Submitted 1 day ago by Carighan@piefed.world to games@lemmy.world
Shocking exactly 4 people on the planet, Squadron 42 might not make it's just-recently-confirmed-absolutely-rock-solid 2026 release date. 😂
Although I will say that at this point even laughing about it becomes difficult. It's been so many years, every joke has been made and every laugh has been had.
At this point, I’m just looking at all this as an interesting social experiment on sunk cost fallacy
I wonder how long they can go without delivering on anything
I think the fact that they are very very glacially slowly delivering on things at least, all the while self-discovering software development instead of learning it, that aggravates me even more. Bloober Team could finish this faster and more competently than these clowns...
Glacially is OVERstating how much and how quickly.
Especially compared to their original predictions.
well, they are drip feeding the content as they are still slowly actually adding more stuff to the game. I dont think they intend to scam anyone since they occasionally allow people to play the game for free and without that i would have been inclined to buy it many times now to see what kind of game it is (and would have felt scammed). Now i just keep waiting for them to add enough stuff for the game to be worth getting, but after hearing they might add somekind of p2w shop crap i think i might just forget about the whole thing if it really bad.
Its too bad if the game collapses at some point since it really has promise. I resent them for first fucking around with the money they were given and making it all seem like a scam even when there is potential for it to not be.
Its too bad if the game collapses at some point since it really has promise.
No one denies the game has promise. The problem is that it does not have much else. Having ideas is the easy part in game development.
We already know what happens with long term sunk cost fallacy. It is a scam.
I love the game’s potential, I will regularly log in just to walk around stations or planets or hang out in my ship and enjoy the aesthetic. I like to fiddle with things and see what’s new. I love the sense of scale and freedom, just knowing at any time you can get up out of your pilot’s seat and open your cargo hatch and yeet yourself out the back just makes me giddy.
All that said, I grow weary of the endless fuckery and delays and just uninstalled for the dozenth time to let the thing cook longer. The graphics, for all their beauty, require more power than my PC can put out so the frame-rates are almost unplayable in many areas. Quests and missions are still a complete dice-roll if they’re going to work or break at any moment. NPC’s in the ground missions are either dumber than rocks or clip through walls and you can never find them.
Server meshing is an amazing technology, but you have to have all your servers working, so there is always at least one area of the solar system that just plain doesn’t work. Stations that don’t answer your landing hail, quest locations that don’t work, lagged out doors and ship systems.
The universe truly feels more vast than any other game, ever, because you feel like a tiny human in a huge expanse. Too bad that’s about it most of the time, there’s no sense of permanence, no bases you can build, no personalization you can do to your own apartment, no storage locker in your own room like every other game ever made, everything including accessing your personal gear has to be done through kiosks in lobbies. The lack of personal items and survival components other than eating and drinking once in a while leave a good 80% of every station or base useless.
Sure you can buy a few cheap ass toys to put in your cockpit, but since most likely your game will crash and you will have to file a claim on your ship, you will hardly want to do this more than once.
Ship interiors feel real, it’s highly convincing. It’s just too bad that they’re mostly useless. Other than moving cargo around a cargo hold, there’s very little else you can do on a ship.
And you know what… I would be okay with all of these shortcomings IF THE GAME HAD GOOD CONTROLS. Seriously, look at a game like SCUM, it’s a survival PvP MMO where the gameplay is so detailed you need to manage your protein levels to build muscle and you have to poop regularly, you can even die of a heart-attack. You can load your magazines with several types of bullets and it will fire them in order. You can adjust how deep of a crouch you’re in and you can craft a vast array of useful items to survive and fight.
And it does it all smoothly. Sure it takes getting used to, but it’s never tedious. You never fall through the floor. You never have to fiddle with a door panel, you don’t have to make sure you point your cursor to just the exact position to open a hatch, you can actually trust the line-of-sight from a hostile mech so you can avoid it.
