Did you miss like 10 blog posts in between?
Blog posts and such aren't game updates. I can't blame him to think that the project is dead since the game is stuck in alpha/beta state (no endgame, just base combat and generic missions) after a decade and development has slown down even more with no patch since May 2019.
You joined the forum THIS month my dude. Calm down and learn some patience. Go play some other game if you've gotten burned out.Wooow, that makes the response even funnier.
I wouldn't wait around for the game to be updated, you'll burn your life over it. Judge it on how it currently is, and possibly be happily surprised if it does update while your interest is still on it.
If it's not for you, then it's not for you. No harsh feelings from me as life it too short to be waiting on a video game update.
You joined the forum THIS month my dude. Calm down and learn some patience. Go play some other game if you've gotten burned out.
Alex just isn't being pressured by higher ups or shareholders into releasing SOMETHING RIGHT NOW no matter how unfinished it is coughcyberpunkcoughcough
And especially the QoL-changes and bug-fixes are such a big thing for me, that I prefer to wait for this update before buying and playing the game. Knowing that these things are missing in the current version would otherwise negativly affect my view of the game. And why burden your experinece of a game made with such dedication, if just waiting some weeks or months solves the issue?How do you know how important this are without having played the game? Heh.
As far as I am concerned SS is currently still a paid demo that becomes a game only by piling mods made by passionate, unpaid heroes who add crucial elements missing from the game like faction dynamics.Without the base game combat, Nex wouldn't be worth playing (it also likely wouldn't have been created), though if you don't play SS for its combat (why?), it's probably much more important to you.
(or, indeed, one's forum account creation date).My di- date is bigger than yours!
If you're gonna wait until something is completely done and polished so you don't experience "flawed" things, you're going to miss out a lot in life. Even with super clear goals and promises, you don't know how exactly will the final product look like, or if it'll even see the light of day. If something seems interesting, try it, you can always come back to it if it ever improves. What you can't do is bring back time. With some multiplayer games I seriously had more fun in their alpha/beta phases, even though that game is now much more complete and has more content.Game industry isn't exactly small, so it can be viable to choose to wait with playing games until they're finished. For some more niche genres, though, you don't get as much freedom of choice as you would wish.
I'll say, while I appreciate people jumping in to (correctly!) point out that development is very much active, I'd also really appreciate if that didn't come with a side of putting down people that are dissatisfied with some aspect of development. It's entirely possible to have different opinions here, and a conversation about it without attacks on one's person (or, indeed, one's forum account creation date).
Alex I appreciate how, in spite of negative comments towards you as a developer, you are trying your best to keep the forum positive and discussion on track!
I have to say though, I hope you can ignore the negativity and complaints about the development timeline! You are making my childhood's dream game! I've never ever imagined that a total internet stranger would be able to so perfectly encapsulate my childhood dream of starships, trading, and empires and distill it in a tiny package of pure nostalgia. Take as much time as you need to get it right! (no pressure or anything, its just my childhood dreams we're talking about here ;D)
Alex I appreciate how, in spite of negative comments towards you as a developer, you are trying your best to keep the forum positive and discussion on track!
And especially the QoL-changes and bug-fixes are such a big thing for me, that I prefer to wait for this update before buying and playing the game. Knowing that these things are missing in the current version would otherwise negativly affect my view of the game. And why burden your experinece of a game made with such dedication, if just waiting some weeks or months solves the issue?How do you know how important this are without having played the game? Heh.
Alex I appreciate how, in spite of negative comments towards you as a developer, you are trying your best to keep the forum positive and discussion on track!
This is pretty much why I stick around and put effort towards modding and the modding community. I've tried to have honest discussions on other game forums in the past and at this point I don't even bother anymore.
They almost always devolve into tantrums and insults within the first couple of posts. Alex takes time out of his day despite being the sole dev to do this, and that's a feat of strength that few can equal imo.
Try going on the SC2 forums and talking about faction balance. Or heaven forbid you speak of class balance on the World of Warcraft forums. You will be devoured whole. :P A truly soul-sucking experience that you can see affect long-term moderators who eventually just stop posting altogether.
Alex is practically a saint in my book. Especially with all the whining I personally do in an effort to help make the game better. Heh.
I'll say, while I appreciate people jumping in to (correctly!) point out that development is very much active, I'd also really appreciate if that didn't come with a side of putting down people that are dissatisfied with some aspect of development. It's entirely possible to have different opinions here, and a conversation about it without attacks on one's person (or, indeed, one's forum account creation date).
^^ this is not really the dev interacting with us, it's a Alpha core, Alex is an Alpha core.
I'll jump in for a comment. No, it's not dead. And let's not try to be "nice" for it's own sake here. I originally wrote this as a steel manning to ponder for it's own sake but I honestly do think I see where the OP is coming from here.
@Helldiver
Don't know what kind of games you play but calling Starsector a "paid demo" is hilarious to me. Sure it has issues and holes to fill, but it's straight up more polished than most big budget games I played in the last couple of years. Also what's the logic behind it being free lmao? So what it takes a long time, there's plenty of similar games like it and the devs surely aren't just gonna give their hard work away. If you don't like waiting then play live service games with monthly updates that break more things than they fix.
