Thread by @dsmart

The weekend is off to a really good start. So since I am mandated by followers (gamers can be so demanding. it's the drama in our DNA, you see) to post more about Star Citizen, and less about the fiasco that is the Trump presidency, how about this for an early Fri morning lol?

Yesterday I had a thread in which I outlined the many ways CIG have striven to screw their backers, while using every trick in the book to make money instead of make game.

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Having promised 3.0 in early 2016, that it was coming in Dec 2016, they raised a LOT of money based on a litany of LIES and specially created tech demos which even the media lapped up and helped them propagate their lies.

Sure enough 3.0 didn't happen.

When sources told me he went up on stage, and had them created those demos in a bid to lie to to backers, and I wrote it, yes, ofc the toxic crazies attacked me over it.

3.0 didn't arrive until Dec 23, 2017.

Rushed, it was DOA, a complete mess, that shattered backer faith.

In what has turned out to be the most hilarious response yet, to backer ire, CIG came up with a NEW format dev schedule which they claimed was totally going to make things different and they were totally going to be on track.

For real this time.

NOTE: I was laughing then too.

That new format, which copies the format for Trello, was met with lots of enthusiasm by the backers who, apparently still in a coma, have their bank account attached to CIG intravenously. Because, you know, money fixes everything.

It looked like this.

robertsspaceindustries.com/roadmap/board/…

This time, they were totally going to do a major release each quarter.

And so the clock to 03/31/18 release of 3.1 began.

We weren't even in the middle of the quarter before things in 3.1 started disappearing or pushed into 3.2.

Wait! You saw this coming, but it gets better...

Remember that the new schedule format for the roadmap didn't even have 50% of what was in the previous schedule format which previously looked like this.

web.archive.org/web/2017100705…

On Mar 8th when they released 3.1 to Evocati (select group of backers who paid more) stress testing, the patch notes showing what remained for a 03/3118 release, was about 50% of the notes.

pastebin.com/vXmzmWs0

Amid major complaints, derision, hilarity, and everything between, they released it to PTU (public test) on Mar 21.

The clock was still ticking.

Last we checked, literally (not making this up) over 75% of the bug reports from Evocati, were still in 3.1 that was now in PTU.

The PTU outcry, obviously larger than Evocati, was hard to ignore because at that time, literally EVERY backer KNEW that if they released it, that it would somehow be worse than the premature release of 3.0 in Dec 2017.

There were countless posts about this, like everywhere.

Shocking nobody who was paying attention, they unceremoniously released the badly broken 3.1 on Mar 31, 2018. Which btw, was April 1st in some parts of the world. The irony is hilarious.

Anyway, guess why they did this?

This build had the Aegis Reclaimer ship which was a JPEG back in 2014. Yes, TWO months before the promised Nov 2014 ship date for the entire game.

Not kidding.

Here's the announcement from Sept 24, 2014.

robertsspaceindustries.com/comm-link/tran…

They also had the Terrapin, another one that was in concept for years.

The kicker? The Reclaimer costs a whopping $400. I kid you not.

Here's the sales page.

robertsspaceindustries.com/comm-link//164…

This is the part where you roll over and start laughing.

See this description for the Reclaimer?

"Secure, Salvage, Store, Haul"

NONE of those gameplay mechanics are in Star Citizen.

They're basically building ships to sell, instead of making a game.

Back to the 3.1 fiasco...

The build is irretrievably broken. I tested it myself, wrote and said that etc.

While I don't own a Reclaimer, those who own it know that it's just there to fly around - when the game isn't crashing. And the flight model still sux.

And it's a MASSIVE performance hog.

Note, at this point, Star Citizen barely works with 8-12 clients; and is as much an MMO, as Pong is a flight simulator.

What happens when u have 1, let alone 2 Reclaimers in game?

Server takes a hike, and everyone goes home.

In fact at one point in 3.1, they REMOVED it!!

They make money by selling these ships. Even though JPEG sales are drying up, and they have a massive backlog of ships yet to be built, let alone implemented in the game, they had to release 3.1, at ANY cost, in order to sell these newly built ships.

I mentioned this yesterday after my "sale" vs "pledge" missive in which Sandi Gardiner went on another stream to shill the ships as a "sale" in the much derided 3.1 build.

Disregard the fact that 3.1 is completely unplayable for the majority of backers.

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So imagine my shock and dismay when this morning I found out that they - wait for it - did a complete ROLL BACK of a 3.1 build because it had become so bad, that it simply could NOT BE PLAYED.

robertsspaceindustries.com/spectrum/commu…

Once again, regardless of its condition, they rushed to release a build which was barely a skeleton of it's original content, but which contained 5 new ships/vehicles to SELL.

Here are the release notes.

robertsspaceindustries.com/spectrum/commu…

And one of those ships just happened to be one that has been highly anticipated since 2014 when it was just a JPEG.

Except it came with ZERO functionality other than a flying brick.

Those who bought it back then, get to "fly" it in a badly broken build, that wasn't ready.

I have to again mention that NONE of this has to do with the game being pre-Alpha, in dev etc.

We know this.

No. It has EVERYTHING to do with the fact that they are on a protracted cash grab, which is the PRIMARY focus for the project which after 7 yrs + $180m + over 500 people having worked on it, is NOWHERE near completion.

The 3.1 fiasco is yet another in a long string of mishaps.

As I mentioned in a prior missive. this is the reason why they would want to start pushing "sale" vs "pledge", because the latter implies that they don't have to refund money to disgruntled backers, while the former means they are forced to do so according to consumer law.

Those trying to get their money back, haven't been able to do so since 3.0 was released.

And the toxic backers are still attacking them for it. In this latest example, this is a backer calling for backers wanting out, to be SHAMED! I kid you not. Read.

reddit.com/r/starcitizen_…

So we now have a 3.1 roll back because it wasn't even in any condition to be released on 03/31.

Aside from the fact we all knew CIG only released it because they had new ships to sell, and in order to reach a self-imposed deadline (they've traditionally missed EVERY SINGLE ONE).

But don't pay any attention to us though. Keep giving them money because it will make what comes next, and which is brewing, that much more hilarious.

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