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Pre-alpha footage from PAX
The current build of the work-in-progress dogfight module was shown off at PAX.
Check it out: http://m.youtube.com/watch?v=5TWQFSzQyeM
Of course it looks pretty rough not being even in the Alpha stage yet, but it shows promise.
Comments
Looks fun.
Movement is a bit strange but I guess they'll fix that by the time the game is released.
Also... wasn't it supposed to be in pre-alpha back in December but got delayed?... it's STILL in pre-alpha?
..Cake..
Ita good to see all that money has produced something playable!
Looks like a space game, hopefully it will be fun!
Yeah I'm guessing they will be tweaking the flight model a lot. Right now it feels like the ship doesn't have any mass when moving around.
wow. I'm amazed at how those trusthers work. and the G-force blackout. WP star citizen.
It's not my piece of cake but They seem to be doing things right
@sgel
Chris Robert's original plan, prior to the Kickstarter was to have the Dogfight Module out in December of 2013. This was prior to the 42 million dollars the game has earned as of today.
This extra influx of of money made the project a larger ordeal and thusly pushed the developement time of said project, further back.
Was it "delayed" yes. Was it delayed to make it better? Yes.
Additionally:
Those who have played the DFM at PAX East (Backers mind you) have said on the official forums that the movement and controls are both fun and deep. With the ability to move around with a flight stick in one hand, in traditional fashion, and the keyboard for side-to-side / up-and-down movements, a very creative and skilled pilot will be able to go far.
I'd rather have a great game later than a mediocre or even good game early.
Well yes, game delays are always there to make the game better
I don't mind, I was just curious.
..Cake..
That's not really what happened though.
The DFM in it's current state is actually somewhat ahead of schedule. The initial release date of December was suppose to be for a basic Dogfighting module to be released based on the existing netcode in the crytek engine. It was supposed to be used in order to drum up more excitement and funding so they could continue development with a more solid foundation.
When it became apparent that they had secured more money than they had ever hoped they ditched the idea (because it would have meant doing work on a module that was only going to be rewritten again anyway) and decided to cut that portion of their plan out of the roadmap and build it straight onto their own backend system.
That combined with other stretch goals like the PBR and the Full Performance Capture will probably cause dates to slide back a bit more even though they have more devs working on it because it's harder to organise so much more stuff as effectively as well so that probably has a part to play.
But anyway.. when it comes to the DFM by the time Arena Commander 3 is out it will be in the same state as the finished DFM on their own backend system was supposed to be (plus the PBR and other bits and pieces they are doing on top of it) which if I remember correctly wasn't supposed to be done originally until around October 2014.
Having said that, if this game is even going to be half as good as what the feature creep will have us believe it's going to be worth every single day we wait.
Two thoughts:
1. Not terribly impressed overall by the feel of the game but pre-alpha, that may change.
2. I hope to Christ they optimize that well because that looks like a system destroyer... EVE-Online caused severe GPU issues with Incarna and that doesn't look remotely this good even with 3 years down the line so... yeah hope to God they do the Q&A optimization bit well.
It will definitely be optimized, but it will also definitely be a system destroyer.
All the modules are prealpha. The reasons for the delay have been explained already, but the game doesnt hit alpha until all the modules are integrated into the first iteration of the persistent universe
Not quite true. The modules are considered "Alpha" once they are in the Backer's hands. For instance the Hangar Module is in an Alpha state right now. The DFM will be Alpha once we are testing it. When they piece it all together and we have basically a feature complete game it will then proceed into the Beta Stage of development.
Pre-Alpha = Non playable code and ideas.
Alpha = Not feature complete pieces of the game that are playable.
Beta = Feature complete game that needs tweaking/Bug squashing.
Very rarely do Alpha testers get a feature complete game to play around with and generally only have a small slice that they replay over and over to find problems. Star Citizen for the most part is pre-Alpha at this point but as new modules come online that will change as each new module puts more of the game into an Alpha state.
Bren
while(horse==dead)
{
beat();
}
No. The alpha is the Persistent Universe.
"I feel that the Dogfighting module, especially with Star Citizen’s greatly increased profile, needs to be more polished than a typical “alpha”. There are a lot of eyes on the game, and more than a few people wanting us to fail. Because Dogfighting is the first module that will involve significant gameplay, it has to be good – I don’t feel that we will get a pass just because it is pre-pre alpha."
https://robertsspaceindustries.com/comm-link/transmission/13432-Letter-From-The-Chairman-On-Dogfighting
You can try to define it anyway you want but what I laid out for you are the stages as they are accepted by the entire Software Development Industry. If it is in an Alpha Tester's hands it is an Alpha Build. Try to redefine it all you like it wont change the actual definition of what an "Alpha Test" is.
Bren
while(horse==dead)
{
beat();
}