Why are you automatically jumping to the other extreme?I only deal in absolutes.
I'm pretty sure a too fast update schedule would kill the modding scene.True, but I don't think Alex decided to have such release cycles because of mods, it was just a happy coincidence imo.
Time for the annual check in on status.
See ya in a year. ::)
I'll say, while I appreciate people jumping in to (correctly!) point out that development is very much active, I'd also really appreciate if that didn't come with a side of putting down people that are dissatisfied with some aspect of development. It's entirely possible to have different opinions here, and a conversation about it without attacks on one's person (or, indeed, one's forum account creation date).
This is not true. If you dislike any aspect of the game or even think a part of a mod is not perfect you will be insulted hard core and people will try to drum you out of the community.
Be patientKinda unfair to say it to those who already waited a year and 9 months for an update. With all due respect to the devs ofc but be realistic, someone who's impatient would make this post ages ago.
Be patient
This game is eight years old, hasn’t been completed and a patch takes over a year to complete.Or the game was completed 8 years ago and we get a free expansion every year.
Pay the game 15 bucks, played hundred hours. Infinite list of mods to replay with. And well... the game is not on a state of "demo" compared of when it has named Starfarer. It is complete except qew bugs for me. For me each update look really like a new expansion where all mods need to be remade for work around the game. And do not forget... some game(AAA) has take more than 4 years of development with more than hundred of people. Just no alpha/demoThis game is eight years old, hasn’t been completed and a patch takes over a year to complete.Or the game was completed 8 years ago and we get a free expansion every year.
He is right that Alex is taking really long to make his game. I'm rather impressed that Alex haven't gotten bored of it yet.
Hopefully the second batch of patchnotes will be released mid-Feb.
Another blogpost is good too.
I've been in alphas like cube world and mess games like towns. We get interaction from the dev here and details on changes taking place. This game is a model of how this should work and anyone complaining about it taking too long is legit someone who doesn't understand the process or quality control going on.I agree good things take time. The dev team is small and some people are treating this like those commercially produced games, where they have their own share of such people.
And patience is relative to the subject, it is not "a couple of weeks" just because other stuff is. Games take years to make and I've seen zero dev posts suggesting or even hinting at a completion date. Alex set the bar of expectations low to avoid timeline hype messes.
If you say it's "about 1 year" till release and it takes 8 years. There is a problem.
If you say it's "an ongoing project". There is no problem.
Almost 4 months passed, i cannot wait to play new version.
Does anyone know when 0.9.5 going live? Last blog posted at 16th October 2020. Almost 4 months passed, i cannot wait to play new version.April?
You didn't specify the year...Does anyone know when 0.9.5 going live? Last blog posted at 16th October 2020. Almost 4 months passed, i cannot wait to play new version.April?
I agree good things take time. The dev team is small and some people are treating this like those commercially produced games, where they have their own share of such people.
I get the impression that this is more like a hobby rather than a full time job. I make things as a hobby as well, so I understand. If I was at a job making something, I'd try to do it by standards, but when I get home and make something I want, I'd treat it as my own baby and put time into it.
Not to mention it isn't even listed on platforms like Steam or GOG for broader audience. Which reminds me, that's how Rimworld started out too, with backing from the community and modders. It wasn't until very few years ago that game launched on Steam.
This is an even better troll than the recurring "Conquest is better than Onslaught" thread. Congrats, OP.
This is an even better troll than the recurring "Conquest is better than Onslaught" thread. Congrats, OP.
Are you attempting to start a flame war?
Because OP's concerns are legit.
This is an even better troll than the recurring "Conquest is better than Onslaught" thread. Congrats, OP.
Are you attempting to start a flame war?
Because OP's concerns are legit.
That would be true if there weren't dev posts everywhere and and detailed update notes tagged at the top as of 10/16/20.
It's only legit if you consider putting in nearly no effort to check before posting a thread.
You know, some of us here such as myself actually live enjoyable lives outside of playing some random spaceship game from the internetI'm pretty sure his point was just that there's no way the OP didn't see the news section up top which is always visible. Take it easy man.
To simply afford the time to play games is a luxury of itself. If you think everyone plays games for the lack of better things to do, then maybe it's time for you to stop talking *** and reflect upon your own life choices.
The way I see it, this is a genuinely concerning question. Consumer purchased product is rarely a two way street. OP's effort to find the forum, make an account to ask the question is far above that of an average consumer.
If you considered the amount of people that have simply gazed past SC and brushed it off as another dead ass indie game belonging in the garbage can without ever giving it a chance, solely because of Alex's unorthodox release cycle that is far and few in between,. Then it's no good to release the game to a dead audience of 10 people who stuck with it since kickstarter, and that seems to be where this game is heading.
You know, some of us here such as myself actually live enjoyable lives outside of playing some random spaceship game from the internet
To simply afford the time to play games is a luxury of itself. If you think everyone plays games for the lack of better things to do, then maybe it's time for you to stop talking *** and reflect upon your own life choices.
