings and Blogs
Post by: jwh1701 on November 30, 2018, 04:54:16 PM
I wrote a new blog. Star Citizen - Year Six (http://dereksmart.com/2018/11/star-citizen-year-six/)

OSC pointed to your old posts about the TOS recently and on que the guy was able to totally
ignore the presented facts. This is why I just in it for the laughs no voice can reach them.
If facts and past post are presented they can do any mental gymnastics to keep loving the failure.
Title: Re: Star Citizen Scoops, Musings and Blogs
Post by: David-2 on November 30, 2018, 05:03:56 PM
From new DS blog:

Quote
In Jan 2019, we’ll be entering year 7.

But they had to build 4 studios from scratch!






(ha ha, just kidding, that particular excuse never ceases to crack me up.)

Title: Re: Star Citizen Scoops, Musings and Blogs
Post by: Judge_dolly_OG on December 01, 2018, 12:42:10 AM
From new DS blog:

But they had to build 4 studios from scratch!






(ha ha, just kidding, that particular excuse never ceases to crack me up.)

And still no $42 roadmap... Seven years in.
Title: Re: Star Citizen Scoops, Musings and Blogs
Post by: dsmart on December 03, 2018, 05:24:32 AM
I wrote a new blog. Star Citizen - Year Six (http://dereksmart.com/2018/11/star-citizen-year-six/)

I found out that the CloudFlare cache on the website was still serving up the draft version of the blog. So I have to flush and refresh it.
Title: Re: Star Citizen Scoops, Musings and Blogs
Post by: dsmart on December 11, 2018, 10:24:45 AM
I made a video!


I also forgot to mention in the video that some weeks back some Star Citizen fans sent Leonard French (a Star Citizen backer) money to fix his car, and which was thanking them for. So he has every reason to be pandering to them and spreading fake news.

Soundcloud podcast version

https://soundcloud.com/derek-smart-9/2018-12-11-star-citizen-crytek-lawsuit

Title: Re: Star Citizen Scoops, Musings and Blogs
Post by: jwh1701 on December 11, 2018, 03:12:43 PM
I made a video!

I also forgot to mention in the video that some weeks back some Star Citizen fans sent Leonard French (a Star Citizen backer) money to fix his car, and which was thanking them for. So he has every reason to be pandering to them and spreading fake news.


I had completely forgotten about the car its so sad that they would just blindly help him fix the car. I would personally feel bad for taking money for just reading a document and not really helping anyone to understand it. You did a much better job explaining the lawsuit than either one of them, both would be great politicians since they pander so well to their constituents.
Title: Re: Star Citizen Scoops, Musings and Blogs
Post by: Motto on December 11, 2018, 04:00:19 PM
French is already updating his statements etc. below his YT video. It's fun to watch  :laugh:
Title: Re: Star Citizen Scoops, Musings and Blogs
Post by: dsmart on December 11, 2018, 04:39:07 PM
French is already updating his statements etc. below his YT video. It's fun to watch  :laugh:

Yeah, I saw that :emot-lol:
Title: Re: Star Citizen Scoops, Musings and Blogs
Post by: dsmart on December 13, 2018, 12:38:23 PM
By popular request, instead of writing a blog, I made a video about the latest Star Citizen five alarm fire.


Soundcloud podcast

https://soundcloud.com/derek-smart-9/star-citizen-needs-more-money-to-fund-the-dream
Title: Re: Star Citizen Scoops, Musings and Blogs
Post by: jwh1701 on December 13, 2018, 05:04:24 PM
By popular request, instead of writing a blog, I made a video about the latest Star Citizen five alarm fire.


Great video

Chris and his buddies just keep on giving year after to bad so many are still deep into the delusion.
Title: Re: Star Citizen Scoops, Musings and Blogs
Post by: dsmart on December 14, 2018, 01:38:09 PM
My latest FUD attempt :emot-lol:

https://threadreaderapp.com/thread/1073588553752461312.html
Title: Re: Star Citizen Scoops, Musings and Blogs
Post by: Spunky Munkee on December 14, 2018, 04:22:00 PM
i WAS READING AN ARTICLE ABOUT OUR FAVORITE GAME AND THOUGHT IF HE SIMPLY CHANGED THE NAME HE COULD CLAIM TO HAVE RELEASED THE GAME.

INTRODUCING "VIRTUAL STARSHIP SHOPPING SPREE".

The game where you can spend THOUSANDS on collecting virtual space ships. You can insure and repair them, modify them, see them destroyed. Fun for the entire family! Colect them all!

PERFECT!
Now if I just had those caps set correctly...
The way these shitizens behave you might think they were a branch of scientology.
Title: Re: Star Citizen Scoops, Musings and Blogs
Post by: dsmart on December 15, 2018, 07:49:07 AM
My latest on CIG selling 10% of the company to dark money entities, while the execs also cash out with backer mone. The IP for both Star Citizen and SQ42 would be worth more than £17m. And this is an investment, not a loan. It's really not a lot of money. The alarm is that they needed £17m in the first place.

https://threadreaderapp.com/thread/1073941655076659201.html
Title: Re: Star Citizen Scoops, Musings and Blogs
Post by: StanTheMan on December 15, 2018, 08:09:51 AM
My latest on CIG selling 10% of the company to dark money entities, while the execs also cash out with backer mone. The IP for both Star Citizen and SQ42 would be worth more than £17m. And this is an investment, not a loan. It's really not a lot of money. The alarm is that they needed £17m in the first place.

https://threadreaderapp.com/thread/1073941655076659201.html

Do we have an idea how much Chris is paying himself and Sandi in salary and benefits ?
Title: Re: Star Citizen Scoops, Musings and Blogs
Post by: dsmart on December 15, 2018, 08:25:51 AM
We don't know anything about US financials.
Title: Re: Star Citizen Scoops, Musings and Blogs
Post by: N0mad on December 15, 2018, 10:14:24 AM
So let me get this straight, Chris et al are cashing out of the UK company by selling their shares to an unknown 3rd party based offshore.

Since nobody in their right mind would really want to buy those shares then who are they selling them to?

My guess is that if Chris has a working relationship with these companies, then perhaps some clever dealing has taken place to move backer money into those companies from the CIG parent company. This could be done in a legit way, eg paying for services, taking out a loan which is paid back with huge interest etc. but the end result is that backer money ends up offshore. Then Chris sells them his UK shares and pretends that this is 3rd party investor money. Since the intermediary is based offshore and the US financials aren't available, then there's no way to prove this.
Title: Re: Star Citizen Scoops, Musings and Blogs
Post by: Slapmeandcallmegurl on December 15, 2018, 02:42:38 PM
Right, wrong, doesn't seem to matter around here.

Being a parott though? Golden.
Title: Re: Star Citizen Scoops, Musings and Blogs
Post by: N0mad on December 15, 2018, 02:49:46 PM
Right, wrong, doesn't seem to matter around here.

Being a parott though? Golden.

Huh?
Title: Re: Star Citizen Scoops, Musings and Blogs
Post by: Slapmeandcallmegurl on December 15, 2018, 02:52:04 PM
Huh?

Fucking lol.

Perfect.
Title: Re: Star Citizen Scoops, Musings and Blogs
Post by: N0mad on December 15, 2018, 02:58:05 PM
It is Serendipity isn't it?

There was a time when you used to argue back, sometimes with more than one sentence, rather than just insult us.

Perhaps you might try again before you get banned?
Title: Re: Star Citizen Scoops, Musings and Blogs
Post by: Motto on December 15, 2018, 03:02:37 PM
Don't bother. People still not seeing that SC has become a total scam that is about to go bust are just not worth your time. And since Serenstupidity and that other new bonehead cannot seem to fiind actual arguments against Derek, or even seem to understand Derek's arguments in the first place, it's just no use. Even when Chris has failed miserably - again - they still will hold hime high and blame outside factors.
Title: Re: Star Citizen Scoops, Musings and Blogs
Post by: Slapmeandcallmegurl on December 15, 2018, 03:08:41 PM
"about to go bust". You said the same thing over a year ago. Still about to go bust is it? Haven't raised over 12 million dollars in the last two months?

Plastic brains never change. Rigidity can be a bad thing.
Title: Re: Star Citizen Scoops, Musings and Blogs
Post by: Motto on December 15, 2018, 03:15:00 PM
Well, why don't you show us then that the funding numbers are correct?
Title: Re: Star Citizen Scoops, Musings and Blogs
Post by: Slapmeandcallmegurl on December 15, 2018, 03:17:05 PM
Well, why don't you show us then that the funding numbers are correct?

That's Impossible. Why don't you outline how they pay 500ish staff every month if it isn't?
Title: Re: Star Citizen Scoops, Musings and Blogs
Post by: Motto on December 15, 2018, 03:30:39 PM
Please show me where those 500 people are. Now. Not months ago, now.
Title: Re: Star Citizen Scoops, Musings and Blogs
Post by: Slapmeandcallmegurl on December 15, 2018, 03:35:32 PM
Please show me where those 500 people are. Now. Not months ago, now.

Let's assume their tax filings are vaguely accurate, didn't their UK arm spend a shitload of cash on wages? Let's then assume that the American and German offices exist as well. Not too far fetched right?

Done?
Title: Re: Star Citizen Scoops, Musings and Blogs
Post by: Slapmeandcallmegurl on December 15, 2018, 03:41:12 PM
Stupid thing to ask for anyway, no chance I can prove anything of the sort. It's also stupid to say, well over a year ago, that they'll be running out of cash soon and collapsing...any...time....now...over and over again and still be saying the same thing now.

Sunk thought fallacy.

I just made that up. It's fucking great though.
Title: Re: Star Citizen Scoops, Musings and Blogs
Post by: Motto on December 15, 2018, 03:42:17 PM
Yeah, I'm done with you.
Title: Re: Star Citizen Scoops, Musings and Blogs
Post by: N0mad on December 15, 2018, 03:44:54 PM
Stupid thing to ask for anyway, no chance I can prove anything of the sort. It's also stupid to say, well over a year ago, that they'll be running out of cash soon and collapsing...any...time....now...over and over again and still be saying the same thing now.

Sunk thought fallacy.

I just made that up. It's fucking great though.

Are you drunk?

I just hope Derek deletes this whole chunk of pointless argument.
Title: Re: Star Citizen Scoops, Musings and Blogs
Post by: dsmart on December 16, 2018, 05:27:13 AM
Don't bother. People still not seeing that SC has become a total scam that is about to go bust are just not worth your time. And since Serenstupidity and that other new bonehead cannot seem to fiind actual arguments against Derek, or even seem to understand Derek's arguments in the first place, it's just no use. Even when Chris has failed miserably - again - they still will hold hime high and blame outside factors.

:emot-iceburn:
Title: Re: Star Citizen Scoops, Musings and Blogs
Post by: dsmart on December 16, 2018, 05:30:56 AM
"about to go bust". You said the same thing over a year ago. Still about to go bust is it? Haven't raised over 12 million dollars in the last two months?

Plastic brains never change. Rigidity can be a bad thing.

Yeah, that's what they claim - with zero evidence. But we DO have evidence of them selling shares to the tune of 17m GBP ($21M) to put back into the company, and 2.7m GBP ($3.4M) into their pockets.

It's funny how the money raised still hasn't translated into, you know, a game - of any kind.
Title: Re: Star Citizen Scoops, Musings and Blogs
Post by: dsmart on December 16, 2018, 05:33:31 AM
Stupid thing to ask for anyway, no chance I can prove anything of the sort. It's also stupid to say, well over a year ago, that they'll be running out of cash soon and collapsing...any...time....now...over and over again and still be saying the same thing now.

Sunk thought fallacy.

I just made that up. It's fucking great though.

Serendipity, you're amazing. Please don't change because things will get boring around here.  :cat2:

ps: It's an actual FACT now that had a group of naive gamers stopped giving them money, the project would have collapsed a long time ago - even after raising $20M which he said was enough to build two games. How do I know this? There is still no game - of any kind.
Title: Re: Star Citizen Scoops, Musings and Blogs
Post by: dsmart on December 16, 2018, 12:35:02 PM
My latest article is a recap of all the recent hilarity

http://dereksmart.com/forums/reply/6792/
Title: Re: Star Citizen Scoops, Musings and Blogs
Post by: dsmart on December 17, 2018, 10:26:29 AM
I have updated the blog with a new section regarding the latest breaking news about the new CIG director.

Title: Re: Star Citizen Scoops, Musings and Blogs
Post by: dsmart on December 20, 2018, 05:00:34 PM
I have updated my recent article with the latest news.

Also, I will be on GuardFreq later tonight

https://twitter.com/GuardFreq/status/1075857737446318080

Title: Re: Star Citizen Scoops, Musings and Blogs
Post by: dsmart on December 21, 2018, 06:34:47 AM
The recording of last night's stream

https://www.twitch.tv/videos/352038544
Title: Re: Star Citizen Scoops, Musings and Blogs
Post by: dsmart on December 21, 2018, 07:03:31 AM
As we enter a new dawn in the Star Citizen fiasco, this Twitter thread which I concluded late yesterday, lays out the pattern of lies and all the reasons why everyone should now be shamelessly chanting DEREK SMART WAS RIGHT

https://twitter.com/dsmart/status/1075818481600339970
Title: Re: Star Citizen Scoops, Musings and Blogs
Post by: StanTheMan on December 21, 2018, 09:34:29 AM
The recording of last night's stream

https://www.twitch.tv/videos/352038544

Good stuff.

1 hour 47mins in Tony is still optimistic about getting a release....you far less so....If Erin couldn't reign in Chris and the mountain of technical debt,  risk of destroying his credibility, having almost run out of $$$, and the lawsuit , and and and .... couldn't rein him in ....why Tony think would the shareholders even if there are some clauses in the Shareholder Agreement?


I think they will use the financials to get more $$$ from Backers  "this is how much it actually costs to make the BDSSE". as as for the equity crowdfunding ...maybe you get share options with a JPEG ... .. ...

The Backers dont give a shit about the viability of the engine etc they are in too deep and they fix their focus on to SQ42 for a year or so...
Title: Re: Star Citizen Scoops, Musings and Blogs
Post by: dsmart on December 21, 2018, 10:13:31 AM
Going forward, I think the recent events may have an adverse effect on whale backers. Most especially the revelation that they were so close to collapse.
Title: Re: Star Citizen Scoops, Musings and Blogs
Post by: Greggy_D on December 21, 2018, 10:22:47 AM
Along those lines, it's obvious why they tagged this investment as "marketing" funds.  If they stated it was for development, then backer money would dry up since they just got a fresh $46M infusion towards dev costs.
Title: Re: Star Citizen Scoops, Musings and Blogs
Post by: Judge_dolly_OG on December 22, 2018, 03:45:37 AM
Going forward, I think the recent events may have an adverse effect on whale backers. Most especially the revelation that they were so close to collapse.

You are accusing the whales of behaving rationally. The milk will still flow.
Title: Re: Star Citizen Scoops, Musings and Blogs
Post by: DemonInvestor on December 22, 2018, 07:13:06 AM
You are accusing the whales of behaving rationally. The milk will still flow.

