I've been play-testing the newest patch for Star Citizen, Alpha 3.0, on the Private Test Universe. I'll admit up front, this is the first patch that's left me feeling concerned about Star Citizen as a whole. I'm a long time backer with a considerable amount pledged. I'm not worried that the game won't be completed. I'm not concerned about how backer money is being used. I believe that CIG is doing everything in their power to deliver what has been promised. However, the time it's taken to develop and test 3.0 leaves me with the impression, it's a much longer road to hoe than many of us think. And I considered myself realistic and patient, recognizing the ambition of the game and its feature-set. However, the condition of 3.0 after the Evocati has already been testing for weeks and the fact that we don't even have all of the planned 3.0 content to test yet, gives me pause. The mountain I knew we were climbing and willing joined in on the adventure, suddenly appears considerably steeper.
I believe certain design decisions will be reoccurring issues, the detailed animations being among them. I fear that some aspects of what Chris Roberts and crew think adds immersion is going to seem like unnecessary time wasting fiddly bits to me. There's lots of time to change course if enough backers don't like an implementation. But who among us wants more rework?? I know I don't. I work in product management so I get the iterative nature of agile development. At this point, however, I'd probably vote to suffer a few things I don't like then see systems reworked, delaying the release further.
In the end, I still have confidence that CR and CIG will deliver the goods. I believe they're doing everything in their power to get there. Hell, I'm sure they want things done even more than we do as backers. I may not agree with how some things are implemented. I'll adjust as and where I can. But this is going to be longer than I'd dared to think it would be.
Want to hear specifics? Check out my First Impressions of the Alpha 3.0 PTU.
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