The way I see it, this is a genuinely concerning question. Consumer purchased product is rarely a two way street. OP's effort to find the forum, make an account to ask the question is far above that of an average consumer.
If you considered the amount of people that have simply gazed past SC and brushed it off as another dead ass indie game belonging in the garbage can without ever giving it a chance, solely because of Alex's unorthodox release cycle that is far and few in between,. Then it's no good to release the game to a dead audience of 10 people who stuck with it since kickstarter, and that seems to be where this game is heading.
unorthodox release cycle
Alex, please close this thread and then post the second batch of patch notes :P
As far as I am concerned SS is currently still a paid demo that becomes a game only by piling mods made by passionate, unpaid heroes who add crucial elements missing from the game like faction dynamics. It's why I respect the modding community like the people behind (N)exerelin more than the dev. I wouldn't have this opinion if no money was involved yet and SS was truly just a passion project, like PR (a big standalone game/mod developed for 15 years by amateurs in exchange for 0$ and with more content and gameplay than most AAA games).The base game doesn't have faction dynamics because it is not intended as a 4x. Also, while I like Nex and it is an impressive mod, it is nowhere near the quantity of engineering that has gone into the main game.
Good, fast, cheap, pick two. Maintaining a rapid release schedule without significantly degrading quality requires pipelining the development process, and that simply is not possible with a single developer. Even with resources, setting up a working organizational pipeline is *hard*. Even billion dollar companies with decades of experience often have "pipeline stalls". e.g. Intel getting stuck on 10nm and throwing their entire pipeline into confusion.unorthodox release cycle
This, right here is the problem. But not for the reason you think.
The "mainstream" developers have thrown money, manpower (and mental health) at the task of running what is, in all honesty, some utterly insane release schedules. And every single time they do this the final output of thier efforts is some buggy, barely half-finished thing that the by then exhausted dev team has to go back and fix, while still operating under that same pressure.
It's an entirely self-defeating process that only "works" because there's a fountain of money, and people wanting a "foot in the door" propping it up.
This has become the norm for the industry. This is now expected of every developer reagrdless of if they are capable of doing it, or even if they want to do it.
This stuff happens in every industry to some extent. It's noticeably more common in software, and endemic in game development.
And this is bad.
I'm from a QC/QA background, so from my (incredibly biased) perspective, how Alex is handling development is the right way to do it.
Take the time you need with the resources you have to produce a thing with the highest quality you can. Release, review and correct if needed. Repeat until finished.
Expectation is the key. And a lot of people have had thiers skewed by decades of antics from a few businesses who are more interested in short-term monetary gain than actually producing something good.
because speed is paid for with quality.
because speed is paid for with quality.This statement is true in regards to nearly everything in life.
I disagree with this statement, devs should try to set a deadline for their work, there are plenty of examples where development took ages and the resulting product was not worth the expectation.
Only to someone who didn't bother checking over the development blog or forum activity at all. There's a pretty decent gap between updates, but they've been coming consistently for seven-ish years.This is an even better troll than the recurring "Conquest is better than Onslaught" thread. Congrats, OP.
Are you attempting to start a flame war?
Because OP's concerns are legit.
Who cares about other examples. We are dealing with Starsector, not a case studies of what others did someplace in the industry.
If someone is putting in a solid effort to produce a quality product then how does that person magically produce faster? They can't.
Because your statement implies they are being lazy or they are incompetent, as resolving those kind of issue could reasonably increase speed. That is clearly not the case here. If you didn't mean to imply that then you are arguing the semantics of faster work in general in a specific situation for no reason.
they can definitely come up with solutions to their problem, maybe it's an issue with lack of staff? hire more, lacking in funding? try crowdfunding.You're homeless? Find a house. Have a deadly disease? Just cure yourself.
pay 80k/year to hire a competent dev?That's not what a competent dev cost. Not by a long shot. Especially when you start to account for overhead costs and taxes.
Starsector bugs tend to subtle things like the Luddic Path bug or the decivilized subpop bug. Doing good testing and QA takes time, but the benefits can clearly be seen.Only to someone who didn't bother checking over the development blog or forum activity at all. There's a pretty decent gap between updates, but they've been coming consistently for seven-ish years.This is an even better troll than the recurring "Conquest is better than Onslaught" thread. Congrats, OP.
Are you attempting to start a flame war?
Because OP's concerns are legit.
And for what it's worth, I think it's pretty much impossible to justify calling Starsector in its current state a "demo". It's got more content than a lot of completed games. The last time I think I could justify calling it a demo was when I bought it, when it was literally just a few tactical scenarios. Maybe the early days of the single-system campaign where you just flew around blowing up Hegemony/Tri-tach fleets until you got bored. But any point past the name change, no way.