One should never forget that even the smartest people are not immune to acting stupid and believing in shit.
Title: Re: Star Citizen Scoops, Musings and Blogs
Post by: dsmart on December 22, 2018, 07:45:53 AM
You are accusing the whales of behaving rationally. The milk will still flow.

True, but the financial brochure they released is clear evidence that it's still not enough. I can't even imagine what 2018 looks like. Assuming they ever release it.
Title: Re: Star Citizen Scoops, Musings and Blogs
Post by: dsmart on December 24, 2018, 09:23:30 AM
Star Citizen - A New Dawn (http://dereksmart.com/2018/12/star-citizen-a-new-dawn/)

A recap, but now with more fidelity :emot-lol:
Title: Re: Star Citizen Scoops, Musings and Blogs
Post by: Judge_dolly_OG on December 31, 2018, 02:20:31 AM
But if those numbers are the best they can do in support of their glorious leader, then things really are bad. To have a chance at breaking even, the whale milk must flow at the same rate AND Squadron 42 must outsell Mass Effect 1 by a 2:1 ratio. But, if you look at Destiny's launch, all they need is half of those sales at full price through the CIG website. Of course, Destiny was the #1 new franchise launch of all time and they made the overwhelming amount of sales at retail in the first week. But hey, that just means CIG won't have a huge marketing budget to weigh them down.

Seriously, if the best "everything's fine" take they can come up with involves the company adding more personnel year over year to remedy core deficiencies, a PC-only release generating 3 million full-price retail sales, and a community that hasn't grown significantly in 5 years continuing to pay for development, and all this just to keep afloat, well even the die-hard supporters have to know the ship is sinking.

Don't worry they will release on consoles and Squander 42 will generate squillions in revenue! They honestly seem to believe that just by having an all star cast this game is going to be a massive hit even when it is rushed out at the end to try and prop up the project for a few more months. If they get that far I can't wait for the reviews.
Title: Re: Star Citizen Scoops, Musings and Blogs
Post by: Aya Reiko on December 31, 2018, 12:42:45 PM
Don't worry they will release on consoles and Squander 42 will generate squillions in revenue! They honestly seem to believe that just by having an all star cast this game is going to be a massive hit even when it is rushed out at the end to try and prop up the project for a few more months. If they get that far I can't wait for the reviews.
"All Star Cast"... Only if you're someone who is still stuck in the nineties.
Title: Re: Star Citizen Scoops, Musings and Blogs
Post by: David-2 on December 31, 2018, 04:12:49 PM
"All Star Cast"... Only if you're someone who is still stuck in the nineties.

That's an interesting point. 

Gary Oldman was crazy great in Fifth Element but he's most recently known for his excellent performance as 70 year old Winston Churchill.  Mark Hamill as the young Skywalker is in all our memories ... old memories.  More lately we know him as an old man in both Kingsman: The Secret Service and as a rather cranky and useless old man in The Last Jedi.  I thought Gillian Anderson was the hottest thing going in The X-Files - which was over for all intents and purposes in 2001, nearly 20 years ago.  Lately I thought she was great as the aging old maid Miss Haversham in Great Expectations - and that was 7 years ago.

So to all these great actors - and the others who were voice- and motion-captured for S42 - I say: Thanks for the memories! But, I'm sorry, let's be honest... you don't actually now invoke the active excitement of a space combat shooter, do you?
Title: Re: Star Citizen Scoops, Musings and Blogs
Post by: dsmart on January 02, 2019, 12:56:13 PM
Today's posterity rant :)

https://twitter.com/dsmart/status/1080522736185806848
Title: Re: Star Citizen Scoops, Musings and Blogs
Post by: dsmart on January 07, 2019, 12:35:37 PM
Today's rant takes us back to where it all began

https://twitter.com/dsmart/status/1082340477196742657
Title: Re: Star Citizen Scoops, Musings and Blogs
Post by: jwh1701 on January 07, 2019, 12:55:16 PM
Today's rant takes us back to where it all began

https://twitter.com/dsmart/status/1082340477196742657

Both were great overviews, I did not remember the German interview that was very interesting to watch. Wish I has that one for when the backers were complaining about the engine choice, I could of had fun posting it. Hindsight really shows us the true nature of Chris and his plans.
Title: Re: Star Citizen Scoops, Musings and Blogs
Post by: dsmart on January 07, 2019, 01:28:27 PM
Yeah, I have a Gold mine of hilarious material going all the way back to 2012. Fun times. :)
Title: Re: Star Citizen Scoops, Musings and Blogs
Post by: dsmart on January 16, 2019, 05:27:37 AM
So we were right. They did get the name (Infratrade) wrong in the filing last month. They have now corrected it in an updated filing.

https://beta.companieshouse.gov.uk/company/08815227/filing-history
Title: Re: Star Citizen Scoops, Musings and Blogs
Post by: jwh1701 on January 16, 2019, 01:04:27 PM
So we were right. They did get the name (Infratrade) wrong in the filing last month. They have now corrected it in an updated filing.

https://beta.companieshouse.gov.uk/company/08815227/filing-history

They sure do make many accounting and filing mistakes, good detective work on determining the real name.
Title: Re: Star Citizen Scoops, Musings and Blogs
Post by: dsmart on January 21, 2019, 09:04:49 AM
FYRE Star Citizen

https://twitter.com/dsmart/status/1087371035941457921
Title: Re: Star Citizen Scoops, Musings and Blogs
Post by: jwh1701 on January 21, 2019, 02:38:55 PM
FYRE Star Citizen

https://twitter.com/dsmart/status/1087371035941457921

I remember reading about the fyre and it seems like the predatory scams are increasing. I'm already putting Chris's words to good use.
Title: Re: Star Citizen Scoops, Musings and Blogs
Post by: dsmart on January 24, 2019, 05:13:45 AM
I posted this over on Blue's. Copying them here for posterity.

Quote
Quote
Expect sales, free weekends, and a rush to release sq42 regardless of completion status.

Hard to believe Derek Smart was right.


Well, I mean, Derek is Smart. 

Seriously though, I have said a lot of the same things Derek has said: there's way too much scope creep, they aren't producing content anywhere approaching what they promised, SQ 42 is way behind schedule, etc. Say what you will about Derek, but he has worked in this industry for decades. His opinions are worth listening to even if you disagree.


I am going to be perfectly honest, on Dec 12th when I broke the news (http://www.twitlonger.com/show/n_1sqocrf) about the $46M investment, a whole 8 days before CIG even acknowledged it (https://twitter.com/dsmart/status/1075818481600339970) on Dec 20th, I really had NO clue that the "90 days tops (https://goo.gl/BkB7mo)" comment (which those guys have derided and attacked me over since Oct 2015) was so on the mark. They were literally INSOLVENT at various periods in time, spending more than they were earning; and to the extent that they were looking for investors since mid 2017 (as I had reported at the time) and managed to find off-shore dark money which they closed a deal on in May 2018. Without telling backers anything. The same thing they did when they spent a year evaluating Lumberyard, then not saying anything until the day they released on 12/23/16 - again hours after I broke the news.

Though they claim this $46m is for marketing, looking at their financials, it's clear to see that they're lying. You don't SELL shares in your company to raise marketing money for a game that's literally TWO YEARS away. Remember, they got the money in May 2018, and were possibly negotiating, going through due diligence etc, for months prior. And then in Dec 2018 they say SQ42 is going to be in Alpha by end of Q2 2020.

Especially since, if you look at the financials (https://cloudimperiumgames.com/blog/corporate/cfo-comment-2012-2017-financials), you will see that they were already spending money on marketing.

So they are just using the money to pay for their monthly shortfall (seen in the financials) from May 2018 to whenever it runs out. This way they aren't operating in the Red.

Bottom line is that even with over $200m in FREE MONEY, Chris couldn't ship a SINGLE game going into year 7. And back in 2015 (http://www.dereksmart.com/2015/07/interstellar-citizens/) when I said they couldn't build that game for anything less than $150m, a decent custom engine, and a talented team, some people called me crazy, attacked me etc. Here we are.

My Star Citizen - A New Dawn (http://dereksmart.com/2018/12/star-citizen-a-new-dawn/) is extensive blog that has charts and numbers which show the seriousness and alarming nature of this investment.

ps: Who remembers back when I was opining that they had to have been burning between $3m - $4m a month?



Quote
So they have 3.5 months to stay solvent without any additional funding? PCGamer says they expect Squadron 42's beta to be ready by the second half of 2020. So the first game probably won't release until late 2020 or even into 2021. If they continue to use $4 million per month they will need an additional $82 million just to make it to early 2021. I just don't see that as possible with only crowdfunding. Haven't they already milked as much money as they can out of their gullible fans?

It all depends on how this public $46m investment rattles the faithful. Remember, they were already raising and spending over $40m a year since 2015

(https://cloudimperiumgames.com/uploads/69156528193c4285a61675f3f449ffd7.png)

The amount in 2018 is looking like $37.7m*

If we estimate that they raised and spent another $40m in 2018, it's easy to see that this investment is like a reserves of sorts. Remember, they got it in May 2018 and so they probably spent some of it by now going by the fact that 2018 funding is down to 2014 levels - even with all the shady shit and multiple sales they pulled in 2018 to milk whales. We will know more if/when they release the 2018 financials.

Between 2012-2017 they raised $207.5M. Which btw is about $32M higher than the actual funding chart on their website which totaled $175.5M year ending 2017. Remember how I’ve always claimed that the funding chart was bs?

My point is that if they continue to raise money - even at the lower levels - this $46m can be stretched (as a reserve) to the end of 2020. This was their plan all along I think, once they figured out that they simply couldn't make it to SQ42 release without downsizing (thus affecting BOTH projects) and such. Remember that though I'd been saying this since 2015, until Dec 2018, we didn't know for sure that SQ42 was so far out! I mean, the roadmap (https://i.imgur.com/qs2IBtr.jpg) was shocking enough and shows that for MANY years Chris BLATANTLY LIED about the state of the project (https://imgur.com/gallery/MV2PM). Heck, even in 2016 when sources told me it was nowhere near complete, once again CIG went and issued a press statement (https://www.pcgamer.com/roberts-space-industries-denies-squadron-42-delay-report/) basically saying I was full of shit.

Anyway, they will coast until sometime next year; and my guess is that even if they managed to get SQ42 into Alpha by end of Q2, it probably won't make a difference to their funding.

* source (https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1tMAP0fg-AKScI3S3VjrDW3OaLO4zgBA1RSYoQOQoNSI/htmlview#)
Title: Re: Star Citizen Scoops, Musings and Blogs
Post by: Judge_dolly_OG on January 24, 2019, 06:19:11 AM

Anyway, they will coast until sometime next year; and my guess is that even if they managed to get SQ42 into Alpha by end of Q2, it probably won't make a difference to their funding.


Squander 42 will be a rushed out buggy mess if it is released at all, I can't really see CI(G) developing a new found sense of focus and meeting a tight deadline for completion, they haven't so far despite being close to going under in the past as you have shown. Thinking about it, they did develop a new found focus on milking the whales for everything they could so I guess anything can happen :)

Roberts could basically sell more of his shares and donate the money raised to the company to keep the wolves from the door for a bit longer and get a bit closer to the S42 release, or he could attempt to cash out for whatever he can get.

After what happened to the Fyre festival owner, I'd be a bit worried though, better move to somewhere with no extradition treaty to the US.
Title: Re: Star Citizen Scoops, Musings and Blogs
Post by: Dementropy on January 24, 2019, 07:52:05 AM
Quote
Especially since, if you look at the financials, you will see that they were already spending money on marketing.

So they are just using the money to pay for their monthly shortfall (seen in the financials) from May 2018 to whenever it runs out. This way they aren't operating in the Red.

Bottom line is that even with over $200m in FREE MONEY, Chris couldn't ship a SINGLE game going into year 7. And back in 2015 when I said they couldn't build that game for anything less than $150m, a decent custom engine, and a talented team, some people called me crazy, attacked me etc. Here we are.

Even if we take this at face value, and the funds are strictly for marketing, bridge financing is dangerous unless there's a guaranteed profit at the end. They've practically reached the limit on pre-sales to their targeted audience, which doesn't leave much room for additional revenue from SQ42 on release. (Though who knows? I'm sure there are some people who will be on the verge of entering their teens who were just 2-years old when development started, by the time SQ42 graduates past the beta phase.)

We don't know the exact terms. We don't know the interest on the agreement, or if there was collateral put up (I'm sure Snoot can make use of mocap equipment) for the funding. The bottom line is that SQ42 needs to have an even greater reach and appeal as of its official release for Cloud Imperium to come out on top, because it's obvious that concept sales and subscriptions have not been cutting it over the years.
Title: Re: Star Citizen Scoops, Musings and Blogs
Post by: jwh1701 on January 24, 2019, 01:37:20 PM
I posted this over on Blue's. Copying them here for posterity.
 

Excellent write up and just yesterday I saw them still trying to discount your statements in reddit concerning the foretelling of
delays etc.
Title: Re: Star Citizen Scoops, Musings and Blogs
Post by: dsmart on January 24, 2019, 05:43:45 PM
Even if we take this at face value, and the funds are strictly for marketing, bridge financing is dangerous unless there's a guaranteed profit at the end. They've practically reached the limit on pre-sales to their targeted audience, which doesn't leave much room for additional revenue from SQ42 on release. (Though who knows? I'm sure there are some people who will be on the verge of entering their teens who were just 2-years old when development started, by the time SQ42 graduates past the beta phase.)

We don't know the exact terms. We don't know the interest on the agreement, or if there was collateral put up (I'm sure Snoot can make use of mocap equipment) for the funding. The bottom line is that SQ42 needs to have an even greater reach and appeal as of its official release for Cloud Imperium to come out on top, because it's obvious that concept sales and subscriptions have not been cutting it over the years.

Absolutely that.
Title: Re: Star Citizen Scoops, Musings and Blogs
Post by: dsmart on January 24, 2019, 05:44:39 PM
Excellent write up and just yesterday I saw them still trying to discount your statements in reddit concerning the foretelling of
delays etc.

You know we just lol at those guys, right? Their faith is unshakable, and so it's pointless trying to show or convince them of anything.
Title: Re: Star Citizen Scoops, Musings and Blogs
Post by: Aya Reiko on January 25, 2019, 11:38:49 PM
Squander 42 will be a rushed out buggy mess if it is released at all, I can't really see CI(G) developing a new found sense of focus and meeting a tight deadline for completion, they haven't so far despite being close to going under in the past as you have shown. Thinking about it, they did develop a new found focus on milking the whales for everything they could so I guess anything can happen :)

Roberts could basically sell more of his shares and donate the money raised to the company to keep the wolves from the door for a bit longer and get a bit closer to the S42 release, or he could attempt to cash out for whatever he can get.

After what happened to the Fyre festival owner, I'd be a bit worried though, better move to somewhere with no extradition treaty to the US.
I also expect the acting to be really, really wooden and the script third-rate at best.  CRoberts wants to direct and, obviously, he has no business directing.  Furthermore, as I mentioned earlier, the cast will only be of interest to those still stuck in the 90's.