And that’s a game that’s far, far from perfect but they make a better gameplay experience than Star Citizen which has made exponentially more money from its players.
I will still keep trying it out from time to time, but I really, really hope some new game comes along and takes all the best lessons from SC and makes a more polished game experience that keeps the scale and detail and freedom but gives you things to do.
(No, I know about No Man’s Sky, it’s like a muppet/minecraft version of a space sim and too silly and unrealistic, totally different experience.)
Things I’ve done in Elite Dangerous since Star Citizen started development:
Everything there is to do.
Star Citizen may very well be the single greatest argument for Scrum Masters on Dev teams.
Talk about infinite scope, holy shit.
Competent Scrum Masters, 95% of the Scrum project that I’ve been part of caught on fire is because of an ass PO and an incompetent SM who can’t rein in the PO.
It’s been in development for 15 years. Duke Nukem whatever was only in dev hell for 14. Y’all ever gonna admit you got scammed?
Duke Nukem Whatever sounds like the better version of what we got.
You can say it’s a bad deal, they are mismanaging the project etc. but calling it a scam is just hyperbole.
I got enough enjoyment out of it for what little I spent a lifetime ago. I go see whats new every couple years, which is usually quite a lot. The game is still a disaster, but it’s a strangely interesting disaster.
Store Citizen missing deadlines like that is to be expected.
Just a few more jpegs and they’ll have the money to finish it!
I do remember them spending a lot of money on Star-Trek style doors for the their HQ and now they’re moving, so I guess that was money well spent.
When this game is released the setting is going to be ancient history.
Space, the we already did that frontier.
It’s a bit fun to imagine that. People of the future playing a game that would be sci-fi to us, but really to them it’s like Oregon Trail.
I got no sympathy for anyone that is disappointed and continues to "pledge" to this "game". I mean hell a few years ago they got me and I "pledged" $200 for a ship that I may or may not still have. but then afterwards I felt like a rube.
So I get it, I fell for it once, but still no sympathy for anyone that continues to do so.
I’m in a similar boat. Pledged but it’s been years since I gave them money and I’m not really following it closely anymore. Can’t say I ever felt like a rube though, backing a crowdfunded project is always a gamble to some degree, and that money was so long ago that any impact on my situation from having it or not has long since faded.
I’m a little disappointed in the date potentially being pushed back, but it’s not like I marked it on my calendar or anything. If they had said nothing and the date just slipped by I probably wouldn’t even notice if no one else brought it up.
I’ll play S42 if/when it comes out, and probably even enjoy it, but I’m not chomping at the bit.
Meanwhile I’ve done five or six playthroughs of Freelancer while the game has been in development and had more fun than I’ll ever have with Star Citizen.
The scam is eternal.
After much careful reflection on this news, here is my response: HAHAHAHAHHAHAHHAHAHAHAHAHHAHAHAHAHHAHAHAHAHAHA!
I think I could have written this headline 6 years ago.
Bro running the greatest grift on earth not counting the crypto market
You know, when they mentioned 8k textures 10 years ago, I laughed because it was so overshooting gaming standards that it was laughable. Now I’m think they will be just on track when it actually launches.
By the time they launch, they’ll have a game with 8k textures and everyone else will be releasing games for Star Trek’s holodeck.
I very much doubt that when (if) the game releases, it will be worth the wait and live up to the hype.
And you can be your ass that for how outdated it'll look when it releases in 2035 or so, it'll still chug at <30 FPS on your NVidia 35090.
I just hope i will have a good time at the old folks home.
I will put money down that it will not. A game that’s in development for this long will not live up to any level of expectations
As a very early backer of S42 way back in apparently 2012: It never ceases to annoy me that The Wing Commander Guy has once again managed to do everything possible to NOT make a fucking Wing Commander. This is, what, the third big clusterfuck and the first one where there was nobody to take it away from him and just finish it themselves? But, whatever.