All that aside, it's a $15 game with no DRM and is one of the standout examples of how one dude with a dream can make a better game than hundreds of people with a AAA budget.
e: Oddly enough, I can't remember ever seeing anything I'd classify as a bug in vanilla. The closest was the unintended behavior waaaay back in an early version of AI retreat/surrender mechanics when you could hit-and-run a Hegemony capital fleet with a single Tempest, tapping their shields while avoiding return fire for a few minutes, and they'd all run away and surrender the entire fleet intact.
@Tartiflette"game dev" is a very wide category. There is a big difference between a junior dev making 60-80k, and a senior dev. Given that Alex probably doesn't want to spend a lot of time and money on training, Tartiflette is probably thinking of a mid-level or higher.
I just googled game developer salary and picked a number in the middle of the range of values. Probably depends a lot on where you're living and such, and it definitely doesn't account for overhead/taxes/benefits etc. on the side of the employer. The point was that getting more people to work on a game is very expensive, which I think is clear enough regardless of the details.
they can definitely come up with solutions to their problem, maybe it's an issue with lack of staff? hire more, lacking in funding? try crowdfunding.You're homeless? Find a house. Have a deadly disease? Just cure yourself.
Surely you don't suggest hiring more people at this point, when the game is 90% done. Just try to imagine the work you'd have to go through just to explain new folks what is it that you're exactly doing and what's the goal. Having to step in constantly because the new guy doesn't understand something in the code. You'd spend more time that way and the 1.0 would came later than if nothing ever changed and the current devs just kept doing their thing.
Ah yes the ol' method of throwing money at something because that will surely make impossible things possible. If you think having sufficient cash makes everything perfect just look at the "games" Amazon is trying to make. Or in fact, any big wholesome AAA company that has piles of money, and their attempts to make it before the deadline.
Oh yeah, now that you mention it I do remember the decivilized issue. But yeah -- case in point where long dev cycles spent on making sure the game works is good. A one-man project that's engaging and fun is impressive enough. A one-man project that also runs smoothly, is largely bug-free, and has a decent UI?e: Oddly enough, I can't remember ever seeing anything I'd classify as a bug in vanilla. The closest was the unintended behavior waaaay back in an early version of AI retreat/surrender mechanics when you could hit-and-run a Hegemony capital fleet with a single Tempest, tapping their shields while avoiding return fire for a few minutes, and they'd all run away and surrender the entire fleet intact.Starsector bugs tend to subtle things like the Luddic Path bug or the decivilized subpop bug. Doing good testing and QA takes time, but the benefits can clearly be seen.
The point I am making is, if the devs are really genuinely serious about game development as a business, rather than a personal hobby, they can definitely come up with solutions to their problem, maybe it's an issue with lack of staff? hire more, lacking in funding? try crowdfunding.
It might seem difficult, but there are solutions and the true test is the attitude.
Look if the devs came out and said the game was just a personal hobby, and released it for free for everyone to play around with, I doubt most people would complain about development time.
D) The project relies on 3rd party software or hardware - and that 3rd party discontinues support or makes changes that are incompatible with the project's implementation of the 3rd party component.
Yeah nice, quote this specific part of my post without the context of my first paragraphDon't hyper simplify things where it suits you and people won't do the same in return.
Like I said, I don't know what the specific issue is causing the dev to work so slowly, hiring more people was just an example, of the three games I mentioned, Daikatana, Yandere Simulator, Star Citizen, was there really nothing more or different any of them could have done
No, that was not what I was saying, Star Citizen is a prime example of why mountains of money doesn't make a project go any faster, following on from my previous question, is it completely out of Chris Roberts hands to speed up development of his game? Or is there something he could do to improve the development process?
It's such a shame that there are indie games like Stellar Tactics, an open world (200 galaxies sort of thing) sci-fi cRPG, being made by one guy, that can get 6-8 updates a year, and have an alpha version with 100x the content of this game. I can't help but think it's about productivity being easier the more sales you get. Stellar Tactics on Steam seems to have sold well. This game on BMTMicro not so much so, I reckon.I mean you're not wrong saying the development is glacially slow, but each update is so much bigger than anything else I know of. Every game on Steam (including the game you mentioned) has like a page of bugfixes, bits of new content and that's it. Rinse and repeat every 2 months. And they have no choice because everyone would be screaming "dead game" if the updates had longer pauses.
I just know when I checked, it seemed the next update would be sooner than 5 months time. I can see why he didn't go through Steam or GOG that have refund options.
It's such a shame that there are indie games like Stellar Tactics, an open world (200 galaxies sort of thing) sci-fi cRPG, being made by one guy, that can get 6-8 updates a year, and have an alpha version with 100x the content of this game. I can't help but think it's about productivity being easier the more sales you get. Stellar Tactics on Steam seems to have sold well. This game on BMTMicro not so much so, I reckon.
But in general, the important thing to keep in mind is "9 women can't make a baby in 1 month".
But in general, the important thing to keep in mind is "9 women can't make a baby in 1 month". Throwing more dev-hours at a problem does not mean it gets solved faster.While this is generally true, pipelining does exist and bigger projects can accomplish more. If you give them an 8 month lead time, 9 women *can* make 1 baby a month. The issue is the lead time and the difficulties of making it work in practice.
