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Author Topic: still alive?  (Read 18299 times)

SeaBee

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Re: still alive?
« Reply #15 on: October 17, 2011, 12:14:20 AM »

Yeah, I read about the PZ thing on Reddit. Those guys have a tremendous setback every few months, it seems like. PayPal, Google Checkout, forum drama, team drama, lots-of-stuff-I-missed and ... now they've apparently had two laptops (and the past several months of work) taken away.

It was funny, my first thought was "Oh, Starfarer is safe. I remember Alex mentioning to me on Twitter that he was using SVN."

As for all the Internet backlash against them, I can understand it to a degree. A few people said some accusatory things (that may have been out of line), like "Yeah right, no one has luck this bad. The Zomboid devs are lying." The drunken Twitter/Reddit responses didn't earn them many sympathizers, and a lot of their customers started raging right back in greater numbers and getting refunds because of a few comments I won't sully this forum with. But, like I said on Bay 12, I don't have a dog in this fight. I was watching the game progress from a distance, but was never deeply interested in it.

If Alex was robbed or Starfarer's source code was somehow damaged, I'd be very upset for Alex and his team. I'd never blame them, either, because I think they're a great bunch of upstanding people that would never risk the security of Starfarer.

I don't know the PZ devs, so won't comment there. I do feel bad for them, though, and I hope no one thinks I'm being too cold-hearted by suggesting that I can understand some of the anger from both sides here. I hope the PZ devs continue to work on their game and that this incident will be forgotten in a few weeks.

Sorry for the novel, and sorry to derail this so much.  :-\
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Alex

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Re: still alive?
« Reply #16 on: October 17, 2011, 09:27:53 AM »

It was funny, my first thought was "Oh, Starfarer is safe. I remember Alex mentioning to me on Twitter that he was using SVN."

Oh, that's right, I remember whining about that a while ago :) Before your Twitter got hacked...


As for all the Internet backlash against them, I can understand it to a degree. A few people said some accusatory things (that may have been out of line), like "Yeah right, no one has luck this bad. The Zomboid devs are lying." The drunken Twitter/Reddit responses didn't earn them many sympathizers, and a lot of their customers started raging right back in greater numbers and getting refunds because of a few comments I won't sully this forum with. But, like I said on Bay 12, I don't have a dog in this fight. I was watching the game progress from a distance, but was never deeply interested in it.

I don't know the PZ devs, so won't comment there. I do feel bad for them, though, and I hope no one thinks I'm being too cold-hearted by suggesting that I can understand some of the anger from both sides here. I hope the PZ devs continue to work on their game and that this incident will be forgotten in a few weeks.

Sorry for the novel, and sorry to derail this so much.  :-\

I hear you... to me, it's not so much that the anger/disappointment is unwarranted, but the over-the-top vitriol. I'd just hope that in a situation where someone made a mistake, but was also devastated (by the consequences of said mistake *and* otherwise), the impulse for sympathy would win out over the desire to criticize.
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SeaBee

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Re: still alive?
« Reply #17 on: October 17, 2011, 11:32:12 PM »

Re: my Twitter ... dear god! I had no idea, never log in anymore. That's what I get for not checking more often. Apologies. Going to delete it. Didn't expect that. Thank you for letting me know, though, would have never guessed.
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Sandremo

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Re: still alive?
« Reply #18 on: October 20, 2011, 10:53:21 AM »

This might be coming a bit way too early but... any estimates when we could get a taste of the open-world aspect of starfarer? 2012? 2013? 2257? XD
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SeaBee

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Re: still alive?
« Reply #19 on: October 20, 2011, 12:39:18 PM »

My schedule has me marked as "Deceased" during 2257, so I really hope it's before then!
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Alex

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Re: still alive?
« Reply #20 on: October 20, 2011, 12:45:01 PM »

With the usual caveat that things can change etc etc, I'm aiming for before the end of the year for a limited campaign release - most likely confined to a single star system, and without much else beyond advancement through combat.

Will have to see how quickly things go, though.


My schedule has me marked as "Deceased" during 2257, so I really hope it's before then!

I guess I've got what you might call a "hard deadline", then :)
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Sandremo

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Re: still alive?
« Reply #21 on: October 24, 2011, 09:38:20 AM »

My schedule has me marked as "Deceased" during 2257, so I really hope it's before then!

