It’s still $45 to access the game if you don’t have it yet(and that counts as a pledge, and therefore part of the game’s funding), but yea as a player and a backer I essentially agree. You’re basically spending money to skip game progression after the final wipe before release(whenever that happens).
IMO it takes some of the enjoyment out of the game even in its current buggy alpha form. You can earn basically everything except for the most recently(ish) released ships(and some cosmetic items) entirely within the game.
You do get a game to play for $45 though. A game with a zillion bugs and issues but a game nonetheless. I personally feel like it was worth $45 for the entertainment value I’ve gotten out of it. Not worth the amount I spent(like a decade ago), but the first $45 feels worth it now.
That being said, don’t buy the game if you expect a polished experience.
directive0@lemmy.world 18 hours ago
Not to defend SC too much, and full disclosure I don’t play it. But I have friends who DO play it and it seems like they are having a lot of fun?
They aren’t evangelists for the game or anything, so its not a fanboy situation. They just play it a lot, and with lots of other people. They have an online community and meet up IRL for events. Post vids of their exploits. It seems fun to me? I asked them about the bugs and stuff and they fully admit it is buggy and things are broken, they make no apologies for it. They figure out workarounds and share it with the crew. I don’t know, these guys are usually pretty critical of games but they seem happy weirdly. Maybe a cult?
There is no fucking way that I am ever going to pay for a fake star ship or anything so I’m not even considering it. And the entire funding model of the game seems batshit insane to me. But to me it seems like the idea that the game is unplayable doesn’t really match the reality? Its clearly not a good value proposition at all.
boywar3@lemmy.world 14 hours ago
It definitely is actually “playable” now, and I’ve had a good amount of fun playing it this year, but it certainly isn’t ready for release or anything.
That said, the network infra they have created is pretty cool: 600+ player servers with relatively little issue, and the goal of 1000 long term is quite a feat of engineering.
They fucked themselves overpromising so much back at the beginning by giving the release dates they did while using like, Unity or something, and now they have the infra/engine to deliver, but nobody trusts them to actually do so.
turmacar@lemmy.world 13 hours ago
Are 600 player servers impressive? I’m sure they have plenty of hardware and engineering involved but that doesn’t sound exceptional as much as expected for the scope they’re aiming for.
WoW is a simpler game, in that it’s effectively 2 dimensions and doesn’t involve physics, but that would be a fairly low server population, especially back in it’s heyday. Ditto for many other big MMOs.
EvE has 600+ player battles on a fairly regular basis, much less on a server instance in general.
boywar3@lemmy.world 4 hours ago
I’m not super knowledgeable with how it works, but it is essentially a system for seamless jumps between multiple servers “meshing” them together so there is zero noticeable lag time between them. There isn’t a single loading screen going across multiple star systems, which is a pretty significant achievement, especially given how detailed the game itself is.
I’ve never played World of Warcraft or really any MMO, but it is my understanding that there are areas to load into new places (a short black screen on entering a building, a “portal” to another zone, etc.).
Kolanaki@pawb.social 12 hours ago
Is it 600+ players on a single server, or is it like WoW/UO/EQ where the game world is spread across multiple servers, so it’s not ever actually that many people on a single server? It was kind of important for PvP to know where the server lines were because crossing them caused a spike of lag as it switched the server you were on.
If it was a single server that would be impressive. Otherwise, it’s pretty laughable.