I mean you're not wrong saying the development is glacially slow, but each update is so much bigger than anything else I know of. Every game on Steam (including the game you mentioned) has like a page of bugfixes, bits of new content and that's it. Rinse and repeat every 2 months. And they have no choice because everyone would be screaming "dead game" if the updates had longer pauses.Starsector follows the older style release cadence in which each major version is a year or more in-between, with minor versions mostly containing fixes. Meanwhile, large parts of the industry have moved to very rapid release cycles which are only feasible due to modern tooling and distribution environments. e.g. Instead of Windows 11, we get endless semi-annual updates to 10 so we can beta test for Enterprise users. (Isn't it funny how Enterprise is always allowed to stay at least one version behind home/pro users?)
I almost feel like Starsector updates don't deserve to be called just updates because every other example of them is so much smaller in scope.
I just know when I checked, it seemed the next update would be sooner than 5 months time. I can see why he didn't go through Steam or GOG that have refund options.They offer refunds: you just have to ask. And therefore those refunds are not constrained by 1 month or 2h of play so it's way better than Steam or GOG.
I think Steam and GoG also offer refunds that exceed those limits, it just doesn't happen automatically.Some portion of this is that updates aren't just "new ships/weapons" content packs. They're entire systems....or another economy rework. It's important these things are thought through and tested properly, especially because the game doesn't often just lift from what's popular. The skill system is on its 2nd major overhaul since i started playing and I'm pretty sure there were a few more before that. They could get away with a MMO style tree and be done with it but a lot of what makes this game great is real time put into figuring out what systems are fun and what aren't rather than just dropping in what's easy.
I also want to point out that SS development is taking a long time for a limited scope game. Since frequency of updates dropped as time went on, I wonder if it's just that updates got bigger, Alex got somewhat tired of developing the game, or it's the maintenance piling up.
I'm still giggling at the assumption that putting pressure on a small developer is going to lead to 'hiring another full-time junior dev @ $60-80k/yr' vs. 'throwing a few more bucks at David + mmmaybe hiring a part-time $18k/yr community manager, and making some minor content updates every three months'.
There's a lot that Alex could do to placate this kind of sentiment with busywork updates that would actually increase the total dev time and make finishing the project more precarious. Star Citizen has raked in an absolute buttload of cash by building the infrastructure for making those kinds of trivial, frequent updates over a bare skeleton of actual development - sometimes no development; count the ships that have been sold to players and still can't be flown - and there are single Star Citizen ship purchases that handily outstrip the amount everybody even reading this thread has paid Alex for Starsector.
Which game would you rather play?
Rumor has it that Alex has issues with knowing "when it's done enough to release" and "Working on superfluous aspects of the game while more important things need doing."The in production changes are not released because playtesting is not done. "I have this working in a development branch." is *not* equivalent to being production ready. Confusing it for such is the reason we have so many buggy releases in the industry. There is a saying in programming; implementing the feature is only 20% of the work.
I don't think anyone can argue that he isn't talented, though many mod makers are demonstrating that they have more skill at it then he does. He doesn't have discipline, which comes with working under a deadline.
We will eventually get a release, it will probably not be for another year. There will be people who still religiously defend him and the game but it's pretty clear that if he worked on any real project for any company he would be fired within a year for failing to meet basic deadlines.
If you need reference to what I am saying, take a look at the "In production" list of changes. All of those are completed, done, fixed, and integrated...LOTS of them would make Starsector 100% better game on every possible level.
but he doesn't release it because he is busy fiddling with a new graphical effect and showing it on twitter.
meanwhile, Modders have taken his game and demonstrated that they can not only make more interesting factions, but integrate into the game things Alex never even dreamed. Transforming mecha fighters? DONE. Super beam cannons that can turn ships to puff of dust? DONE. Activating and linking all of the jump gates? DONE. Terraforming worlds? DONE. Creating a fleet specific to the player and his own faction? DONE. Sugoi anime waifus? DONE. Giant ships made of junk stapled together with raider hopes and dreams? DONE.Adding a new subsystem to a game is substantially more difficult than adding a content pack. There is a reason modern games *love* to churn out DLC faction packs and such, it's comparatively easy. Fitting a new system into an established application? That is a serious undertaking. Reworking an existing system without breaking anything is even harder.
Transforming mecha fighters? DONE.Diable has been around for years, it wasn't done overnight either.
Super beam cannons that can turn ships to puff of dust? DONE.The tachyon lance is in vanilla.
Terraforming worlds? DONE.Terraforming is dead simple to implement because Alex designed a very flexible API. The hard part of adding a feature like that is polish, and frankly there is a reason I continue to avoid terraforming mods.
Creating a fleet specific to the player and his own faction? DONE.Nex is older than the colony update, and the colony update was a *massive* improvement over old Nex. Histidine does does some really cool stuff, but he didn't implement it overnight and it is built on (shockingly) the vanilla APIs.
Sugoi anime waifus? DONE.Pirating anime off the internet is not a technical achievement.