As a big fan of elite games: I am really glad star citizen “exists” to contrast Elite Dangerous and has led to some truly amazing games in the genre. Some of which actually ARE more Wing Commander than not (Everspace 2 is basically the Freelancer that was promised). Now we just need some studio to make a proper Freespace game.
All that said: I don’t like it but I weirdly keep coming back to the thought process that Star Citizen actually IS delivering on its “promise” to the backers… of the past decade or so. Not the OGs. Fuck us.
Because they were never sold on actually playing a game. They were sold on a dream. It is the same logic by which you watch Aisha Tyler do VO for a Tom Clancy game and think that you and your friends are also going to be super sweaty tier seven operators. Or how you watch your favorite group of online youtubers read off their pre-written jokes and pretend to be shocked while playing “friendslop” games. Or… you are a non-sicko who read too many AARs of Dwarf Fortress and thought you would boatmurder too.
Its the idea of spending money to Dream. You know you’ll never actually do what you saw the pretty people do. But you THINK you will and, by owning a copy of Garry’s Mod that you will never boot up, you think you will too.
Obviously the star citizen heads are spending WAY more than 20 bucks a pop and some are buying multiple megaships they’ll never use meaningfully. But it is hard to not see parallels to the people who buy a DCS plane because they want to pretend that one day they will learn how to fly that jet.
As a big fan of elite games: I am really glad star citizen “exists” to contrast Elite Dangerous and has led to some truly amazing games in the genre.
Elite Dangerous has its faults, but goddamn, did it pull something epic and historical with a ten-years-in-the-making final event.
We are gonna get gta 8 before we get star citizen.
I’ve spent hardly any money on that game. I did the first 20 bucks. Then a 15 to get a tiny mining ship to help get in-game money. But I wouldn’t have even gotten it if it wasn’t for my partner REALLY liking the “game.”
I might like it too… if it actually worked and every bug I’ve ever encountered being perfect for setting all my progress to zero or even backwards. Because you have to buy supplies to do a mission.
So fuck that. I’m not playing it until I can make progress- which will be never.
I was this 🤏 close to buying squadron 42 years ago, as it was just about to get released. dodged that bullet.
42 years ago
I heard it’s been in development for a long time but didn’t know it’s this long.
this is why you should buy games that are released
Right. Never pre-order games. Ever.
Scam Shitizen.
I remember them announcing that SQ404 was entering a “polishing” phase in late 2023.
At that point and to this day, they failed to finalise a flight model, develop an armour/shield system and implement engineering gameplay.
Arguably these are critical elements for a release with space sim gameplay. Although if SQ404 does release, I think it will be 30 hours of Wing Commander The Movie level cut scenes (space bulldozer) and script, with bored sounding Hollywood actors counting the seconds till they can leave Chris Roberts mocap studio.
Inside Chris Roberts Mocap Studio:
Roberts: Hehehe. Hey, Mark! You know how I came up with the Vanduul? Hehe.
Hamil: No, how?
Roberts: Ehehe. Vandals to Vanduul! Get it? Hehehe. Pretty smart, right? Hehehe.
Hamil: Very original.
Roberts: Did you know the Vandals were a Germanic that raided the Roman Empire? Bet you didn’t know that! Hehehe.
Hamil: I am in awe of your creativy!
Roberts: I know, right! Hehehe.
Ok Mark, enough farting around. Pretend you are riding a space bulldozer!
I think it will be 30 hours of Wing Commander The Movie level cut scenes
It never existed!
Color me surprised. I still think this whole thing is a big scam, like a money laundering scheme or some grift.
If you look into the history of Chris Roberts you’ll know it’s not a scam. Roberts is one of the few creatives I’d say actually needs an executive board to hold him back, because he’ll never stop and actually finish something.
I don’t think there’s a single project Roberts has finished on his own accord. He has always been made to finish.
I think the people claiming this game is a scam, don’t know what scam means. I paid for this game years ago and sometimes I go online and have fun with friends or just drink beer and do cargo hauling to relax. Like any other game really. Early access or not, people are having fun.