There is nothing to look forward to with S42 other than to laugh at it on how bad it is.
Title: Re: Star Citizen Scoops, Musings and Blogs
Post by: Slapmeandcallmegurl on January 26, 2019, 03:46:12 AM
I also expect the acting to be really, really wooden and the script third-rate at best.  CRoberts wants to direct and, obviously, he has no business directing.  Furthermore, as I mentioned earlier, the cast will only be of interest to those still stuck in the 90's.

There is nothing to look forward to with S42 other than to laugh at it on how bad it is.

At least try to put your hatred to one side occasionally. Why would you expect the acting to be 'really, really wooden'? The cast is full of excellent actors, especially that Gardiner, I hear she's a real talent...

But seriously, Gary Oldman, Mark Strong, John Rhys Davies, Gillian Anderson, Andy Serkis...they're pretty damn good.
Title: Re: Star Citizen Scoops, Musings and Blogs
Post by: Motto on January 26, 2019, 04:09:18 AM
You're missing the point, being that those may or may not be fabulous actors, they don't ring a bell by people under 40 - the heavy gamers population - and Chris is a shitty director. So of course it won't help CIG.
Title: Re: Star Citizen Scoops, Musings and Blogs
Post by: Judge_dolly_OG on January 26, 2019, 04:28:58 AM
At least try to put your hatred to one side occasionally. Why would you expect the acting to be 'really, really wooden'? The cast is full of excellent actors, especially that Gardiner, I hear she's a real talent...

But seriously, Gary Oldman, Mark Strong, John Rhys Davies, Gillian Anderson, Andy Serkis...they're pretty damn good.

Yes, they are good actors. That scene that was shown of Gary Oldman giving a supposedly rousing speech was awful though, I hope that the rest of it is of a higher quality. I doubt it though.
Title: Re: Star Citizen Scoops, Musings and Blogs
Post by: Slapmeandcallmegurl on January 26, 2019, 05:30:48 AM
You're missing the point, being that those may or may not be fabulous actors, they don't ring a bell by people under 40 - the heavy gamers population - and Chris is a shitty director. So of course it won't help CIG.

I'm not missing any points. Having good actors means the acting will be good. Whether the names are recognised by anyone won't change the acting performance in any way.

I didn't comment on the other parts of the post because I don't know if the writing is bad, good or indifferent and I have no idea if the direction is either. I do know that the acting talent is excellent and therefore, I expect the acting quality to be excellent too. Wouldn't take much to be better than the vast majority of video game acting performances to be fair!
Title: Re: Star Citizen Scoops, Musings and Blogs
Post by: Motto on January 26, 2019, 05:35:35 AM
The speech scene doesn't look like it was perfectly acted but butched up completely afterwards. It looked like the directing/writing/scripting was so horrible that no matter how good the acting from the best actors in the world, it only could result in shite. As it did. But theorycrafting about a game that will never come out is pointless.
Title: Re: Star Citizen Scoops, Musings and Blogs
Post by: Slapmeandcallmegurl on January 26, 2019, 06:11:06 AM
The speech scene doesn't look like it was perfectly acted but butched up completely afterwards. It looked like the directing/writing/scripting was so horrible that no matter how good the acting from the best actors in the world, it only could result in shite. As it did. But theorycrafting about a game that will never come out is pointless.

Wait. You still think Squadron 42 will never see a release? Are you serious? Amazing. Completely ridiculous, but amazing.

Thanks for the lol.
Title: Re: Star Citizen Scoops, Musings and Blogs
Post by: Motto on January 26, 2019, 07:17:03 AM
Right back at you for that comment. Expecting that CIG actually wil release something vaguely resembling what was promised  :emot-laffo:
Title: Re: Star Citizen Scoops, Musings and Blogs
Post by: dsmart on January 26, 2019, 07:39:26 AM
At least try to put your hatred to one side occasionally. Why would you expect the acting to be 'really, really wooden'? The cast is full of excellent actors, especially that Gardiner, I hear she's a real talent...

But seriously, Gary Oldman, Mark Strong, John Rhys Davies, Gillian Anderson, Andy Serkis...they're pretty damn good.

Oh yeah, because NONE of those people have ever been in a bad movie. Are you serious (you are).
Title: Re: Star Citizen Scoops, Musings and Blogs
Post by: Slapmeandcallmegurl on January 26, 2019, 09:19:21 AM
Oh yeah, because NONE of those people have ever been in a bad movie. Are you serious (you are).

Can a bad movie have good acting in it?
Did I mention the quality of the game/movie?
Was I only questioning the comment regarding the quality of acting being 'really, really wooden', with no mention as to the game itself being good or bad?

Please answer those questions in your head, read your response and wonder, as I did, u wot m8?

Right back at you for that comment. Expecting that CIG actually wil release something vaguely resembling what was promised  :emot-laffo:

Squadron 42 has become much more than an updated Wing Commander. So at last, we agree, it won't resemble the original pitch. It'll be much more. Isn't that part of you guys' problem? Trying to do too much.

I'm looking forward to it. I reckon it'll be a fun few hours in the UEE navy thing.
Title: Re: Star Citizen Scoops, Musings and Blogs
Post by: jwh1701 on January 26, 2019, 11:26:51 AM
At least try to put your hatred to one side occasionally. Why would you expect the acting to be 'really, really wooden'? The cast is full of excellent actors, especially that Gardiner, I hear she's a real talent...

But seriously, Gary Oldman, Mark Strong, John Rhys Davies, Gillian Anderson, Andy Serkis...they're pretty damn good.

I would agree for me that Chris has some great actors, but my respect for some has been diminished.  I have kept a few update to date on the many aspects of the development over the past few years and its obvious they will continue shilling for the project based on their actions. The Mo-capping for me was just one of the sad missteps in the development since they did not even have you engine close to handling the basics. Why start such a monumental cost to backers before you even had any idea how it would even function properly? I feel based on his past that he jumped into this aspect as he wants to become relevant again in Hollywood and rub shoulders with AAA actors at the cost of the backers.  I do not believe top actors will help the project in the same way great actors can not help a poorly scripted and managed movie.
Title: Re: Star Citizen Scoops, Musings and Blogs
Post by: Scruffpuff on January 26, 2019, 12:39:08 PM
I would agree for me that Chris has some great actors, but my respect for some has been diminished.  I have kept a few update to date on the many aspects of the development over the past few years and its obvious they will continue shilling for the project based on their actions. The Mo-capping for me was just one of the sad missteps in the development since they did not even have you engine close to handling the basics. Why start such a monumental cost to backers before you even had any idea how it would even function properly? I feel based on his past that he jumped into this aspect as he wants to become relevant again in Hollywood and rub shoulders with AAA actors at the cost of the backers.  I do not believe top actors will help the project in the same way great actors can not help a poorly scripted and managed movie.

That was Chris's goal, but he was never really worth anything even during his brief Hollywood stint.  Hollywood by all accounts makes more bad movies than good, and there's a "Chris Roberts" and more for every stinker.  Since he wrote the script, it's already bottom-tier shit, no matter who he tricked to act for him with money stolen under the guise of making an MMO that he's too dumb to make.

I'm practically praying for SQ42.  It's been years since we've had real, honest-to-god absolute shit to make fun of and fuel years of memes and ridicule.  The "AAA publishers" generic crap can range from OK to not-so-OK, but it's rare that their stuff is openly inept and submoronic.  Chris is up for that challenge - in fact there may not be anyone more qualified.  (Although Richard Garriott appears to be making some inroads lately.)
Title: Re: Star Citizen Scoops, Musings and Blogs
Post by: Aya Reiko on January 26, 2019, 05:12:59 PM
I'm not missing any points. Having good actors means the acting will be good. Whether the names are recognised by anyone won't change the acting performance in any way.

I didn't comment on the other parts of the post because I don't know if the writing is bad, good or indifferent and I have no idea if the direction is either. I do know that the acting talent is excellent and therefore, I expect the acting quality to be excellent too. Wouldn't take much to be better than the vast majority of video game acting performances to be fair!
You're not missing any points, you're ignoring them.  BIG difference.  You either live in a distorted, inane fantasy, or you're a pathetic troll that everyone is laughing at. Either way, you're not worth anyone's time.
Title: Re: Star Citizen Scoops, Musings and Blogs
Post by: jwh1701 on January 26, 2019, 06:42:01 PM
That was Chris's goal, but he was never really worth anything even during his brief Hollywood stint.  Hollywood by all accounts makes more bad movies than good, and there's a "Chris Roberts" and more for every stinker.  Since he wrote the script, it's already bottom-tier shit, no matter who he tricked to act for him with money stolen under the guise of making an MMO that he's too dumb to make.

I'm practically praying for SQ42.  It's been years since we've had real, honest-to-god absolute shit to make fun of and fuel years of memes and ridicule.  The "AAA publishers" generic crap can range from OK to not-so-OK, but it's rare that their stuff is openly inept and submoronic.  Chris is up for that challenge - in fact there may not be anyone more qualified.  (Although Richard Garriott appears to be making some inroads lately.)

Excellent points, maybe when jpg sales slow down he can sell some blood to the fans like Richard.
Title: Re: Star Citizen Scoops, Musings and Blogs
Post by: DemonInvestor on January 27, 2019, 08:54:19 AM
Can a bad movie have good acting in it?
Did I mention the quality of the game/movie?
Was I only questioning the comment regarding the quality of acting being 'really, really wooden', with no mention as to the game itself being good or bad?

Please answer those questions in your head, read your response and wonder, as I did, u wot m8?

Squadron 42 has become much more than an updated Wing Commander. So at last, we agree, it won't resemble the original pitch. It'll be much more. Isn't that part of you guys' problem? Trying to do too much.

I'm looking forward to it. I reckon it'll be a fun few hours in the UEE navy thing.

Acting could be good, it could also be shitty. So sure, their acting could be great and totally on point.
But than again i'd rather see a film directed by Quentin Tarantino with Steven Seagall as major actor than one directed by Uwe Boll with Ben Kingsley as major actor. As even the best performance as 'Ned' (or however he dubbed the role) Skywalker couldn't save a shitty movie. Though CnCs videos always felt more enjoyable to me than Wing Comanders...
So for me the real argument shouldn't be about the quality of any possible acting, but more on the logic of finishing cut sequences before being quite far into actual development - so in the production of the stuff that actually should fill peoples leisure time with most games.

I believe that SQ42 will become anything, when it actually gets released. Because so far i haven't really enjoyed playing with unfinished core gameplay loops in greybox levels.
Title: Re: Star Citizen Scoops, Musings and Blogs
Post by: dexatron on January 27, 2019, 09:58:11 AM
I'll go out on a very thick and long limb and predict that SQ42 is going to continue to be a f*cking distaster like everything Chris Roberts puts his hatchet to...


Acting could be good, it could also be shitty. So sure, their acting could be great and totally on point.
But than again i'd rather see a film directed by Quentin Tarantino with Steven Seagall as major actor than one directed by Uwe Boll with Ben Kingsley as major actor. As even the best performance as 'Ned' (or however he dubbed the role) Skywalker couldn't save a shitty movie. Though CnCs videos always felt more enjoyable to me than Wing Comanders...
So for me the real argument shouldn't be about the quality of any possible acting, but more on the logic of finishing cut sequences before being quite far into actual development - so in the production of the stuff that actually should fill peoples leisure time with most games.

I believe that SQ42 will become anything, when it actually gets released. Because so far i haven't really enjoyed playing with unfinished core gameplay loops in greybox levels.
Title: Re: Star Citizen Scoops, Musings and Blogs
Post by: Judge_dolly_OG on January 27, 2019, 09:59:21 AM
I'll go out on a very thick and long limb and predict that SQ42 is going to be a f*cking distaster like everything Chris Roberts puts his hatchet to...

You aren't exactly Mystic Meg with that prediction :D
Title: Re: Star Citizen Scoops, Musings and Blogs
Post by: Scruffpuff on January 27, 2019, 02:31:05 PM
I'll go out on a very thick and long limb and predict that SQ42 is going to continue to be a f*cking distaster like everything Chris Roberts puts his hatchet to...

"Stay frosty."
Title: Re: Star Citizen Scoops, Musings and Blogs
Post by: dsmart on January 28, 2019, 07:08:24 AM
Can a bad movie have good acting in it?
Did I mention the quality of the game/movie?
Was I only questioning the comment regarding the quality of acting being 'really, really wooden', with no mention as to the game itself being good or bad?

Please answer those questions in your head, read your response and wonder, as I did, u wot m8?

Squadron 42 has become much more than an updated Wing Commander. So at last, we agree, it won't resemble the original pitch. It'll be much more. Isn't that part of you guys' problem? Trying to do too much.

I'm looking forward to it. I reckon it'll be a fun few hours in the UEE navy thing.

You appear to be confused. Let's recap:

YOU:

"At least try to put your hatred to one side occasionally. Why would you expect the acting to be 'really, really wooden'? The cast is full of excellent actors, especially that Gardiner, I hear she's a real talent...

But seriously, Gary Oldman, Mark Strong, John Rhys Davies, Gillian Anderson, Andy Serkis...they're pretty damn good."

ME:

"Oh yeah, because NONE of those people have ever been in a bad movie. Are you serious (you are)."

Now that I look back, it appears as if you were being sarcastic when you added Sandi "Mae Demming" Gardiner in there. If you're not, please let me know so I can resume laughing.

Regardless, having excellent actors in a movie doesn't say anything about the quality of the movie. And in this regard, even though it's performance acting for cut-scenes in a video game, it's safe to expect that with a cretin like croberts at the helm, it's going to be cringe-worthy more because of the script, than about the acting of any of the actors (besides our hometown girl, Sandi).

Quote
Squadron 42 has become much more than an updated Wing Commander. So at last, we agree, it won't resemble the original pitch. It'll be much more. Isn't that part of you guys' problem? Trying to do too much.

Nonsense. Very few people give a shit about SQ42, neither as a game, nor a movie. The issue about the increased scope of the project is about Star Citizen, not SQ42. How could anyone have speculated about SQ42 in that regard, when nobody knew much about it besides trailers and three shitty vertical slices? Heck, the schedule only showed up in Dec 2018.
Title: Re: Star Citizen Scoops, Musings and Blogs
Post by: Slapmeandcallmegurl on January 28, 2019, 08:19:09 AM
You appear to be confused. Let's recap:

YOU:

"At least try to put your hatred to one side occasionally. Why would you expect the acting to be 'really, really wooden'? The cast is full of excellent actors, especially that Gardiner, I hear she's a real talent...

But seriously, Gary Oldman, Mark Strong, John Rhys Davies, Gillian Anderson, Andy Serkis...they're pretty damn good."

ME:

"Oh yeah, because NONE of those people have ever been in a bad movie. Are you serious (you are)."

Now that I look back, it appears as if you were being sarcastic when you added Sandi "Mae Demming" Gardiner in there. If you're not, please let me know so I can resume laughing.

Regardless, having excellent actors in a movie doesn't say anything about the quality of the movie. And in this regard, even though it's performance acting for cut-scenes in a video game, it's safe to expect that with a cretin like croberts at the helm, it's going to be cringe-worthy more because of the script, than about the acting of any of the actors (besides our hometown girl, Sandi).

