If you were one of the many backers and industry watchers raising eyebrows over Star Citizen’s latest production schedule report and delay, you’re going to want to read the followup.
Cloud Imperium’s Will “Soulcrusher” Leverett addressed followers on Spectrum, reminding everyone that the production schedule has always been merely an estimate and that the scope of the 3.0 update is “an an order of magnitude larger and more complex than all of our previous versions combined” such that “integrating all of [it] has revealed to be MUCH more of a bug fixing project than anticipated, which obviously reshapes those estimates and changes those dates.”
“As gamers, we are conditioned to consider all dates as static points in time that we can wrap our heads around and plan for in advance,” he argues. “The nature of this project does not neatly fit into that mold due to the complexity of what we’re building, and with what we learn about what’s possible and needed along the way. These date ranges are dynamic according to the challenges presented to us at that time, and we actively maintain that to keep you up to date.”
Further, he posits, “what 3.0 meant a year ago is a shadow of what 3.0 means today.” He’s specifically referring to planetary tech, which has been expanded heavily to feature dynamism, immersion, and seamless loading. This particular section of the community address has been the subject of heavy debate as people point out that while 3.0 is bigger than first planned, a lot has been removed from 3.0 as well, and that planetary tech was promised for 3.0 as early as a year ago, just not in this form.
“It’s about giving us the city and planet building tools to create for you the rest of the universe in an intelligent, scalable, efficient, and compelling manner. It’s about the first step in giving you the tools to create player outposts and communities. It’s about the streaming tech to allow you to take off from one moon, fly across the system, and land on an entirely different moon, the driving a freaking sweet buggy out of the back of your ship to race around the entire planet… all without a loading screen. It’s about giving you the ability to buy what’s on the web inside kiosks. It’s about usable turret gameplay, and Items 2.0 so you can customize your own ship with new components. It’s about picking objects and cargo so you can haul commodities across space as a trader and merchant. It’s about gutting a singleplayer engine to support thousands of players. It’s about infrastructure that we needed to develop because there are no off-the-shelf solutions for building an immersive experience like no other.”
“The entire company is working feverishly to get you 3.0,” he promises.