Sunk cost fallacy? What cost am I putting in, and what am I expecting in return? This game cost me a night on the town years ago that would’ve been forgotten at this point, and gained me a fun space game.
Ok, so preordering what promises to be a motorcycle but years later getting a bicycle instead that you happen to enjoy riding is also acceptable?
Last time I hate the patience to soldier through a sad attempt at playing this game felt more like buying some next gen bike, but getting the chassis that looks like the bike I ordered, but had tech from 10 years ago and every time you try to park it in your garage, both wheels fall off.
It’s pretty sad really.
I never pre-ordered anything. I saw a YouTube video of people having fun in a space game, and then I bought said space game, and played it.
I swear you guys are more obsessed with Star Citizen than the people who play it.
Umm, I bought it because Gary Oldman said squadron 42 was coming out next year. I want a modern freelancer. That was over a decade. That really seems like a scam…
Gary Oldman said squadron 42 was coming out next year
Mark Hamil said that something called “Squadron 54” was coming out soon, this was half a decade ago.
What does you having fun with friends in star citizen have to do with it being a scam?
These things are unrelated.
There are companies with 50K employees with working delivery (no JPEG of an barrel) where the management was found to engage in fraud.
Horribly mismanaged? Incompetent project management? Horrifyingly bad predictions, even lying? Big mess of a project? Sure.
Scam? No. They really are trying to do the thing they said they are.
And as you say, even though they’re never, ever going to deliver what they promised because they can’t, they have delivered a thing that a lot of people like
But god DAMN. They said most of the PU features would be done in 2016/17. 9 years later 80% of what they promised still isn’t there. Multi crew has been walked back. Etc etc.
A scam would be that Chris Robert just took the kickstarter money and ran away. They are actually trying to make the game… Poorly.
Having said that, It amazes me that they get away with selling ships for 1000s of dollars. That feels somewhat scam-ish
It’ll be released when the original backer’s grandchildren have kids 😂
My old boss was a backer back when he had a young child.
That child is now in high school.
💀
I remember hearing this joke in 2020.
Joke?
Sigh deeply, rub their foreheads, and open their wallets.
I think it’s high time we just ghosted any news of this scam of a game and studio.
All I really wanted was SQ42 back when I supported it on Kickstarter. With my 20 bucks there’s no regret, but it’s quite funny where things have gone since then.
I install the latest alpha once every year and am both amazed and disappointed.
I don’t expect SQ42 to be released before 2030 and I do expect it to be a buggy, unoptimized mess when it finally arrives.
I’ve been thoroughly entertained all those years, though.
What an insane and unprecedented surprise.
Since i saw that gameplay footage which was released like somewhere in the last 5 years its all i can think about when Sq42 is in the news again. Until that point i just hoped that maybe somehow someday an unpolished but interesting game will come out. But that footage looked so unfun and ass after ~10 years of development i lost all hope.
We’ll see Shemue 9 before Star Citizen’s release.
Flamekebab@piefed.social 22 hours ago
Game development as a service.
muhyb@programming.dev 21 hours ago
Hahaha, at this point they can coin the term.
p03locke@lemmy.dbzer0.com 15 hours ago
They may have been the first, but the sheer amount of failed disaster projects on Kickstarter, Paetron, wherever is staggering.
Some of them end up being “successful” failures, just stringing their patrons along on hopes and dreams and donations until the well dries up. Star Citizen is definitely the most successful venture of its sort, but only because it’s the highest profile with a bunch of known talent in the mix.
pyre@lemmy.world 18 hours ago
damn that’s good, we should have been using it for this game particularly but also pretty much every pvp survival game as well.
Kolanaki@pawb.social 14 hours ago
My biggest problem with survival crafting games is the balance is always horrendously unfair and is just irritating as fuck, or there isn’t even anything to survive against because they didnt put any kind of antagonists in the game so the building part is completely aesthetic.