Nonsense. Very few people give a shit about SQ42, neither as a game, nor a movie. The issue about the increased scope of the project is about Star Citizen, not SQ42. How could anyone have speculated about SQ42 in that regard, when nobody knew much about it besides trailers and three shitty vertical slices? Heck, the schedule only showed up in Dec 2018.

Holy jeesuz on a motorbike! It's like talking to people with late stage Alzheimer's trying to converse with you guys at times.

I'm not confused. At all. I made a comment questioning how anyone would predict terrible acting from a selection of world class actors...plus Sandi. That was it. That was my point. Nothing more.

You all start telling me that good acting doesn't make a good film! I never suggested it did. I never said squadron was going to be great, I never said the writing was going to blow us all away. I never said the directing would be impressive.

All I said was that it's reasonable to expect a decent level of acting from very good actors.

I NEVER PREDICTED THE GAME WOULD BE GOOD BECAUSE OF GOOD ACTORS.

You all started going on about how Chris couldn't make a good game and the writing is going to be cringe worthy and he's a bad director blah blah blah, none of which had any relevance to my original comment.

There are plenty of people interested and excited by Squadron. To suggest otherwise is daft. Perhaps they haven't explicitly stated this but here's what I believe happened to it.

It was getting made as a simple wing commander update but then the magic Germans made planetary landings possible and it all got re imagined and remade causing the delays and conspiracy theories to run wild.

But whatever, suggesting Squadron hasn't increased in scope in a similar way to SC seems naive at best and malicious rumour mongering at worst.

Please allow me a moment to assess if you're more likely to be naive or malicious. BRB...

Title: Re: Star Citizen Scoops, Musings and Blogs
Post by: jwh1701 on January 28, 2019, 01:45:21 PM
Holy jeesuz on a motorbike! It's like talking to people with late stage Alzheimer's trying to converse with you guys at times.

I'm not confused. At all. I made a comment questioning how anyone would predict terrible acting from a selection of world class actors...plus Sandi. That was it. That was my point. Nothing more.


The disconnect for me is looking the current tech demo considering Chris promised a 50 mission fps with mo-capping and SC for 5.5mill if you stop at that tier. I believe that actors can help the bottom line of a game. Unfortunately we where denied an "Audited accounting" so we will never know without leaks how much Chris really spent on the mo-capping. I truly believe there was no way he could offer two games, 70 systems and celebrity mo-capping for 5.5m. Considering the true numbers of ship devs and mo-capping I would not be surprise that a very large and unconscionable bulk of funds went down that hole. I lack faith that even  if the actors provided us with oscar winning performances that Chris will be able to deliver. That is the crux of why there an uncrossable barrier for the two groups, I believe based on reasonable evidence that SC is being used for an ATM machine.
Title: Re: Star Citizen Scoops, Musings and Blogs
Post by: dsmart on January 28, 2019, 02:04:52 PM
Holy jeesuz on a motorbike! It's like talking to people with late stage Alzheimer's trying to converse with you guys at times.

:emot-lol::emot-lol::emot-lol:

Quote
All I said was that it's reasonable to expect a decent level of acting from very good actors.

Most of us agreed, but qualified it by stating that as long as croberts was involved - in any capacity - that it would be shit that even the best actors (including Mae Demming) can't save  :negativeman-55f:
Title: Re: Star Citizen Scoops, Musings and Blogs
Post by: krylite on January 28, 2019, 08:52:16 PM
I lack faith that even  if the actors provided us with oscar winning performances that Chris will be able to deliver. That is the crux of why there an uncrossable barrier for the two groups, I believe based on reasonable evidence that SC is being used for an ATM machine.

Exactly, even if there were good performances from the genre actors in S42, it won't matter if the game sucks. Fans of the celebs can now just watch the cutscenes for any game on yt anyways. CR thinks he can still use the trope of using celebs in cutscenes which he helped start to mask a boondoggle and a scandalous siphoning of millions of whaler funds. Back then cutscenes had some value as extra decor and design which game graphics couldn't provide, but now most may not notice or even care what mo-capped actor is behind the npc character mouthing off a speech.

Agreed the evidence and just common sense points to SC used as a ponzi atm. After the KS initially boomed and CR amassed far more millions than he'd expected, he'd already decided to siphon the sucker whales as best as CIG marketing could. Around that time in the co-interview of CR and Braben, you can see it in CR's dazed drunk expressions, the scheming going on in his noggin, while Braben is emphasizing technical debt and responsibility to get ED out to the supporters. When CR realized he'd screwed up trying to plug a spacesim+fpvs into cryengine, he still had his plan to siphon and serve koolaid and backdoor shilling.


Title: Re: Star Citizen Scoops, Musings and Blogs
Post by: Aya Reiko on January 29, 2019, 12:28:36 PM
Agreed the evidence and just common sense points to SC used as a ponzi atm. After the KS initially boomed and CR amassed far more millions than he'd expected, he'd already decided to siphon the sucker whales as best as CIG marketing could. Around that time in the co-interview of CR and Braben, you can see it in CR's dazed drunk expressions, the scheming going on in his noggin, while Braben is emphasizing technical debt and responsibility to get ED out to the supporters. When CR realized he'd screwed up trying to plug a spacesim+fpvs into cryengine, he still had his plan to siphon and serve koolaid and backdoor shilling.
I disagree with you an itty-bitty bit. I don't think the thing is being used as ponzi atm by all of them, it's being used as ponzi atm by everyone but CRoberts, who is too deluded into thinking he's making the greatest game ever and getting his ticket back into Hollywood.  The rest, oh you better believe they're raiding the company's coffers.  Once the whole thing implodes, everyone, most definitely including Sandi and Erin, will hightail it to parts unknown leaving CRoberts holding the bag.
Title: Re: Star Citizen Scoops, Musings and Blogs
Post by: jwh1701 on January 29, 2019, 12:42:29 PM
I disagree with you an itty-bitty bit. I don't think the thing is being used as ponzi atm by all of them, it's being used as ponzi atm by everyone but CRoberts, who is too deluded into thinking he's making the greatest game ever and getting his ticket back into Hollywood.  The rest, oh you better believe they're raiding the company's coffers.  Once the whole thing implodes, everyone, most definitely including Sandi and Erin, will hightail it to parts unknown leaving CRoberts holding the bag.

It would be great if Chris was on the moral high ground concerning money. But when I see the 3 amigos create stock to sell and profit to the tune of 2+mill between them it really reinforces my belief that Chris's intent is solely about the money.  Remember the IP buy
back that they also profited from, based on past actions I'm unable to see from any angle that could lead me to believe its about the backers. Ortwin and Chris have a long history together with funny money schemes, I truly believe they are working in harmony concerning the money.
Title: Re: Star Citizen Scoops, Musings and Blogs
Post by: dsmart on February 08, 2019, 04:46:14 PM
Just a reminder that as of today, CI-minus-G has yet to ship a single game - of any kind; and most likely never will

https://twitter.com/dsmart/status/1093999423628210181
Title: Re: Star Citizen Scoops, Musings and Blogs
Post by: dsmart on February 09, 2019, 10:10:43 AM
Latest FUD!

https://twitter.com/dsmart/status/1094278321188335616
Title: Re: Star Citizen Scoops, Musings and Blogs
Post by: jwh1701 on February 09, 2019, 03:58:16 PM
Latest FUD!

https://twitter.com/dsmart/status/1094278321188335616

That was a bunch of great FUD!
Title: Re: Star Citizen Scoops, Musings and Blogs
Post by: StanTheMan on February 09, 2019, 06:18:24 PM
Latest FUD!

https://twitter.com/dsmart/status/1094278321188335616


14.35  in this is just great.  Look at those shifty eyes and then listen to what the is saying...   


Having managed projects myself and recruited many project managers,  he describes the process here in a way that is not indicative of someone trying to manage a commercial project.

It is as though it is his job to sit there and describe the bits of work coming in rather than be trying to hit a set of planned milestones to get to an objective.
Title: Re: Star Citizen Scoops, Musings and Blogs
Post by: krylite on February 10, 2019, 05:40:40 AM
Latest FUD!

https://twitter.com/dsmart/status/1094278321188335616

Thanks for the update. It's a hoot to see how they've dropped everything to try to make a single player something now for their investor now that time is up for their SC charade. I wish them luck, .. well actually I don't. The whole thing needs to be exposed bigtime on "American Greed" as an example and lesson that they were the lowest of the lows, incl. NMS, and how they siphoned the idiot whalers through their .jpg stores, and all their shenanigans like TOS refund changes, the paid for shilling, the ATV's , devmaps, etc.
Title: Re: Star Citizen Scoops, Musings and Blogs
Post by: Backer42 on February 10, 2019, 08:49:35 AM
14.35  in this is just great.  Look at those shifty eyes and then listen to what the is saying...   
Sounds like a copy of ... you know ... Chris Roberts.
Title: Re: Star Citizen Scoops, Musings and Blogs
Post by: Backer42 on February 10, 2019, 08:57:02 AM
Thanks for the update. It's a hoot to see how they've dropped everything to try to make a single player something now for their investor now that time is up for their SC charade.
They switched back and forth between their two "games" multiple times, each time stalling the half of crowd, which ordered the other product. Obviously the single player audience doesn't constantly pour money into this trainwreck, because JPEGs gain you nothing in a SP campaign.

But what's actually the point of making a set-piece roller coaster based on CE3 in 2019? It's four years beyond the point where I would consider touching it, even if it were free.
Title: Re: Star Citizen Scoops, Musings and Blogs
Post by: Judge_dolly_OG on February 10, 2019, 11:38:05 PM
They switched back and forth between their two "games" multiple times, each time stalling the half of crowd, which ordered the other product. Obviously the single player audience doesn't constantly pour money into this trainwreck, because JPEGs gain you nothing in a SP campaign.

But what's actually the point of making a set-piece roller coaster based on CE3 in 2019? It's four years beyond the point where I would consider touching it, even if it were free.

The backers are now looking at  a minimum two years with no significant improvement to gameplay in th PU, in a game that is lacking any decent gameplay loops. Server meshing has been pushed off the roadmap (they never had a chance of 1000 player battles anyway, that was a CR cocaine fever dream), question is, will the jpg whale milk now start to dry up?

They are gambling everything on being able to keep going long enough to get Squander 42 out the door and hoping it sells enough copies to keep them afloat. I doubt the management can focus long enough to achieve that, especially in what is a tough time frame as they seem to have neglected S42 up to this point. By doing this they are risking their revenue stream of PU whales, even the most delusional may start to question the whole thing if their beloved SC is put on the back burner.

Judging by past history, it is unlikely they will meet even their cut down roadmap, SC is going to stagnate, S42 will be a shitty rush job. The future is going to be
LOL
.
Title: Re: Star Citizen Scoops, Musings and Blogs
Post by: Aya Reiko on February 11, 2019, 12:00:23 AM
I was just thinking, how are they going to keep selling jpgs when it's clear they aren't going to be working on any of them any time soon?
Title: Re: Star Citizen Scoops, Musings and Blogs
Post by: Slapmeandcallmegurl on February 11, 2019, 04:58:18 AM
I was just thinking, how are they going to keep selling jpgs when it's clear they aren't going to be working on any of them any time soon?

That hasn't stopped them before...

Merchantman springs to mind.
Title: Re: Star Citizen Scoops, Musings and Blogs
Post by: jwh1701 on February 11, 2019, 08:12:04 AM
I was just thinking, how are they going to keep selling jpgs when it's clear they aren't going to be working on any of them any time soon?

It's amazing but the SC guys at reddit are still keep making posts concerning when the next ship sale is coming.
Title: Re: Star Citizen Scoops, Musings and Blogs
Post by: dsmart on February 12, 2019, 03:38:37 PM
I was just thinking, how are they going to keep selling jpgs when it's clear they aren't going to be working on any of them any time soon?

As I wrote in my last blog, that's probably why they needed the $46m to shore up their shortfall for when they deliver the bad news that focus is on SQ42. But don't listen to me though; that money is totally for marketing of SQ42 :emot-lol:
Title: Re: Star Citizen Scoops, Musings and Blogs
Post by: dsmart on February 28, 2019, 03:15:30 PM
In a discussion on my Discord, I was reflecting on the three things I demanded (http://www.dereksmart.org/2015/08/star-citizen-how-i-got-involved/) from those clowns back in 2015.

1) Refunds for original backers who asked for one
2) A dev schedule for the project
3) The promised financial accounting

They told me to go pound sand. That was right after Ortwin told my attorneys that backers, through the website, could see how the money was being spent. Read his letter (at the link above) - it's a work of art.

Within a span of three years, they did all three anyway.



Nov 2016, the first dev schedule was released

https://robertsspaceindustries.com/comm-link/transmission/15603-Letter-From-The-Chairman

Dec 2017, refunds were a thing until 3.0 dropped this month

https://robertsspaceindustries.com/comm-link//16348-Star-Citizen-Alpha-300

Dec 2019, we didn't have anything on finances, until they went and got dark money bailout, then released the financial brochure (not an actual audited financial statement)

https://cloudimperiumgames.com/blog/letter-from-the-chairman/investment-news
Title: Re: Star Citizen Scoops, Musings and Blogs
Post by: Motto on February 28, 2019, 03:38:18 PM
They didn't really disclose all the financials. I for one would love to see an actual P&L for all 14 or so companies.
Title: Re: Star Citizen Scoops, Musings and Blogs
Post by: Judge_dolly_OG on March 01, 2019, 12:20:24 AM
They didn't really disclose all the financials. I for one would love to see an actual P&L for all 14 or so companies.
I don't know I could handle that much greasy shit.
Title: Re: Star Citizen Scoops, Musings and Blogs
Post by: dsmart on March 02, 2019, 09:27:03 AM
They didn't really disclose all the financials. I for one would love to see an actual P&L for all 14 or so companies.

Yeah - that's why it's called a brochure, and not a statement.
Title: Re: Star Citizen Scoops, Musings and Blogs
Post by: krylite on March 03, 2019, 02:15:52 PM
I was just thinking, how are they going to keep selling jpgs when it's clear they aren't going to be working on any of them any time soon?

Sometimes the meister running the fraud mixes it up and switches to focus on bigger fish. How CR/CIG ever lucked on their lifeline $46 million hapless investor may not be revealed for a long time, so maybe they are desperately hoping more big time whales/leviathans are suckered. There are episodes of "American Greed" where rich victims/business owners even got conned for up to $10 million to a ponzi investment fraud run by a single or team of a few fraudsters.
Title: Re: Star Citizen Scoops, Musings and Blogs
Post by: dsmart on March 07, 2019, 07:27:43 AM
A few months ago, around the time it was revealed that they got $46m in bailout money, Cloud Imperium Games was rebranded to Cloud Imperium.

Yesterday, we learned that they have now rebranded (https://cloudimperiumgames.com/blog/corporate/foundry-42-ltd-rebrands-to-cloud-imperium-games-ltd) Foundry 42 (UK) to Cloud Imperium Games.

No clue what's going on, but the legal page (https://cloudimperiumgames.com/pages/legal), which hasn't been updated yet, shows that basically F42 is going away; and game production is going to be under the CIG umbrella going forward.

