Star Citizen and the pitfalls of live streaming

VorpalChicken28

As some of you will be aware, Star Citizen are live streaming at Gamescom.

Well....

Personally after watching the last 2 days worth of live streaming I've come to 2 conclusions, they have really low viewing figures and streaming a still very buggy (pre) alpha game is a bad idea. 

The amount of times now that I've watched some glitch happen is staggering, they really just need to quit trying to promote the game (lets face it they have the money already) and just get it finished.

It's becoming increasingly frustrating to watch, perhaps even now coming to the point of being comedic when you watch the game crash for one of the guys having a play test in the background.

Roll on Friday when no doubt they'll try and shock and awe us with some cool editor footage of the game, until then I'm going to take a break from the stream as it's just plain annoying me lol.

BTW does anyone know if there are any other games at Gamescom that are showing/demonstrating pre/alpha games/footage?

Shodanas

- There is already a thread about SC in Gamescom. Took me 5 seconds to find.

- If i'm not mistaken the SC main event is due for tomorrow.

MaxBacon

I get kind poker face at this threads, i'm not really watching the streams until the main event so...

It mostly falls into this:
- They are playing the game everyone else can currently play, nothing unique or special about what's being streamed to actually captivate interest into watching.
- Over that, the game being on free flight during gamescon falls into the point of need to watch others playing the game to check it out, when you yourself can go and check it out.

So if you don't want to watch others playing the game you can play by yourself, sure do. I myself am waiting for the main event tomorrow

rpmcmurphy

To be fair, it doesn't come down to how buggy their content is, their streaming has always been crap.

VorpalChicken28

Sadly it only works on my laptop, and that's not a gaming laptop, on my main rig it crashes every 20ish mins and can take 10 mins alone to load so not worth the effort

Erillion

I see the same Twitch stream that Vorpal28 does. Besides 2 crashes in 8 hours and one respawn without hands there was no major glitch. Not bad for an Alpha. The usual stream snipers (sometimes literally) appeared that try to geek the stream host live. 

If they would stream on a manipulated "solo" server instead of the normal internet live server i would expect zero crashes, as it runs much more stable solo. But they stay honest and use the standard Alpha 2.4.1 live server. 


Have fun

Erillion

vorpal28 said:

Sadly it only works on my laptop, and that's not a gaming laptop, on my main rig it crashes every 20ish mins and can take 10 mins alone to load so not worth the effort

You have a very crash prone rig, me seems. Load time under 2-3 min for me, one crash every few hours (or none when manipulated for solo play). Crashes seem to be mostly netcode triggered. Use an SSD!


Have fun

VorpalChicken28

Erillion said:

vorpal28 said:

Sadly it only works on my laptop, and that's not a gaming laptop, on my main rig it crashes every 20ish mins and can take 10 mins alone to load so not worth the effort

You have a very crash prone rig, me seems. Load time under 2-3 min for me, one crash every few hours (or none when manipulated for solo play). Crashes seem to be mostly netcode triggered. Use an SSD!


Have fun

My rig isn't the issue, as it's only one month old and cost me £3500, it runs NMS pretty flawlessly to, and thats supposed to have alot of issues on PC's

laserit

vorpal28 said:

Erillion said:

vorpal28 said:

Sadly it only works on my laptop, and that's not a gaming laptop, on my main rig it crashes every 20ish mins and can take 10 mins alone to load so not worth the effort

You have a very crash prone rig, me seems. Load time under 2-3 min for me, one crash every few hours (or none when manipulated for solo play). Crashes seem to be mostly netcode triggered. Use an SSD!


Have fun

My rig isn't the issue, as it's only one month old and cost me £3500, it runs NMS pretty flawlessly to, and thats supposed to have alot of issues on PC's

Must be real nice

What kind of a rig is it?

VorpalChicken28

Alienware Area-51, Intel Core i7-6800K, 32gb memory, dual Nvidia 1080's, 512SSD and 10TB harddisk space (upgraded them myself using a Seagate BarraCuda Pro)

Erillion

vorpal28 said:

My rig isn't the issue,

If the Alpha often crashes on your rig and it does not on other rigs, then your rig IS an issue. If the hardware is high end and recent, then crashes may come from how you configured it.

You might want to take a look here:
http://www.redacted.tv/how-to-set-up-star-citizen-performance-guide/


Have fun

gervaise1

Erillion said:

vorpal28 said:

My rig isn't the issue,

If the Alpha often crashes on your rig and it does not on other rigs, then your rig IS an issue. <snip>

Graphics driver issue maybe. 10k series NVidia cards are new and availability has been low so I doubt there will be many playing at the moment.

Time to find these issues is in the alpha / beta.

laserit

vorpal28 said:

Alienware Area-51, Intel Core i7-6800K, 32gb memory, dual Nvidia 1080's, 512SSD and 10TB harddisk space (upgraded them myself using a Seagate BarraCuda Pro)

Nice system but man there stuff is crazy overpriced.

Do you know what kind of ram they used? They give zero info on timings

WalkinGlenn

If anything, these streams are showing the same old stuff we been seeing for a very long time. Which means....... you guessed it. The same old stuff. If they don't show some SQ42 or some kind of new playable feature, I think it speaks volumes on the actual progress behind the scenes and gives credence to many of the leaks and complaints from behind the scene folks.

rodarin

This whole 'alpha' thing is also starting to get old. Like it does with every other game that has been in perpetual 'alpha' which includes but isnt limited to ARK, Dayz, H1Z1, Miscreated and a few others. Some of those also try (after 1-3 years of playable game world availability) also claim 'early access'.