To be honest taking a scam as an example doesn't really help the case you're making.
I refuse to believe that an update of a game like starsector would take more than 1 year unless Alex is adding some totally new mechanics that require tons of work
Regular balance updates with a new ship or two, or the occasional weapon, would be relatively easy to pump out. They'd just slow down work on the game's actual systems.Iirc one of the reasons Alex does not do "tiny keep-alive updates" of that kind is that they cost him a lot in file hosting bandwidth costs for very little actual sales revenue. Having big updates that can make a splash and generate a lot of new sales was the intended business model.
Rumor has it that Alex has issues with knowing "when it's done enough to release" and "Working on superfluous aspects of the game while more important things need doing."
I don't think anyone can argue that he isn't talented, though many mod makers are demonstrating that they have more skill at it then he does. He doesn't have discipline, which comes with working under a deadline.
We will eventually get a release, it will probably not be for another year. There will be people who still religiously defend him and the game but it's pretty clear that if he worked on any real project for any company he would be fired within a year for failing to meet basic deadlines.
If you need reference to what I am saying, take a look at the "In production" list of changes. All of those are completed, done, fixed, and integrated...LOTS of them would make Starsector 100% better game on every possible level.
but he doesn't release it because he is busy fiddling with a new graphical effect and showing it on twitter.
meanwhile, Modders have taken his game and demonstrated that they can not only make more interesting factions, but integrate into the game things Alex never even dreamed. Transforming mecha fighters? DONE. Super beam cannons that can turn ships to puff of dust? DONE. Activating and linking all of the jump gates? DONE. Terraforming worlds? DONE. Creating a fleet specific to the player and his own faction? DONE. Sugoi anime waifus? DONE. Giant ships made of junk stapled together with raider hopes and dreams? DONE.
I am sure there are more things that would blow your mind, but sorry to say it, Alex needs a boss to tell him what to prioritize, because it's clear he can't prioritize things himself.
though many mod makers are demonstrating that they have more skill at it then he does
He doesn't have discipline, which comes with working under a deadline.
We will eventually get a release, it will probably not be for another year.
There will be people who still religiously defend him and the game but it's pretty clear that if he worked on any real project for any company he would be fired within a year for failing to meet basic deadlines.
but he doesn't release it because he is busy fiddling with a new graphical effect and showing it on twitter.
This update is taking more than 2 years. I personally think Alex is taking his time with this update maybe for personal reasons that he doesn't talk about, but I refuse to believe that an update of a game like starsector would take more than 1 year unless Alex is adding some totally new mechanics that require tons of work or developing some military grade AI for this update.Why do you think that? Without some presented analysis it strikes me as an opinion rather than fact. Why not 1 month? Why not 10 years? You acknowledge that totally new mechanics or testing heavy work takes more time. Why can't a large updated take more than 1 year simply due to the amount of content plus new mechanics. At some point it must be true. If it takes 6 months for a certain amount of content, twice as much would naively take 1 year, and 4 times would take 2 years. As far as I can tell, you are merely asking for X amount of content faster rather than 4X amount of content slower. At the end of the day, you get the same amount after 2 years. Arguably, possibly more after 2 years with the slower release rate because less time is spent on releasing.
We will eventually get a release, it will probably not be for another year. There will be people who still religiously defend him and the game but it's pretty clear that if he worked on any real project for any company he would be fired within a year for failing to meet basic deadlines.
If you need reference to what I am saying, take a look at the "In production" list of changes. All of those are completed, done, fixed, and integrated...LOTS of them would make Starsector 100% better game on every possible level.
Rumor has it that Alex has issues with knowing "when it's done enough to release" and "Working on superfluous aspects of the game while more important things need doing."
I don't think anyone can argue that he isn't talented, though many mod makers are demonstrating that they have more skill at it then he does. He doesn't have discipline, which comes with working under a deadline.
We will eventually get a release, it will probably not be for another year. There will be people who still religiously defend him and the game but it's pretty clear that if he worked on any real project for any company he would be fired within a year for failing to meet basic deadlines.
but he doesn't release it because he is busy fiddling with a new graphical effect and showing it on twitter.
meanwhile, Modders have taken his game and demonstrated that they can not only make more interesting factions, but integrate into the game things Alex never even dreamed. Transforming mecha fighters? DONE. Super beam cannons that can turn ships to puff of dust? DONE. Activating and linking all of the jump gates? DONE. Terraforming worlds? DONE. Creating a fleet specific to the player and his own faction? DONE. Sugoi anime waifus? DONE. Giant ships made of junk stapled together with raider hopes and dreams? DONE.
I see a lot of people just throwing out arguments with stuff like "What deadline?" or "we don't know!"
We actually DO know, he does tell us and show us what he is doing when he does blog posts.
Yes, it's true that things like diable have been around for a while, but we have seen more development progress in diable then in the game itself. If Alex doesn't have something to show for his work in that time compared to a mod maker (who isn't paid at all for his work) then he develops the negative stereotype of not getting things done.