Looks like I have to update my  list of shell companies (http://dereksmart.org/forums/reply/3698/) again :emot-lol:

UPDATE: The resolution is now live https://beta.companieshouse.gov.uk/company/08703814
Title: Re: Star Citizen Scoops, Musings and Blogs
Post by: wiser3754 on March 07, 2019, 06:24:13 PM
Is this removal of Foundry 42 going to impair Crytek/Skadden's lawsuit against Foundry 42 if any complaints against them were filed?
Title: Re: Star Citizen Scoops, Musings and Blogs
Post by: dsmart on March 08, 2019, 07:17:50 AM
Is this removal of Foundry 42 going to impair Crytek/Skadden's lawsuit against Foundry 42 if any complaints against them were filed?

No. Changing the name of your company doesn't magically release you from legal suits and claims.
Title: Re: Star Citizen Scoops, Musings and Blogs
Post by: dsmart on March 28, 2019, 11:51:17 AM
Looks like VOIP is DOA

https://twitter.com/dsmart/status/1111336559280832512
Title: Re: Star Citizen Scoops, Musings and Blogs
Post by: mtn355 on March 31, 2019, 04:16:15 AM
https://www.rockpapershotgun.com/2019/03/29/star-citizen-alpha-3-5-lands-this-weekend-on-a-new-planet/#comments

Nice to read the comments...
Only 2 shillizens left?!
Title: Re: Star Citizen Scoops, Musings and Blogs
Post by: dsmart on March 31, 2019, 07:36:11 AM
Yeah those comments are a Gold mine of hilarity. I like the reply to that one dude who said croberts has been a lifetime success.
Title: Re: Star Citizen Scoops, Musings and Blogs
Post by: dsmart on April 02, 2019, 09:07:47 AM
I wrote a thread (https://threadreaderapp.com/thread/1113104704354037761.html) about the latest CIG filing, with emphasis on a glaring shocked in Ortwin's affidavit.
Title: Re: Star Citizen Scoops, Musings and Blogs
Post by: jwh1701 on April 02, 2019, 11:10:03 AM
I wrote a thread about the latest CIG filing, with emphasis on a glaring shocked in Ortwin's affidavit.

https://twitter.com/dsmart/status/1113104704354037761

Ortwin seems like just another conman, creating hype to keep the money gravy train going no wonder he and Chris have
been working together for so long. Thx for going through the legal docs.
Title: Re: Star Citizen Scoops, Musings and Blogs
Post by: wiser3754 on April 02, 2019, 07:44:59 PM
I wrote a thread (https://threadreaderapp.com/thread/1113104704354037761.html) about the latest CIG filing, with emphasis on a glaring shocked in Ortwin's affidavit.

What happened to the settlement? Is it still in the air or did Crytek tell CIG to blow it out their airlock?
Title: Re: Star Citizen Scoops, Musings and Blogs
Post by: dsmart on April 03, 2019, 05:23:54 AM
What happened to the settlement? Is it still in the air or did Crytek tell CIG to blow it out their airlock?

There was never a settlement. CIG tried to bring it up months ago, but Crytek said they weren't interested until after discovery.
Title: Re: Star Citizen Scoops, Musings and Blogs
Post by: dsmart on May 03, 2019, 10:37:26 AM
My rants about the Forbes article

https://twitter.com/dsmart/status/1124317888276500480
https://twitter.com/dsmart/status/1123944440161288195
https://twitter.com/dsmart/status/1123934600571641860
https://twitter.com/dsmart/status/1123628749264756736
Title: Re: Star Citizen Scoops, Musings and Blogs
Post by: dsmart on May 05, 2019, 08:46:59 AM
A Sunday rant down memory lane

https://threadreaderapp.com/thread/1125054640935010304.html
Title: Re: Star Citizen Scoops, Musings and Blogs
Post by: dsmart on May 07, 2019, 01:19:33 PM
My latest blog post

http://dereksmart.com/2019/05/star-citizen-requiem-for-a-dream/
Title: Re: Star Citizen Scoops, Musings and Blogs
Post by: Slapmeandcallmegurl on May 09, 2019, 07:51:15 AM
It clearly says, in option C of the second poll you reference, 'continue to offer stretch goal rewards in addition to extra features...'

So 88% of people, bothered enough to vote, said yes to extra features. I feel you're lying about others lying.
Title: Re: Star Citizen Scoops, Musings and Blogs
Post by: dsmart on May 09, 2019, 09:41:00 AM
It clearly says, in option C of the second poll you reference, 'continue to offer stretch goal rewards in addition to extra features...'

So 88% of people, bothered enough to vote, said yes to extra features. I feel you're lying about others lying.

My post stands as was originally written because I don't write blogs for complete morons.

Quote
Each time it comes up that the game’s scope had been increased to a level that had set the project on a course to failure, CIG and their devout cultists would trot out the “backers voted for scope increase” lie, and which they have since used as an excuse for the project’s on-going demise. They completely disregard points raised that the poll data doesn’t show any consensus or agreement in any of the options, since not even a simple majority agreed on any one option despite each participant being allowed to select three choices. They were given three votes each, and they still failed to put any of the choices above a 40% support threshold; suggesting that there was no majority support from the community for any of the stretch goal choices in the poll. As some pointed out, given three instead of one choice should have ultimately pushed any choice to 50% or higher. In the end, the poll clearly showed that CIG did the poll, ignored the results, then went on to increase the scope of the project – even beyond the poll choices! That basically negated the poll in its entirety, thus rendering it moot.

FYI, that option C in that $19M poll (https://robertsspaceindustries.com/comm-link/transmission/13266-Letter-From-The-Chairman-19-Million) had THREE conditional qualifiers to a SINGLE question "what should we do with the crowd-funding counter after we reach our goal". That goal being the $23M.

1) keep it up through development

2) continue to offer stretch goal rewards

3) in addition to extra features and development milestones

That you call me lying, even though I posted the poll, complete with results and anecdotes, was a nice touch.
Title: Re: Star Citizen Scoops, Musings and Blogs
Post by: dsmart on May 09, 2019, 09:45:34 AM
:emot-lol:

Tweet from the American Bar Association about the Forbes article

https://twitter.com/ABAesq/status/1126313360885198849

"The story of Star Citizen,  a crowdfunded video game that raised more than $200 million and still hasn't been released after seven years: ambar.org/301YPEB"

My response

"When the ABA starts tweeting about the multi-Million Dollar Star Citizen scam, the @FTC and @AGBecerra probably aren't far behind. But they're probably waiting until the scam hits the $500M mark before they take action to protect consumers."

https://twitter.com/dsmart/status/1126510223462518784
Title: Re: Star Citizen Scoops, Musings and Blogs
Post by: Slapmeandcallmegurl on May 09, 2019, 11:05:36 AM
My post stands as was originally written because I don't write blogs for complete morons.

FYI, that option C in that $19M poll (https://robertsspaceindustries.com/comm-link/transmission/13266-Letter-From-The-Chairman-19-Million) had THREE conditional qualifiers to a SINGLE question "what should we do with the crowd-funding counter after we reach our goal". That goal being the $23M.

1) keep it up through development

2) continue to offer stretch goal rewards

3) in addition to extra features and development milestones

That you call me lying, even though I posted the poll, complete with results and anecdotes, was a nice touch.

So 88% isn't a majority? Ok.

Extra features were part of the poll answer that received the 88% majority.

But somehow, anyone using the fact that 88% of voters wanted extra features as an argument are lying?

You are so weird...
Title: Re: Star Citizen Scoops, Musings and Blogs
Post by: DemonInvestor on May 09, 2019, 01:27:51 PM
I find it quite silly to point towards are poll generally asking if people would want more...
That's like some rockband asking you if you'd wanted another album of them, while you liked the first on or the teasers for the first. Surely you'll say yes.
But that doesn't mean whatever comes after that is in really legitimized by your vote on another album.

The whole bullshit with StarCitizen is that CRoberts have lied about timetables and giving full insight into finances.
People simply can't make informed decision about additional features or what should be added if they're not informed of the costs. And people have never be informed of any of that with this 'great transparent' development project. Most budget wise estimations in terms of time have been bullshit.
Title: Re: Star Citizen Scoops, Musings and Blogs
Post by: Slapmeandcallmegurl on May 09, 2019, 01:55:55 PM
Fair enough, but Derek said backers talking about those polls were lying in his blog and that, again, simply isn't true. The second poll had an answer that contained those words I quoted and 88% of voters chose that option. Is it a lie to say backers voted for extra features? Of course it isn't. It's just Derek's ridiculous hyperbole again.
Title: Re: Star Citizen Scoops, Musings and Blogs
Post by: Motto on May 09, 2019, 02:15:31 PM
Oh just stop feeding the troll....
Title: Re: Star Citizen Scoops, Musings and Blogs
Post by: StanTheMan on May 09, 2019, 05:52:37 PM
I find it quite silly to point towards are poll generally asking if people would want more...
That's like some rockband asking you if you'd wanted another album of them, while you liked the first on or the teasers for the first. Surely you'll say yes.
But that doesn't mean whatever comes after that is in really legitimized by your vote on another album.

The whole bullshit with StarCitizen is that CRoberts have lied about timetables and giving full insight into finances.
People simply can't make informed decision about additional features or what should be added if they're not informed of the costs. And people have never be informed of any of that with this 'great transparent' development project. Most budget wise estimations in terms of time have been bullshit.

Yes it is also ridiculous to sell a product then have some cretin defending the fact you issued a poll to a tiny subsection of customers you bumped into on a particular day and then think you can/should use that poll to justify delivering something completely different.
Title: Re: Star Citizen Scoops, Musings and Blogs
Post by: Slapmeandcallmegurl on May 09, 2019, 10:47:07 PM
Reading what the cretin actually posted saves one looking cretinous oneself.

Have I defended anything at all in my recent post or have I simply suggested that calling those who have used the poll as evidence 'liars', isn't at all accurate?

Do yourself a favour and attempt to comprehend what I post before jumping in with the insults.
Title: Re: Star Citizen Scoops, Musings and Blogs
Post by: dsmart on May 10, 2019, 06:30:54 AM
Fair enough, but Derek said backers talking about those polls were lying in his blog and that, again, simply isn't true. The second poll had an answer that contained those words I quoted and 88% of voters chose that option. Is it a lie to say backers voted for extra features? Of course it isn't. It's just Derek's ridiculous hyperbole again.

This is why nobody here takes you seriously. You conveniently ignored the gist of why the poll was nonsense; while latching onto "oh the majority". Here, I'll post it again.

"Each time it comes up that the game’s scope had been increased to a level that had set the project on a course to failure, CIG and their devout cultists would trot out the “backers voted for scope increase” lie, and which they have since used as an excuse for the project’s on-going demise. They completely disregard points raised that the poll data doesn’t show any consensus or agreement in any of the options, since not even a simple majority agreed on any one option despite each participant being allowed to select three choices. They were given three votes each, and they still failed to put any of the choices above a 40% support threshold; suggesting that there was no majority support from the community for any of the stretch goal choices in the poll. As some pointed out, given three instead of one choice should have ultimately pushed any choice to 50% or higher. In the end, the poll clearly showed that CIG did the poll, ignored the results, then went on to increase the scope of the project – even beyond the poll choices! That basically negated the poll in its entirety, thus rendering it moot."
Title: Re: Star Citizen Scoops, Musings and Blogs
Post by: Slapmeandcallmegurl on May 10, 2019, 09:05:16 AM
I can't decide if you play dumb to troll me, play dumb to attempt to rile me or are just really fucking dumb.

I wasn't arguing the poll was relevant or wasn't nonsense, have a try at reading what I type. I was merely suggesting that calling people liars, as you did in your blog, for seeing 88% of votes going to an option that includes the words 'extra features' and saying that the backers voted for extra features is incredibly unfair. They aren't lying are they? They may not have your super powers of deduction to ascertain the validity of the poll, but lying? Totally unfair.

I didn't argue the poll was relevant or accurate or a big enough sample or anything else, only that calling people liars for saying what they say is ridiculous.

Title: Re: Star Citizen Scoops, Musings and Blogs
Post by: StanTheMan on May 11, 2019, 04:22:00 PM
The new blog on the Forbes article is great.

http://dereksmart.com/2019/05/star-citizen-requiem-for-a-dream/ (http://dereksmart.com/2019/05/star-citizen-requiem-for-a-dream/)

Re reading this https://i.imgur.com/nKNau2Z.jpg (https://i.imgur.com/nKNau2Z.jpg) explains a lot of things including why anyone who worked at CIG straight out of college is going to have such a crippling experience of the modern work environment it may well stunt their future careers for that reason alone regardless of what specialism they are in. 
Title: Re: Star Citizen Scoops, Musings and Blogs
Post by: jwh1701 on May 12, 2019, 02:59:15 PM
The new blog on the Forbes article is great.


Greatly enjoyed reading this, it still amazes me they have made it so far not including the 46m.
Title: Re: Star Citizen Scoops, Musings and Blogs
Post by: dsmart on May 18, 2019, 05:53:52 AM
Greatly enjoyed reading this, it still amazes me they have made it so far not including the 46m.

Yeah, it really shows the power of sunk cost fallacy and religion. These guys still funding it know - with full confidence - that it's FUBAR; but they're still hanging on.
Title: Re: Star Citizen Scoops, Musings and Blogs
Post by: Scruffpuff on May 20, 2019, 01:20:21 PM
Yeah, it really shows the power of sunk cost fallacy and religion. These guys still funding it know - with full confidence - that it's FUBAR; but they're still hanging on.

It's simply a death march, with every sign of the associated pathologies.
Title: Re: Star Citizen Scoops, Musings and Blogs
Post by: wiser3754 on June 12, 2019, 07:13:03 PM
Derek just tweeted,

BREAKING : Star Citizen project is once again running out of money. That explains why they haven't released their 2018 financials yet; even though they got a $46M bailout investment in summer 2018. Developing story. More to come as it unfolds.

Derek, are you trying to get yourself spite pledged again? Let the backers find out the hard way and let them dictate what they want to do with CRobbers and CIG should this story be established as indisputable fact.
Title: Re: Star Citizen Scoops, Musings and Blogs
Post by: dsmart on June 13, 2019, 07:14:09 AM
Derek, are you trying to get yourself spite pledged again? Let the backers find out the hard way and let them dictate what they want to do with CRobbers and CIG should this story be established as indisputable fact.

Well in 2015 after sources told me they only had 90 days of funding (later proven to be true when they released then financials in 2017) left, the spite pledging totally worked out because it saved them from going bust in RL, though they were bust on paper. :)

Anyway, there's a lot more info that I haven't yet divulged because my sources are still connecting the dots and will get back to me. But it's bad.

You can follow the thread below when I update it in the coming days

https://twitter.com/dsmart/status/1138964850506457088
Title: Re: Star Citizen Scoops, Musings and Blogs
Post by: Slapmeandcallmegurl on June 13, 2019, 08:06:04 AM
Proven to be correct? You what? You were adamant they were collapsing within that time, all gone, no more game. Definitely not proven correct. Lol.