Its all a load of crap STABILITY is the first thing you conquer when you put out a game for public consumption no matter what definition or title you want to give it. Optimization is the final thing, but its also the semantics argument all the people who defend crappy performance like to use to explain why a game runs like trash.

That alpha testbed has been out for THREE FRIGGING YEARS. there is ZERO excuse for all the clipping issues and other problems it has. I didnt watch the stream today or even have it on so I cant say for sure how many crashes they had. They had at least 10 yesterday of varying degrees. Some total CTD, some inability to load after they launched some freeze screen and necessity to reboot. So they werent even all the same issue but a gamete of crashing or relogging issues. I ahve also seen enough streas over the past few months when i leave it on one of the channels to notice the issues. go watch a few of the streams on Barons or knights page to see. The first stream baron did of SC it took him 2.5 hours to even be able to run the thing after so many crashes it was ridiculous. That is the June 21 or 29th one.

It also exposes the sheer lack of viewership. While guys can claim its because there is nothing new to see, they did (I thought) showcase some of the stuff in 2.5 which some people are playing but most still dont have access to. You would also, as a supporter expect them to give some tidbits and teasers about other stuff in streams like this so you also watch for the sake of curiosity. The fact theyre struggling to get 5K viewers and only get that many when they do their 'big' giveaway basically defines the people who pay attention to this game. Not peopel that want to or are interested in playing it but people who want to get something they can turn around and sell for real money to some other sap.

But it is the same old argument and the same old points, the whole proof by inspection aspect of this game doesnt support anything they say or claim, on any front. 

sgel

They're apparently showing some new stuff tommorrow?

WalkinGlenn

sgel said:

They're apparently showing some new stuff tommorrow?

  I'm gonna put money on it being something that should have been in game a long time ago. More new ships maybe? New weapons? 

If it's not something meaningful then it's not worth mentioning IMHO.

gervaise1

WalkinGlenn said:

sgel said:

They're apparently showing some new stuff tommorrow?

  I'm gonna put money on it being something that should have been in game a long time ago. More new ships maybe? New weapons? 

If it's not something meaningful then it's not worth mentioning IMHO.

Wasn't aware that SC had launched.

gervaise1

WalkinGlenn said:

If anything, these streams are showing the same old stuff we been seeing for a very long time. Which means....... you guessed it. The same old stuff. If they don't show some SQ42 or some kind of new playable feature, I think it speaks volumes on the actual progress behind the scenes and gives credence to many of the leaks and complaints from behind the scene folks.

The alpha is the measure of the progress. No amount of anti "drama" or pro "hype" will alter the fact that the alpha is out there.

So yes its the "same old stuff" as in in the alpha. What backers and sometimes anyone have been able to try - first hand - for themselves. And nothing has changed since the last patch. Quite a lot has changed however since the alpha was first released. Real progress. And if its no in the alpha its not finished - otherwise it would be in the alpha! Which renders any and all attempts to suggests that feature x is coming soon useless. Either its in the alpha or its not. And that is how we should measure the game. Behind the scenes "rumours" before the alpha is one thing now basically pointless.

Octagon7711

I'm willing to guess new ship.

MaxBacon

Octagon7711 said:

I'm willing to guess new ship.

So they already confirmed at least 2 weeks ago the the main showcase of Gamescon tomorrow will be PG Planets... and you speculate that it is one ship? I mean it's like almost nobody here actually follows SC at all. xD

BTW talking about new ship that's coming it seems it may be the Anvil Hurricane

Octagon7711

MaxBacon said:

Octagon7711 said:

I'm willing to guess new ship.

So they already confirmed at least 2 weeks ago the the main showcase of Gamescon tomorrow will be PG Planets... and you speculate that it is one ship? I mean it's like almost nobody here actually follows SC at all. xD

BTW talking about new ship that's coming it seems it may be the Anvil Hurricane

I admit I don't follow the site as closely as some of you guys do.  But I think based on past actions new ships are always a safe bet.  :-)   Thanks for the link, I never saw that before.

MaxBacon

Octagon7711 said:

I admit I don't follow the site as closely as some of you guys do.  But I think based on past actions new ships are always a safe bet.  :-)   Thanks for the link, I never saw that before.

They changed their newsletter formats recently so this time sent all Backers one email about the presentation on witch they already told they'll show it.

On the ships if it's that one (wasn't been fully announced yet), is one of the Anvil ships announced back then that has not been through concept (aka sale) yet.

Erillion

Octagon7711 said:

I'm willing to guess new ship.

What gave it away?

Was it the BIG announcement of the Herald Decoder Challenge on the official homepage , where retweeting the news unscrambles the picture of a new ship?

So much for guessing...


Have fun

WalkinGlenn

OK so are they going to show PG planet from start to finish as in.... waking from your bunk.... getting into your ship, charting a course to said planet and landing. Or will it be another deal where there already floating around the grid of some world that's already been rendered and calling it a PG planet. 

I want to see start to finish waking up in the bunk, going thru the whole process start to finish and finally landing and getting out if the ship. 

Kefo

WalkinGlenn said:

OK so are they going to show PG planet from start to finish as in.... waking from your bunk.... getting into your ship, charting a course to said planet and landing. Or will it be another deal where there already floating around the grid of some world that's already been rendered and calling it a PG planet. 

I want to see start to finish waking up in the bunk, going thru the whole process start to finish and finally landing and getting out if the ship. 

Also make sure it's not like most of their other reveals where they say "look how awesome this is, give us money" and then you find out it's not even possible for them to run it in game yet