What is a timely manner? Why don't we look at comparable games where some release patches on a weekly basis, some release on a monthly basis, others quarterly, some every 6 months.
For a game like this, I would say one balance and bugfix patch every 6 months would be perfectly fine.
Now, I did make it pretty clear that we -will- be getting an update, and we are not entitled to one either...[fluff]
What I -AM- Saying is that there is a reason why any other development team DO NOT FOLLOW HIS EXAMPLE. ... [Fluff] ...People who may otherwise love the game would abandon it because readily fixable problems are not dealt with in what could only be described as a reasonable time frame.
Considering just adding the alliance mechanics in Stellaris alone took a team of people just under a year and Alex is doing that 3 times over(new level system, new function library for missions, entirely new contact system, re-written skill system) I think close to 2 years is a fine time. disagree if you'd like, but you are wrong about the not following example. No Man's sky did it. When No Man's Sky did deadlines with press interviews and publishing information and trailers and the like they got absolutely despised. They then went quiet for 3 months, and just started releasing things with much less interaction and footage, a lot like what this game is going. Suddenly they went from nothing to a massively popular and only mildly flawed game. In fact this kind of consistent active posting and updates would keep fans like me on in a way most can't. I fell off Warframe hard for a reason.
I personally like Alex, and what he does. I hate his release schedule and I will -never- stop criticizing it until it changes, which we can pretty easily see CAN be changed. He shows us what he does in twitter posts and blog posts on a regular basis too, so no one can argue that he doesn't show us what he is working on. Some things I can't help but ask "yeah it's nifty but not a priority in the face of the bugs in the game."
Iirc one of the reasons Alex does not do "tiny keep-alive updates" of that kind is that they cost him a lot in file hosting bandwidth costs for very little actual sales revenue. Having big updates that can make a splash and generate a lot of new sales was the intended business model.I thought it's because Alex cannot really afford to maintain multiple branches, one for development and the other for fixes and patches, without slowing the development of the game.
Iirc one of the reasons Alex does not do "tiny keep-alive updates" of that kind is that they cost him a lot in file hosting bandwidth costs for very little actual sales revenue. Having big updates that can make a splash and generate a lot of new sales was the intended business model.I thought it's because Alex cannot really afford to maintain multiple branches, one for development and the other for fixes and patches, without slowing the development of the game.
Rumor has it that Alex has issues with knowing "when it's done enough to release" and "Working on superfluous aspects of the game while more important things need doing."What you are basically describing is the difference between a developer and a creator. I know(and have employed) many people who are so brilliant at what they do well that they never get a handle on anything beyond that sphere. In programing it's an even worse problem. Any(and I do mean ANY) major game success has both groups and every single creator wished every single day they had more time. This is the beast you carry or lose your creativity imho.
I don't think anyone can argue that he isn't talented, though many mod makers are demonstrating that they have more skill at it then he does. He doesn't have discipline, which comes with working under a deadline.
We will eventually get a release, it will probably not be for another year. There will be people who still religiously defend him and the game but it's pretty clear that if he worked on any real project for any company he would be fired within a year for failing to meet basic deadlines.
If you need reference to what I am saying, take a look at the "In production" list of changes. All of those are completed, done, fixed, and integrated...LOTS of them would make Starsector 100% better game on every possible level.
but he doesn't release it because he is busy fiddling with a new graphical effect and showing it on twitter.
meanwhile, Modders have taken his game and demonstrated that they can not only make more interesting factions, but integrate into the game things Alex never even dreamed. Transforming mecha fighters? DONE. Super beam cannons that can turn ships to puff of dust? DONE. Activating and linking all of the jump gates? DONE. Terraforming worlds? DONE. Creating a fleet specific to the player and his own faction? DONE. Sugoi anime waifus? DONE. Giant ships made of junk stapled together with raider hopes and dreams? DONE.
I am sure there are more things that would blow your mind, but sorry to say it, Alex needs a boss to tell him what to prioritize, because it's clear he can't prioritize things himself.
it makes consumers mad, it makes them question your motives, it makes them question your dedication and discipline. Investors would avoid this model because there would be no return. People who may otherwise love the game would abandon it because readily fixable problems are not dealt with in what could only be described as a reasonable time frame.From this thread alone we can see how this argument does not hold water at all. Sure there are a few malcontents (somewhat understandably), but there are more people that are very much eager to reply with how happy they are with the pace of development, and a vast silent majority that probably doesn't mind or care either way.
I'm not defending what he said, but the thing you said doesn't make much sense to me either. We're on a forum for one specific game, where you have to go through the effort of making an account, again just to talk about only one game. So naturally a huge part of us here love the game and will defend it pretty much always. Yeah someone can be really mad or have some issues, so they also might want to say something here, but the truth is that the majority just doesn't care / has time to engage in forum talk, they just play the game, or in some cases, leave it and go do something else. For example if I wasn't satisfied with a game and how the devs handle it, guess what, I'd just move on, I wouldn't make an account just to say "yeah this ain't gonna do chief, speed it up". Not everyone has that mentality, but I sure as hell know most people wouldn't bother complaining for a game they don't care about.it makes consumers mad, it makes them question your motives, it makes them question your dedication and discipline. Investors would avoid this model because there would be no return. People who may otherwise love the game would abandon it because readily fixable problems are not dealt with in what could only be described as a reasonable time frame.From this thread alone we can see how this argument does not hold water at all. Sure there are a few malcontents (somewhat understandably), but there are more people that are very much eager to reply with how happy they are with the pace of development, and a vast silent majority that probably doesn't mind or care either way.