How bad is it this time? It's been really bad before, many times, yet they're still chugging along...

They're not just going to throw the towel in just because you want them to. As long as there are options to continue development, they'll utilise them. Investment, loans, selling their grandmothers, (aka Idris and javelins), more frequent sales etc.

They'll definitely get through to squadron release. What happens after that is dependant on the number of units sold.
Title: Re: Star Citizen Scoops, Musings and Blogs
Post by: dsmart on June 13, 2019, 09:41:24 AM
My latest

https://twitter.com/dsmart/status/1139208106557288449
Title: Re: Star Citizen Scoops, Musings and Blogs
Post by: dsmart on June 13, 2019, 09:42:09 AM
Proven to be correct? You what? You were adamant they were collapsing within that time, all gone, no more game. Definitely not proven correct. Lol.

Nice try. In case you hadn't noticed, most of us just ignore you now.

Title: Re: Star Citizen Scoops, Musings and Blogs
Post by: Slapmeandcallmegurl on June 13, 2019, 10:50:29 AM
Nice try. In case you hadn't noticed, most of us just ignore you now.

It's just like talking to my wife...

Nice ignoring btw, you totally ignored the shit outta me.
Title: Re: Star Citizen Scoops, Musings and Blogs
Post by: wiser3754 on June 13, 2019, 04:35:19 PM
It's just like talking to my wife...

Nice ignoring btw, you totally ignored the shit outta me.

Well Derek did say "most of us", not all of us.
Title: Re: Star Citizen Scoops, Musings and Blogs
Post by: dsmart on June 13, 2019, 05:45:55 PM
Well Derek did say "most of us", not all of us.

 :emot-bravo:
Title: Re: Star Citizen Scoops, Musings and Blogs
Post by: jwh1701 on June 13, 2019, 08:38:37 PM
Meanwhile, over there...


Me  :emot-ughh: every time I hear foundation and think where 8 years in and how far we are from the basic ks goals and two games to be delivered for 65m.
Title: Re: Star Citizen Scoops, Musings and Blogs
Post by: Judge_dolly_OG on July 01, 2019, 10:42:36 PM
BREAKING:

Industry veteran Dan Offner is off the board, replaced by Sandi Gardner and Marc Nitsche.

Marc seems to be a veteran tax dodger for a single family office based out of the Caymans, the Calder's new man then.

What's the bet Offner decided he didn't want his name sullied by this shit show?

https://cloudimperiumgames.com/blog/latest-announcements/cloud-imperium-board-of-director-updates
Title: Re: Star Citizen Scoops, Musings and Blogs
Post by: McDrake on July 02, 2019, 06:58:42 AM
He left after 6 month as a director?
Or did i missed something here?
Title: Re: Star Citizen Scoops, Musings and Blogs
Post by: Judge_dolly_OG on July 02, 2019, 08:23:37 AM
He left after 6 month as a director?
Or did i missed something here?

Nope, you got it right.
Title: Re: Star Citizen Scoops, Musings and Blogs
Post by: dsmart on July 02, 2019, 11:37:32 AM
So Dan Offner (https://twitter.com/FlyingKameLA) bailed. My thread.

https://threadreaderapp.com/thread/1146125650543218689.html
Title: Re: Star Citizen Scoops, Musings and Blogs
Post by: dsmart on October 03, 2019, 02:49:30 PM
Instead of filing their UK financials, they literally wrote a blog post and filed that.

https://twitter.com/dsmart/status/1179872165061169152
Title: Re: Star Citizen Scoops, Musings and Blogs
Post by: wiser3754 on October 03, 2019, 07:22:55 PM
Instead of filing their UK financials, they literally wrote a blog post and filed that.

https://twitter.com/dsmart/status/1179872165061169152

In this series of tweets Derek posts the funding chart for 2012 up to now. Just look at the current year. It's abysmal. The sheen is clearly wearing off on backers so CitizenCon better be grade AAAA to boost this funding woe.
Title: Re: Star Citizen Scoops, Musings and Blogs
Post by: Judge_dolly_OG on October 03, 2019, 10:49:40 PM
In this series of tweets Derek posts the funding chart for 2012 up to now. Just look at the current year. It's abysmal. The sheen is clearly wearing off on backers so CitizenCon better be grade AAAA to boost this funding woe.

Since Oct /Nov/Dec are the big months for them, they are actually pulling in more money this year so far. Their costs have risen again though, and you are right they are still one bad sale away from being in trouble.
Title: Re: Star Citizen Scoops, Musings and Blogs
Post by: dsmart on October 04, 2019, 03:09:33 PM
Since Oct /Nov/Dec are the big months for them, they are actually pulling in more money this year so far. Their costs have risen again though, and you are right they are still one bad sale away from being in trouble.

They have always been in trouble. Since 2012. That's why they were out of money by end of 2017 and needed a $46M loan bailout in Summer of 2018.
Title: Re: Star Citizen Scoops, Musings and Blogs
Post by: Judge_dolly_OG on October 11, 2019, 01:36:41 AM
Just seen on the old Reddit that they have filed their UK accounts with companies house:

https://beta.companieshouse.gov.uk/company/08815227/filing-history
https://beta.companieshouse.gov.uk/company/08703814/filing-history
Title: Re: Star Citizen Scoops, Musings and Blogs
Post by: McDrake on October 11, 2019, 01:52:38 AM
Just seen on the old Reddit that they have filed their UK accounts with companies house:

https://beta.companieshouse.gov.uk/company/08815227/filing-history
https://beta.companieshouse.gov.uk/company/08703814/filing-history
So that means 10 UEC from Derek to Tony (?) from Guard Frequency :D
Title: Re: Star Citizen Scoops, Musings and Blogs
Post by: dsmart on October 12, 2019, 11:36:12 AM
The 2018 financials are up. we still have money to fund the Verse!

https://twitter.com/dsmart/status/1183086350444171267
Title: Re: Star Citizen Scoops, Musings and Blogs
Post by: CatEars on October 24, 2019, 08:52:22 PM
LoL's finances solved. Add Battle Royal game mode?

Shoot ‘em Up
Preview a new high-octane game mode coming to Star Citizen

At 5pm during CitCon there is a strange presentation titled shoot'em up.
Title: Re: Star Citizen Scoops, Musings and Blogs
Post by: GaryII on October 31, 2019, 02:18:56 AM
 Like Star Marine was COD killer :D
 high-octane = just lol

P.S.
COD just made 600m in 3 days :D
Title: Re: Star Citizen Scoops, Musings and Blogs
Post by: N0mad on November 23, 2019, 02:25:28 PM
So...

Just watching the CitizenCon stuff. The Theatres of War features seems like a really good idea: a game mode built to be fun and fast by a guy who knows how to make games.

BUT is this game mode too good? It looks like much more fun that the PU. Will Chris allow it? Especially if it proves more popular than his dream screenshot / walking simulator?
Title: Re: Star Citizen Scoops, Musings and Blogs
Post by: Slapmeandcallmegurl on November 23, 2019, 04:49:11 PM
So...

Just watching the CitizenCon stuff. The Theatres of War features seems like a really good idea: a game mode built to be fun and fast by a guy who knows how to make games.

BUT is this game mode too good? It looks like much more fun that the PU. Will Chris allow it? Especially if it proves more popular than his dream screenshot / walking simulator?

To be fair, it did look pretty good didn't it? Looks like a game. A fun game at that. Worm tunnel things looked fun too. Could be worth keeping an eye on this Star Citizen thing.
Title: Re: Star Citizen Scoops, Musings and Blogs
Post by: Motto on November 23, 2019, 04:53:15 PM
Do not feed the troll!
Title: Re: Star Citizen Scoops, Musings and Blogs
Post by: N0mad on November 24, 2019, 04:17:13 AM
Do not feed the troll!

My point is that the ToW sub game could easily overshadow the PU (and SQ42 for that matter). If people only play ToW then what incentive do they have to buy JPEGs? Perhaps they'll run it on laggy servers to make it less popular, just as they cancelled the preview at CitizenCon when the queue got too long and they worried not enough people would attend the talks.
Title: Re: Star Citizen Scoops, Musings and Blogs
Post by: Motto on November 24, 2019, 05:01:08 AM
There is no game and there never will be. If anything, Citizen Con showed clearly no progress at all. No news, no updates, no new jpgs, nothing of substance according with the 500+ devs working a whole year. And Chris showed it too. It is game over and he knows it. There won't be a Citizen Con 2020. His "this is it, the end" was in regard to the whole SC fiasco.
Title: Re: Star Citizen Scoops, Musings and Blogs
Post by: N0mad on November 24, 2019, 05:09:59 AM
Nah, I think they've done enough to convince the whales to keep it going for another year.

Although, I thought it was interesting that there wasn't a brand new ship to sell this year. Come to think of it: there seemed to be fewer new JPEGs to buy this year, apart from the minelayer. Either I haven't been following it or perhaps CIG are concentrating more on the whales via private channels to raise funds.

PS. and no sign of Sandi on stage - unless I missed it.
Title: Re: Star Citizen Scoops, Musings and Blogs
Post by: wiser3754 on November 24, 2019, 03:36:00 PM
Where the hell was Squadron 42? The game has 10 months left in development until beta release.
Title: Re: Star Citizen Scoops, Musings and Blogs
Post by: Slapmeandcallmegurl on November 24, 2019, 03:46:38 PM
There is no game and there never will be. If anything, Citizen Con showed clearly no progress at all. No news, no updates, no new jpgs, nothing of substance according with the 500+ devs working a whole year. And Chris showed it too. It is game over and he knows it. There won't be a Citizen Con 2020. His "this is it, the end" was in regard to the whole SC fiasco.

Would love to bet on that with you. I'm pretty sure it's not the first time that claim has been made. Next year's conning of citizens will happen. €50 says so.
Title: Re: Star Citizen Scoops, Musings and Blogs
Post by: dsmart on November 26, 2019, 10:36:47 AM
So...

Just watching the CitizenCon stuff. The Theatres of War features seems like a really good idea: a game mode built to be fun and fast by a guy who knows how to make games.

BUT is this game mode too good? It looks like much more fun that the PU. Will Chris allow it? Especially if it proves more popular than his dream screenshot / walking simulator?

They basically went out and made Line Of Defense (http://lodgame.com/info/)  :emot-allears:

This is the thing, as long as they keep expanding the scope of the game, while not completing previous promises, they never - ever - have to finish it.
Title: Re: Star Citizen Scoops, Musings and Blogs
Post by: dsmart on April 26, 2020, 10:06:37 AM
Star Citizen scope creep and the legacy of failure (https://twitter.com/dsmart/status/1254456125312962560?s=20)
Title: Re: Star Citizen Scoops, Musings and Blogs
Post by: jwh1701 on April 26, 2020, 03:11:04 PM
Star Citizen scope creep and the legacy of failure (https://twitter.com/dsmart/status/1254456125312962560?s=20)

Great amount of good information presented and refreshers, with it never ending and broken promises its impossible to remember it all.
Title: Re: Star Citizen Scoops, Musings and Blogs
Post by: dsmart on April 28, 2020, 06:19:55 AM
They literally dropped what they were working on, saw that Battle Royale was a big thing, and not having much to show for the annual CitizenCon backer whaling, came up with this travesty.

https://www.altchar.com/game-news/star-citizen-theaters-of-war-hands-on-a9ZF25X8i7v2

https://www.polygon.com/pc/2019/11/24/20980517/star-citizen-release-dates-pc-theaters-of-war-squadron-42-anvil-carrack-citizencon-2019

I mean, watch the presentation and video play through. All that work. All those resources. All that time. Wasted.



That was Nov 2019. By April 2020, they had shit-canned it in favor of yet another unannounced "feature". Prison gamplay.

"The idea was that we give a 30 minute experience that was chock full of combat right in your face, straight away. I'm pretty happy with it now" - Sean Tracy, Nov 25th 2019

By Jan 2020? Crickets. They basically, again, put resources into an endeavor designed to milk the whales while giving a patently false sense of progress. And it's not the first time either.

As to parallel dev, that's not how that works. You can do things in parallel as long as they are within the original design and scope. Allocating resources to a feature that either useless, not in the design docs and which serves no purpose, is scope creep - and I would argue is fraudulent if done with the intent to mislead (publishers, investors, backers etc)
Title: Re: Star Citizen Scoops, Musings and Blogs
Post by: Judge_dolly_OG on April 28, 2020, 04:30:03 PM
I forget its been so long since they announced Tow.

While I'm kind of thinking it was something they had a chance of achieving, a sub standard space battlefield, it is interesting it seems to have been dropped or kicked into the long grass. What a waste of resources again. Their lack of focus is amazing to behold.
Title: Re: Star Citizen Scoops, Musings and Blogs
Post by: dsmart on April 29, 2020, 08:03:30 AM
I forget its been so long since they announced Tow.

While I'm kind of thinking it was something they had a chance of achieving, a sub standard space battlefield, it is interesting it seems to have been dropped or kicked into the long grass. What a waste of resources again. Their lack of focus is amazing to behold.

The netcode is shit. So there's no way in hell they could have even pulled it off outside of a closed environment. Plus, just like Arena Commander and Star Marine, who would be playing it after the initial thrill wears off and it's revealed that it was just another shiny object to release and appease backers in the short-term?

You remember this shit? Well yeah, the netcode hasn't improved since then.




Title: Re: Star Citizen Scoops, Musings and Blogs
Post by: wiser3754 on April 29, 2020, 07:17:36 PM
A combined arms/battle royale mode running on Cryengine 3.8? Sure, why not? What is the server cap on Hunt : Showdown? 9 players? Running on Cryengine 5.6?
Title: Re: Star Citizen Scoops, Musings and Blogs
Post by: dsmart on April 30, 2020, 11:29:11 AM
3.9 - The Next Gen Disaster (https://twitter.com/i/status/1255922952345919488)
Title: Re: Star Citizen Scoops, Musings and Blogs
Post by: dsmart on May 18, 2020, 01:28:37 PM
The upcoming fiasco is a thing of beauty (https://twitter.com/dsmart/status/1262477396097335297)
Title: Re: Star Citizen Scoops, Musings and Blogs
Post by: wiser3754 on May 18, 2020, 01:51:03 PM
The upcoming fiasco is a thing of beauty (https://twitter.com/dsmart/status/1262477396097335297)

The "Theatres of scam" Reddit thread and video was a riot. 18 months they've been working on it? Jesus Christ almighty.
Title: Re: Star Citizen Scoops, Musings and Blogs
Post by: Motto on May 18, 2020, 02:05:49 PM
I can't wait for the next fiasco to come out of it. Just as long as CR, family and friends eventually pay the price. I'd hate to see them get away with it.
Title: Re: Star Citizen Scoops, Musings and Blogs
Post by: wiser3754 on May 18, 2020, 07:10:33 PM
I can't wait for the next fiasco to come out of it. Just as long as CR, family and friends eventually pay the price. I'd hate to see them get away with it.