Cryostasis mate! And make sure to time it so that it's going wake you up when the starfarer is fully released or before then. XD
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SeaBee

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Re: still alive?
« Reply #22 on: October 24, 2011, 10:14:46 AM »

Not a bad idea. I'll need to dig around under my couch to find some extra money to pay for that, I think.  :D
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Sandremo

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Re: still alive?
« Reply #23 on: October 26, 2011, 09:36:17 AM »

Naaa... Build it yourself... all you need is alot of ice... a box to fit it in... and a blanket to make sure your skin doesnt get in direct contact with the ice. :D That my friend is what i call a poor mans cryostasis box thingie. XD
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Zarcon

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Re: still alive?
« Reply #24 on: October 26, 2011, 09:44:56 AM »

Naaa... Build it yourself... all you need is alot of ice... a box to fit it in... and a blanket to make sure your skin doesnt get in direct contact with the ice. :D That my friend is what i call a poor mans cryostasis box thingie. XD

A soon to be dead poor man's cryostasis box thingie.  :)  ha ha
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There is no instance of a nation benefitting from prolonged warfare.
Thus it is that in war the victorious strategist only seeks battle after the victory has been won, whereas he who is destined to defeat first fights and afterwards looks for victory.

KaidenOZ

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Re: still alive?
« Reply #25 on: November 27, 2011, 11:31:27 PM »

ok so getting close to the 3 month mark since i purchased this game.  have yet to see a single patch. the forums are like a cemetary and the occasional blog posts are less then satisfying.  my ability to continue supporting this is close to gone...i would ask for a idea of whats going on but i think we all need somthing a little more concrete then some vague somtime in the future response....i was under the impression alex had made this his full time project.  by full time im assuming more then half an hour a day :P
« Last Edit: November 27, 2011, 11:32:58 PM by KaidenOZ »
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Dark.Revenant

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Re: still alive?
« Reply #26 on: November 27, 2011, 11:37:41 PM »

Considering he's making like half of the planned gameplay mechanics all just for the next patch, the delay is not surprising.  The next update will be like a new game.
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KaidenOZ

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Re: still alive?
« Reply #27 on: November 27, 2011, 11:39:32 PM »

im glad you guys have so much faith,  been over 5 months now since the .35 and im getting very sceptical after the debacle that was sword of the stars 2,  the one game i was waiting for this year. 
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Thana

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Re: still alive?
« Reply #28 on: November 28, 2011, 01:20:14 AM »

im glad you guys have so much faith,  been over 5 months now since the .35 and im getting very sceptical after the debacle that was sword of the stars 2,  the one game i was waiting for this year.  

Yes. I do have faith. Yes, it's frustrating having the next release to take so much time, but from the sound of it it's basically adding more to the game than is currently there. I mean, a rewrite of most ships, additional combat mechanics, ship customisation and a campaign mode (not finished in the next version, sure, but the beginning of one) with all that entails including various support mechanics to that. So yeah, I'm not surprised it's taking time, especially since the original plan for the next update was much more modest. And now the folks have basically started from scratch building up the overall framework in which the game will work. So it's pretty understandable it'll take time. Yes, it's frustrating, but the blog posts (combined with the release we have already) have convinced me that Alex is a very good designer. Would I like a release out tomorrow? Of course! Am I willing to wait for them to do things properly rather than pulling off something half-assed? You betcha!

Yeah, Sword of the Stars 2 was a mess (but will hopefully get better), but I do not think that case and Starfarer are comparable - where SotS2 was pushed out incomplete by Paradox and/or Kerberos, your complaint here is, basically, the opposite - that the devs of Starfarer are taking their time. Further, the development of SotS2 was shrouded in secrecy with fairly little detail leaking out and Mecron, the guy in charge, comes off as something of an egomaniac. Thus, there was little by which to evaluate SotS2 until it was published. By contrast, the development process of Starfarer is very transparent, with the devs being very open about what's going on, what design choices have been made (and the "why" of them is explained with impressive clarity!) and entirely willing to take feedback and suggestions from the fans without coming off as indecisive, hasty or bullheaded. And let's not forget - Starfarer is being made by four people, only one of whom is as I understand working on it full-time.

So I don't think a comparison to Sword of the Stars 2 is at all fair, because the situation here is pretty much the opposite. I used to have Sword of the Stars 2 at the top of my list of games I was anticipating, with Starfarer on place 2. Now SotS2 is out and I'm waiting for it to be patched into something that (hopefully) fulfills the potential there but Starfarer is the game I'm looking forward to the most. But unlike SotS2, I pretty much know what to expect and have already gotten to play with parts of the game (the single missions) that work beautifully.
« Last Edit: November 28, 2011, 01:24:15 AM by Thana »
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KaidenOZ

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Re: still alive?
« Reply #29 on: November 28, 2011, 01:30:20 AM »

i wasnt compareing the two,  just stateing that my faith in these work in progress and even main stream games is most definatly at an all time low,  end of the day is alex has my cash already,  i did buy this knowing that it was an alpha,  just keep in mind that while you have probably been around for several patches,  al i have had experiance with is 0.35 alpha,  all i see is that the last patch was nearly 6 months ago and other then 2 blog posts the game i have had my hands on has been unchanged for 3 months almost.  fishing for a bone here to restor some faith that SOTS2 crushed with there idiocy. but wasnt comparing the 2 :P
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