Arguing whether people are happy or not is really not is not a good metric for us the fans to discuss. There's no way to prove it without access to a lot of other metrics like exact sales numbers, access to every platform, including e-mails and private reports, and more. Not to mention the current state of development. I don't think it's a helpful question
Arguing whether people are happy or not is really not is not a good metric for us the fans to discuss. There's no way to prove it without access to a lot of other metrics like exact sales numbers, access to every platform, including e-mails and private reports, and more. Not to mention the current state of development. I don't think it's a helpful question
Luckily, by registering for the forums, Alex has complete access to everyone's emails, hardrives, social media accounts, and a camera in their kitchen for meal choice data, for the upcoming Starsector Galley expansion!
I have my fingers crossed that butter baked Volturnian lobster will give the ship +25% CR.
So Alex saw me cooking bacon naked? Whelp folks he gouged his eyes out. Starsector is officially delayed for another year.Arguing whether people are happy or not is really not is not a good metric for us the fans to discuss. There's no way to prove it without access to a lot of other metrics like exact sales numbers, access to every platform, including e-mails and private reports, and more. Not to mention the current state of development. I don't think it's a helpful question
Luckily, by registering for the forums, Alex has complete access to everyone's emails, hardrives, social media accounts, and a camera in their kitchen for meal choice data, for the upcoming Starsector Galley expansion!
I have my fingers crossed that butter baked Volturnian lobster will give the ship +25% CR.
There will be people who still religiously defend him and the game but it's pretty clear that if he worked on any real project for any company he would be fired within a year for failing to meet basic deadlines.What deadline was set? None. So why are you bringing this up? No reason, it's BS.
So Alex saw me cooking bacon naked? Whelp folks he gouged his eyes out. Starsector is officially delayed for another year.Why was Alex the only one invited to this naked bacon cooking event? Unfair.
The update is close. I can feel it in my bones, like aching joints before stormy weather.
I apologize in advance for using google translate.Yes I agree. The update can wait until this December for all we care but we all need updated changelogs to theorycraft and give feedback on changes.
The game is alive as long as the modding community pours in new content, which is fun to play over and over again.
Based on the time since the previous update, the time spent polishing and adding new content is likely to bring us a huge improvement. It's like switching from update 0.6 to 0.7 - the game has just changed, and I'm generally silent about the early updates.
Honestly, though, an updated list of additions and changes would be welcome. All the same, enough time has passed since the last released update, and everyone who played has passed (if I may say so) the game countless times.
The update is close. I can feel it in my bones, like aching joints before stormy weather.I think that's just wishful thinking. If the update was close we would have gotten some news already. We just have to be patient...
We do have patch notes and a confirmation that Alex has reached the playtesting phase.The update is close. I can feel it in my bones, like aching joints before stormy weather.I think that's just wishful thinking. If the update was close we would have gotten some news already. We just have to be patient...
I don't recall any particular advanced notice before the release of 0.9. I don't see why 0.95's release would be different.The update is close. I can feel it in my bones, like aching joints before stormy weather.I think that's just wishful thinking. If the update was close we would have gotten some news already. We just have to be patient...
We do have patch notes and a confirmation that Alex has reached the playtesting phase.The update is close. I can feel it in my bones, like aching joints before stormy weather.I think that's just wishful thinking. If the update was close we would have gotten some news already. We just have to be patient...
What confirmation? This is news to meWe do have patch notes and a confirmation that Alex has reached the playtesting phase.The update is close. I can feel it in my bones, like aching joints before stormy weather.I think that's just wishful thinking. If the update was close we would have gotten some news already. We just have to be patient...
The update is close. I can feel it in my bones, like aching joints before stormy weather.
The update is close. I can feel it in my bones, like aching joints before stormy weather.
That's arthritis. See a doctor.
I came here to check for updates after waiting for about a month and a half. No updates yet. Although i am surprised to see that this topic is now 10 pages long. Might spend some time reading it...
I know. It's a bit a gem discussing, and its not all memes and trash.
I'm thinking next weekend. I can feel it.
Game is definitely dead.
I seen Alex fixing old Cerberos in his garage to run from the planet with all the money.
what IS the most cursed loadout?
is this a sign?
https://twitter.com/amosolov/status/1375133486198177792
The update is close. I can feel it in my bones, like aching joints before stormy weather.
It's been like two years since 0.9.1 came out. I have waited patiently, i regularily checked for updates, but there is nothing.
This is not true. If you dislike any aspect of the game or even think a part of a mod is not perfect you will be insulted hard core and people will try to drum you out of the community.