CRoberts has already gotten away with it with the TOS changes and his trust fund being looked after by Sandi. As for Erin, he's already cashed out.
Title: Re: Star Citizen Scoops, Musings and Blogs
Post by: jwh1701 on May 19, 2020, 08:53:44 AM
The netcode is shit. So there's no way in hell they could have even pulled it off outside of a closed environment. Plus, just like Arena Commander and Star Marine, who would be playing it after the initial thrill wears off and it's revealed that it was just another shiny object to release and appease backers in the short-term?



Any merit to the new super tech, Server to Client Actor Networking Rework?

https://robertsspaceindustries.com/spectrum/community/SC/forum/50259/thread/different-tick-rates-in-different-places-with-serv/1930029

https://www.reddit.com/r/starcitizen/comments/bpvkr7/does_client_to_server_actor_networking_also/

    I can talk about it a bit, I'm the programmer currently working on the actor networking rework. It's split into two parts - upstream and downstream.

    First to clarify what an actor is - in the current game that is any humanoid actor (either controlled by an actual human player or by AI) running around in the verse. It does not effect ship or weapon networking, they're different enough that they use different systems (though they do all have some common elements/strategies).

    Upstream refers to the communication from the local client up to the server:

    * Currently the actor movement is client authoritative - this means that when you press the 'W' button locally your client moves you forward and then sends the new position up to the server, which then replicates it to all other remote clients. This has a number of issues, not least it being a nightmare for anti-cheat as well as it having an effect on perceived lag (most notably, if someone else has a poor connection you see them teleporting about a bunch).

    * We are moving actor movement (and indeed their entire state) to being fully server authoritative - when you press the 'W' button locally that is bundled up in an "action" and sent off to a component called the Actor Action Handler. This component replicates this action up to the server and it is processed on both - the local client and the server will move you forward (hopefully the same amount, there's a whole lot of code to make sure it does) and the position from the server is then replicated to all clients, with remote clients accepting it (same as before) and the local client validating against it (too much divergence and they are moved to where the server thinks they are...or rather were, since by the time it's got back down he's likely moved on, we reset and then rerun the inputs since the frame we were reset to).

    * There are a bunch of new complexities with all of this - we have to do our best to not miss any actions, we have to take into account the time it takes the actions to get up to the server, we have to appropriately deal with any divergence between client and server and we have to have methods of mitigating lag.

    * The most obvious user facing improvements to this will be improved validation and slightly improved experience when facing players on a poor connection. For the validation, since the server is fully authoritative and can tell us exactly when something has diverged we can better cope with that - the previous method was very susceptible to poor server framerate or network latency, manifesting most obviously with the mobiGlas flicking open and closed rapidly, or ladders being a bit clingy (those changes have already made it back into the main branch actually, expect them in 3.5). For playing with/against players with a poor connection you will see them teleport around less, though on their own clients they will rubber-band more as the server corrects them.

    * For the most part, think of this as a change that has some minor improvements but is mainly just a precursor to the next part.

    Downstream refers to the communication from the server to all remote clients:

    * Currently to smooth out actor movement on remote clients we artificially inject a 250ms delay into all their movement processing - being able to see a quarter of a second into the future allows the various movement and animation systems to give a better visual result, and having that buffer mitigates the problem of lag spikes.

    * For us, this is not really a sustainable solution. Everything being 250ms out contributes to the game feeling laggy and is an overwhelming factor in the "movement and shot delays" you mention.

    * The plan is to reduce this rewind amount significantly to something sensible (hopefully around ~2 frames instead of 15), with improved dead reckoning and state processing helping to cover over the visual impact of this.

    * Another factor of this will be remote client patching that is already implemented but needs some tweaks (and bugfixing...) before going fully live. This means, for example, when I kill someone on my client I can temporarily take control of that remote actor to immediately play a hit/death reaction. Since you tend to be looking directly at someone when you kill them any latency on them playing the reaction is very noticeable, so removing the need for the hit to go up to the server and then come back down reduces the perceived lag significantly. Obviously, if the server disagrees with you (you didn't actually hit/kill them) then it will be undone on your client, though this should only happen in cases of extreme lag or cheating.

    We have been planning and working on this rework for quite some time, and have confidence that it should improve things significantly.
Title: Re: Star Citizen Scoops, Musings and Blogs
Post by: dsmart on May 19, 2020, 10:19:19 AM

Any merit to the new super tech, Server to Client Actor Networking Rework?

Yes - as much merit as every other bs they've spouted.  :rolleyes:
Title: Re: Star Citizen Scoops, Musings and Blogs
Post by: jwh1701 on May 20, 2020, 08:19:21 PM
Yes - as much merit as every other bs they've spouted.  :rolleyes:

It's just crazy to see them still creating new tech when they cant finish the tech from 2015/2016.
Title: Re: Star Citizen Scoops, Musings and Blogs
Post by: dsmart on May 22, 2020, 07:34:03 AM
It's just crazy to see them still creating new tech when they cant finish the tech from 2015/2016.

Yeah but they're not creating new tech though. They're just doing what most of us have done for years - then calling it another name. Because they know the majority of their backs are clueless buffoons.
Title: Re: Star Citizen Scoops, Musings and Blogs
Post by: N0mad on May 22, 2020, 03:15:01 PM
Yeah but they're not creating new tech though. They're just doing what most of us have done for years - then calling it another name. Because they know the majority of their backs are clueless buffoons.

It's incredibly good marketing: if you google any of the Star Citizen 'tech' then the first page is full of Star Citizen stuff.

Ultimately that's all Star Citizen has become: good marketing - talk about ground-breaking new tech, throw in some cinematics and tease a new system / ship / gameplay mechanic occasionally and the zealots will keep throwing money at them. 
Title: Re: Star Citizen Scoops, Musings and Blogs
Post by: jwh1701 on May 22, 2020, 03:45:15 PM
It's incredibly good marketing: if you google any of the Star Citizen 'tech' then the first page is full of Star Citizen stuff.

Ultimately that's all Star Citizen has become: good marketing - talk about ground-breaking new tech, throw in some cinematics and tease a new system / ship / gameplay mechanic occasionally and the zealots will keep throwing money at them.


The new Invictus video really does create the illusion like so many before it that its a functional game with boundless opportunities.
Title: Re: Star Citizen Scoops, Musings and Blogs
Post by: dsmart on May 26, 2020, 10:04:11 AM
Never Forget. Three years ago today, Squadron 42 fell off the radar.

(https://pbs.twimg.com/media/DAx5BTvXgAQw1Ja.jpg)

When I wrote this, I remember the hate that I got over it.

http://dereksmart.com/forums/topic/star-citizen-scoops/#post-5276

I mean, it’s not as if they lied…

"In terms of content, Roberts said that all of the game’s chapters and gameplay are at the “grey-box” level, which means that development is nearly complete, but the last set of assets aren’t included yet, and the developers want to give it a final polish."

https://www.tomshardware.com/news/squadron-42-delayed-star-citizen,32846.html

…or was it something else?

"Thoroughly confused, I reached out to RSI to get the official word. “It appears something may have been lost in the translation,” a rep said. “Chris spoke to multiple reporters at Gamescom who asked about the status of Squadron 42. We have been feature locked for a while and things are coming along nicely. In every case he told them that we are hard at work on the game and are focused on making it great but no official launch dates were discussed."

https://www.pcgamer.com/roberts-space-industries-denies-squadron-42-delay-report/
Title: Re: Star Citizen Scoops, Musings and Blogs
Post by: jwh1701 on May 26, 2020, 10:41:24 AM
Never Forget. Three years ago today, Squadron 42 fell off the radar.

So many even now say you make up stuff but you stated:
And it goes beyond 2017, and all the way to 2021.

Look were we are at now, I member watching Chris show in the slides it was grey box or better. I posted that in reddit SC longtime ago and they all got so upset.
Title: Re: Star Citizen Scoops, Musings and Blogs
Post by: Greggy_D on May 26, 2020, 12:54:01 PM
I can't believe it has been almost FIVE YEARS since your first blog, Interstellar Citizens.  And it is still accurate as hell.
Title: Re: Star Citizen Scoops, Musings and Blogs
Post by: dsmart on May 26, 2020, 03:19:46 PM
I can't believe it has been almost FIVE YEARS since your first blog, Interstellar Citizens.  And it is still accurate as hell.

Yup. It will be five years on July 15th, 2020
Title: Re: Star Citizen Scoops, Musings and Blogs
Post by: MadAmishman on May 26, 2020, 06:15:48 PM
Planning any updates? Like info about the fresh money for shares that was just announced? Like the reported fresh $17M just thrown at it in March?
Title: Re: Star Citizen Scoops, Musings and Blogs
Post by: dsmart on May 27, 2020, 08:47:53 AM
Planning any updates? Like info about the fresh money for shares that was just announced? Like the reported fresh $17M just thrown at it in March?

I will do a 5 year anniversary blog which includes every major event since the last blog I wrote back in May 2019.
Title: Re: Star Citizen Scoops, Musings and Blogs
Post by: MadAmishman on May 27, 2020, 11:10:52 AM
Nice...I look forward to it!
Title: Re: Star Citizen Scoops, Musings and Blogs
Post by: krylite on May 27, 2020, 07:57:23 PM
Thanks looking forward to it too. Plenty of the redditers on sc refunds now were former sunk-cost victims that finally woke up, so are still loathe to give credit, but I think they all know you called this ponzi out the earliest, a main reason why /r/screfunds even exists, and have been the most completionist on the subject since.
Title: Re: Star Citizen Scoops, Musings and Blogs
Post by: dsmart on May 28, 2020, 06:14:09 AM
Thanks looking forward to it too. Plenty of the redditers on sc refunds now were former sunk-cost victims that finally woke up, so are still loathe to give credit, but I think they all know you called this ponzi out the earliest, a main reason why /r/screfunds even exists, and have been the most completionist on the subject since.

Yeah, I pop in there from time to time. Those wankers are all the same. Having refunded doesn't make them any better than Shitizens. People are who they are.

The big problem they're having is that admitting that I was right - and that they were wrong and stupid - is too big a pill to swallow. After all, I am Derek Smart. So.  :shrug:
Title: Re: Star Citizen Scoops, Musings and Blogs
Post by: dsmart on May 28, 2020, 02:11:37 PM
Never Forget. Three years ago today, Squadron 42 fell off the radar.

(https://pbs.twimg.com/media/DAx5BTvXgAQw1Ja.jpg)

When I wrote this, I remember the hate that I got over it.

http://dereksmart.com/forums/topic/star-citizen-scoops/#post-5276

I mean, it’s not as if they lied…

"In terms of content, Roberts said that all of the game’s chapters and gameplay are at the “grey-box” level, which means that development is nearly complete, but the last set of assets aren’t included yet, and the developers want to give it a final polish."

https://www.tomshardware.com/news/squadron-42-delayed-star-citizen,32846.html

…or was it something else?

"Thoroughly confused, I reached out to RSI to get the official word. “It appears something may have been lost in the translation,” a rep said. “Chris spoke to multiple reporters at Gamescom who asked about the status of Squadron 42. We have been feature locked for a while and things are coming along nicely. In every case he told them that we are hard at work on the game and are focused on making it great but no official launch dates were discussed."

https://www.pcgamer.com/roberts-space-industries-denies-squadron-42-delay-report/

Here @ 17:40 one of the QA team members, back in 2016, claiming that he had in fact played through all the SQ42 missions. We know now that to be completely FALSE as per not only the game’s own public dev schedules, but also by the fact that, well, FOUR years later, it’s not out.

Title: Re: Star Citizen Scoops, Musings and Blogs
Post by: wiser3754 on May 28, 2020, 07:07:38 PM
I wonder how Tyler is nowadays? Same goes with that pig, Ben Leznik.
Title: Re: Star Citizen Scoops, Musings and Blogs
Post by: jwh1701 on May 28, 2020, 09:43:58 PM
I wonder how Tyler is nowadays? Same goes with that pig, Ben Leznik.

Poor guy he's probably still collecting memorabilia and pushing SC.
Title: Re: Star Citizen Scoops, Musings and Blogs
Post by: dsmart on August 07, 2020, 04:47:11 AM
Latest leak from TheAgent

Quote
We've missed our Third Deadline [sic] in as-many [sic] months. The pressure [from the top] of supplying the alpha Squadron Forty-Two [sic] VS has turned into pressure about supplying the Full-Early-Access [sic] Beta. Things are broken because we continue to iterate and change our core mechanics. Our programmers are stretched thin. There's only so many problems you can paint over before the cracks start to show beneath.

The oversight entity [sic] has the option of forcing [Chris] Roberts away from any decisions regarding Squadron Forty-Two & Star Citizen & the additional Gamemodes Theaters of War & Cooperative Construction [supposedly a building and social module]. They will leverage that by the end of this year. They were told Four Full-Gamemodes [sic] would be online by Christmas this year. We are unable to deliver those promises made in December 2017 to this entity and to the additional promises made to more recent entities.

I do fear that [the company] is moving to a more productive place but at the cost of good & talents [sic] people. Where are we without a leader like [Chris]? Everything we are here is because of him. Lost confidence could be doom for us. Where would we go during this? I worry about myself and my coworkers and my family now.
Title: Re: Star Citizen Scoops, Musings and Blogs
Post by: jwh1701 on August 07, 2020, 11:27:08 AM
Latest leak from TheAgent

Interesting but the one line "Lost confidence could be doom for us" I find it hard to believe they have any confidence. I've worked on much larger projects with fortune 500 companies with thousands of employees were confidence was lost in under a year with development.
Title: Re: Star Citizen Scoops, Musings and Blogs
Post by: Judge_dolly_OG on August 07, 2020, 12:07:12 PM
Latest leak from TheAgent

Chris hasn't been visible since 2019 (the March pillar talk was a 2nd part recorded in 2019). It would lend weight to the fact he is being pushed out. But it is also possible he is just distancing himself from it as he knows it is doomed and doesn't want to become the Billy McFarland or Elizabeth Holmes of the operation.

I would say it was too late for that though.
Title: Re: Star Citizen Scoops, Musings and Blogs
Post by: dsmart on August 13, 2020, 05:06:23 AM
He was last seen this past April 23rd in this video. Looks bored as ever.

Go to @ 2:20


Title: Re: Star Citizen Scoops, Musings and Blogs
Post by: Greggy_D on August 15, 2020, 04:41:14 PM
I will do a 5 year anniversary blog which includes every major event since the last blog I wrote back in May 2019.

Derek, did you ever get around to writing this?
Title: Re: Star Citizen Scoops, Musings and Blogs
Post by: dsmart on August 17, 2020, 05:39:21 AM
Derek, did you ever get around to writing this?

Yup, I just didn't have the passion to finish it. I had all the research done, the links collected etc. It just felt so draining, and then I realized that there was very little gain to completing it. So I decided to just leave the WIP version for the inevitable collapse.
Title: Re: Star Citizen Scoops, Musings and Blogs
Post by: dsmart on August 21, 2020, 05:43:10 AM
Fun fact. See how Microsoft funded and developed an amazing Flight Simulator installment while SC/SQ42 aren't anywhere close to release? Well, Jörg Neumann, the current head of the Microsoft Flight Sim group (https://www.linkedin.com/in/jorg-neumann-b7143/) worked to release Freelancer after Chris was fired from Digital Anvil. Imagine that.
Title: Re: Star Citizen Scoops, Musings and Blogs
Post by: dsmart on August 21, 2020, 08:06:18 AM
Today's alerts! CIG team exodus and more!

https://twitter.com/dsmart/status/1296815779707527169
Title: Re: Star Citizen Scoops, Musings and Blogs
Post by: Judge_dolly_OG on August 27, 2020, 12:38:05 AM
More fuel added to the "where the hell is Chris??!?" dumpster fire.

https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0730932/

He is listed as being a location producer on some random 2020 documentary, refunds sub are getting excited.

To be honest it is probably just credited to the wrong Chris Roberts, but it's still funny, especially given CR's disappearing act.
Title: Re: Star Citizen Scoops, Musings and Blogs
Post by: dsmart on August 30, 2020, 09:19:02 AM
More fuel added to the "where the hell is Chris??!?" dumpster fire.

https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0730932/

He is listed as being a location producer on some random 2020 documentary, refunds sub are getting excited.

To be honest it is probably just credited to the wrong Chris Roberts, but it's still funny, especially given CR's disappearing act.

That's not him. Some idiot has been spreading that around without spending time fact-checking it.

https://www.thetalentmanager.com/talent/30965/chris-roberts
Title: Re: Star Citizen Scoops, Musings and Blogs
Post by: dsmart on August 30, 2020, 09:19:18 AM
FF to @ 14:42


I understand ALL of this. TL;DR they haven't done ANY work to server meshing due to a LOT of other dependent tasks (which he explained very clearly - to a dev).

This is what he said about server meshing back in Feb 2018 -> http://dereksmart.com/forums/reply/6239/

Also, I wrote a long 2017 article in which I opined on Clive's experience. Just search for "clive" and read it.

Again - that was 2017

http://dereksmart.com/forums/reply/6078/
Title: Re: Star Citizen Scoops, Musings and Blogs
Post by: DemonInvestor on August 31, 2020, 10:07:08 AM
FF to @ 14:42


I understand ALL of this. TL;DR they haven't done ANY work to server meshing due to a LOT of other dependent tasks (which he explained very clearly - to a dev).

This is what he said about server meshing back in Feb 2018 -> http://dereksmart.com/forums/reply/6239/

Also, I wrote a long 2017 article in which I opined on Clive's experience. Just search for "clive" and read it.

Again - that was 2017

http://dereksmart.com/forums/reply/6078/

Sooo as non programmer/engineer - is it normal that they need 5 years to get along with establishing server communicating with each other and some authority system. I mean sure i guess they've to be doing quite a bit including some location specific methods, but it sounds so off to me. I mean if i remember correctly UO was done in such span of time.
Title: Re: Star Citizen Scoops, Musings and Blogs
Post by: Judge_dolly_OG on September 01, 2020, 02:34:09 AM
FF to @ 14:42

I understand ALL of this. TL;DR they haven't done ANY work to server meshing due to a LOT of other dependent tasks (which he explained very clearly - to a dev).

This is what he said about server meshing back in Feb 2018 -> http://dereksmart.com/forums/reply/6239/

Also, I wrote a long 2017 article in which I opined on Clive's experience. Just search for "clive" and read it.

Again - that was 2017

http://dereksmart.com/forums/reply/6078/

Jared says at the end "They are closer to the end than the beginning". They have not got server meshing working, even their basic "static" version, there is still clearly a ton of work to do.  Add on top of this the fact that most of the gameplay is not yet implemented, and they have not completed one system.

How can this be the case? I would love to see their real internal estimates (even with CIG's track record of bad estimation) for how long this will all take, it has to be measured in YEARS.
Title: Re: Star Citizen Scoops, Musings and Blogs
Post by: dsmart on September 01, 2020, 08:07:42 AM
I mean, why is this surprising? They LIE about literally EVERY facet of this project.
Title: Re: Star Citizen Scoops, Musings and Blogs
Post by: dsmart on September 15, 2020, 10:53:52 AM
I have been contemplating writing another SC blog. But until then, this will have to do for now.

https://twitter.com/dsmart/status/1305882183563980801
Title: Re: Star Citizen Scoops, Musings and Blogs
Post by: Motto on September 15, 2020, 11:54:31 AM
So, the divorce (just to make sure they don't have to pay the money back, obviously) from Sandi has been confirmed?
Title: Re: Star Citizen Scoops, Musings and Blogs
Post by: StanTheMan on September 19, 2020, 10:40:49 PM
Jared says at the end "They are closer to the end than the beginning". They have not got server meshing working, even their basic "static" version, there is still clearly a ton of work to do.  Add on top of this the fact that most of the gameplay is not yet implemented, and they have not completed one system.

How can this be the case? I would love to see their real internal estimates (even with CIG's track record of bad estimation) for how long this will all take, it has to be measured in YEARS.

So true !
Title: Re: Star Citizen Scoops, Musings and Blogs
Post by: SpaceTroll on September 20, 2020, 11:50:45 PM
Chris Roberts is the king of the good optimization. 9600k 6 core 6 thread faster than 3800X 8 core 16 thread, not even 60fps with a $1300 gpu :grin:

(https://i.ibb.co/N214L3x/c09acbfcc4c92f6355ed400ac135e12bf8aeaaf76f3a6974c1edbf2f7b504da1.png)
Title: Re: Star Citizen Scoops, Musings and Blogs
Post by: Judge_dolly_OG on September 21, 2020, 02:57:23 AM
Chris Roberts is the king of the good optimization. 9600k 6 core 6 thread faster than 3800X 8 core 16 thread, not even 60fps with a $1300 gpu :grin:

(https://i.ibb.co/N214L3x/c09acbfcc4c92f6355ed400ac135e12bf8aeaaf76f3a6974c1edbf2f7b504da1.png)

tHey ArE pUShinG thE BouNdAriEs!!!!!11
Title: Re: Star Citizen Scoops, Musings and Blogs
Post by: McDrake on September 21, 2020, 08:16:15 AM
Chris Roberts is the king of the good optimization. 9600k 6 core 6 thread faster than 3800X 8 core 16 thread, not even 60fps with a $1300 gpu :grin:

(https://i.ibb.co/N214L3x/c09acbfcc4c92f6355ed400ac135e12bf8aeaaf76f3a6974c1edbf2f7b504da1.png)

whats the source of this?
Title: Re: Star Citizen Scoops, Musings and Blogs
Post by: dsmart on September 24, 2020, 03:50:32 PM
Latest from TheAgent. Some seriously hilarious stuff.

* CIG has been given another 12 months to release the SQ42 first strike/prelude
* a reminder that this is NOT the full game or "Episode 1" but more of a "demo" in media res
* this new date is "absolutely immovable" by new oversight committee (lol: we'll see)
* this is a combination of covid19 and other development woes
* hearing (again) that UE4 is being utilized for cutscenes
* "We're doing [in-game cinematics] twice. We create a simple preview using [UE4 Blueprint/Sequencer] for approval, since it's faster. After sign-off, we create them [into Lumberyard using Track View, a CryEngine tool]."
*supposedly this creates less work, as approval/rough cut cutscenes take "a very, very long time to sculpt" in LY/CE
*post-approval cutscenes were constantly changed, even after sign-off
*these highly-detailed, complex and polished final cuts went back to planning, sometimes being completely rewritten as other chapters of the game changed
*"thousands and thousands of man-hours" continue to be lost to this, according to 3rd party animator
*final cut in "immediate lockdown" starting Q4 2020
*this means no more changes to the initial story, animations or voice acting
*number of employees at CIG proper now less than 350
*many 3rd party contractors bring this total up higher
*"This is the second time we have enlisted the major help of third party developers. Loads of us wonder about another waste of resources, since we brought everything back in-house [in 2017/2018] anyway. Are we going to look through their work and again say 'Not good enough?'"
*expect a 4.0 announcement "soon" [read: next 90 days] that finally takes Star Citizen into beta stage
*no specific date tied to 4.0 but expect it "soon" [read: Q2/Q3 2021]
*with the addition of Pyro/beta, server limits will be increased to 100 for each star system
*new system will limit the number of concurrent players in a single area, able to split and combine players "seamlessly" as required [we'll see!]
*this is the first step of "server meshing" talked about the last half decade
*a new city, orbital platform and prison (???) can be selected as new start locations
*Theaters of War has gone back to the drawing board [I'm pretty sure its KIA]
*the investors supposedly do see value in that mode and it is not entirely dead
*more "fast-paced," "teen-friendly," and "Fortnite-esque" are words exchanged about ToWs future
*investors were surprised that Star Citizen already had a "Star Wars: Squadrons" mode and that it wasn't marketed more and more heavily monetized
Title: Re: Star Citizen Scoops, Musings and Blogs
Post by: jwh1701 on September 24, 2020, 05:50:45 PM
Latest from TheAgent. Some seriously hilarious stuff.

Sounds like illfonics merged with ground hog day to create a never ending nightmare devs wake and see Chris saying refactor again.
Title: Re: Star Citizen Scoops, Musings and Blogs
Post by: Judge_dolly_OG on September 30, 2020, 10:08:09 PM
Looks like there has been some changes in the share ownership at CIG, 5 days till we get the details :

https://beta.companieshouse.gov.uk/company/08815227/filing-history

But looks like some sort of share buyback.
Title: Re: Star Citizen Scoops, Musings and Blogs
Post by: dsmart on October 05, 2020, 06:43:54 AM
Looks like there has been some changes in the share ownership at CIG, 5 days till we get the details :

https://beta.companieshouse.gov.uk/company/08815227/filing-history

But looks like some sort of share buyback.

Probably the shares sale from earlier this year (https://twitter.com/dsmart/status/1245453181812977669). It's not a share buy back - which would be nuts for them to do since it would mean putting money back into the company.
Title: Re: Star Citizen Scoops, Musings and Blogs
Post by: Judge_dolly_OG on October 05, 2020, 07:23:00 AM
Probably the shares sale from earlier this year (https://twitter.com/dsmart/status/1245453181812977669). It's not a share buy back - which would be nuts for them to do since it would mean putting money back into the company.

Yes, looking at the figures, the shares are for their nominal value of £117.58
Title: Re: Star Citizen Scoops, Musings and Blogs
Post by: dsmart on October 05, 2020, 01:34:41 PM
They lowered the value of the company. For a brief explanation, listen to this

https://m.twitch.tv/videos/759142195?t=44m15s

(https://i.imgur.com/BO4QVie.jpg)
Title: Re: Star Citizen Scoops, Musings and Blogs
Post by: dsmart on October 08, 2020, 02:30:01 PM
I delve into the financial shenanigans hole

https://twitter.com/dsmart/status/1314304218283552769?s=20
Title: Re: Star Citizen Scoops, Musings and Blogs
Post by: jwh1701 on October 08, 2020, 07:58:43 PM
They lowered the value of the company. For a brief explanation, listen to this

https://m.twitch.tv/videos/759142195?t=44m15s



That was very interesting to watch, I can only imagine this is a small pittance to what they have really taken.
Title: Re: Star Citizen Scoops, Musings and Blogs
Post by: wiser3754 on October 08, 2020, 11:29:58 PM
Going by what GuardFrequency stated, the value of the company (CIG) by stock is worth only a paltry £23,000,000? Wasn't CIG valued at $500,000,000 when the Calders made their initial investment back in 2018?
Title: Re: Star Citizen Scoops, Musings and Blogs
Post by: DemonInvestor on October 09, 2020, 01:40:46 PM
@wiser3754
Ahh okay, now i found the 500 million you spoke of.
Yes difference in face value (par value) vs. percieved market value of the shares.

The current face value of the 1,171,580 shares from "CLOUD IMPERIUM UK LTD." is at 0.0001 GBP. So normally if you pay up 1 GBP per 1 share 0.9999 GBP would go into the share premium, while 0.0001 GBP would go into the Share Capital itself. (somewhat of a simplification overal, but yeah).
Title: Re: Star Citizen Scoops, Musings and Blogs
Post by: dsmart on October 10, 2020, 12:43:59 PM
8th birthday AMA. Nope, SQ42 isn't coming any time soon

https://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2020-10-10-as-star-citizen-turns-eight-years-old-the-single-player-campaign-still-sounds-a-long-way-off

https://robertsspaceindustries.com/spectrum/community/SC/forum/3/thread/star-citizen-birthday-ama/3435007

Letter from Dear Leader

https://robertsspaceindustries.com/comm-link/transmission/17805-Letter-From-The-Chairman
Title: Re: Star Citizen Scoops, Musings and Blogs
Post by: wiser3754 on October 11, 2020, 02:24:01 AM
If Elite Dangerous : Oddysee and Star Field rack up a huge player base then the gloves will be off when other big developers and their publishers begin their own space IPs.
Title: Re: Star Citizen Scoops, Musings and Blogs
Post by: jwh1701 on October 11, 2020, 01:28:37 PM
I delve into the financial shenanigans hole

https://twitter.com/dsmart/status/1314304218283552769?s=20


With the Calders giving them so many millions would this not cause a huge rift in the partnership?
Title: Re: Star Citizen Scoops, Musings and Blogs
Post by: dsmart on October 12, 2020, 06:19:26 AM

With the Calders giving them so many millions would this not cause a huge rift in the partnership?

Not really. It's just investment. If they don't see any ROI, they bail. It's how investments work.
Title: Re: Star Citizen Scoops, Musings and Blogs
Post by: wiser3754 on October 12, 2020, 03:34:57 PM
When you say "they bail", how will they bail? Sell their shares or just walk away for example.
Title: Re: Star Citizen Scoops, Musings and Blogs
Post by: dsmart on October 13, 2020, 12:23:34 PM
You can't sell private shares unless you find another sucker. So usually they would just hold onto them and at some moment in time they can just do a loss write-down for the value and take it off their books.
Title: Re: Star Citizen Scoops, Musings and Blogs
Post by: jwh1701 on October 18, 2020, 09:49:20 AM
Not really. It's just investment. If they don't see any ROI, they bail. It's how investments work.

I definitely do not understand jpg development. If I was providing assistance to a company that was behind on every front and they were rewarding themselves while failing I would be upset.
Title: Re: Star Citizen Scoops, Musings and Blogs
Post by: dsmart on November 27, 2020, 11:28:17 AM
I didn't see that coming. Star Citizen is adding another development studio.

https://www.pcgamer.com/star-citizen-is-adding-another-development-studio/
Title: Re: Star Citizen Scoops, Musings and Blogs
Post by: Judge_dolly_OG on November 27, 2020, 11:43:40 AM
I didn't see that coming. Star Citizen is adding another development studio.

https://www.pcgamer.com/star-citizen-is-adding-another-development-studio/

Yes it is bonkers. Although, if The Agent is to be believed, the outside investors seem to hold Turbulent in higher regards as they have delivered a few things.

Someone said there were 5 games studios involved now, and not one finished game in 9 years.
Title: Re: Star Citizen Scoops, Musings and Blogs
Post by: dsmart on December 02, 2020, 09:28:25 AM
I think they're just consolidating and there are layoffs to come. All my sources have since left, so I'm blind to all the inner workings atm.