Hey @croberts68, glad to see you are back on the bridge. As someone which backed the project in 2012, and has followed along, was one of the first to enter Evocati, attended all Citizencons and even recently won the Guiding Contest (for serving as a top-guide). After all the people I met, new, old, patient, and impatient, I can tell you that I always inform people that this game is not be played, but only to be playtested.
Initially they act surprised, and tell me after 8 years, what has been done? I tell them there are a few basic loops in the game, but most of the stuff unfortunately is not accessible and that they are better off waiting for the inevitable beta. I feel like CIG should do the same, communicate this a lot better, because the people I meet on a weekly basis, are just coming in with the wrong expectations. I know there is a very delicate balance between a playable product/funding and development, but I feel like the whole development cycle has shifted way too much towards QoL, leaving very little headroom for the development team to actually develop (with the exception of SQ42 team).
In an alpha stage of the project , I can only disagree that with focusing on QoL is the good direction to go, especially since all you are describing is an communication error from CIG, where things are just not being communicated in a timely fashion. A prime example for that is the SQ42 roadmap, suddenly being put on hold after being stagnated for I do not know how long.
In fact, as far as I am aware, we only had QoL for the past 30 months or so (starting right after 3.0), with the exception of 3.3 bringing a good part of the core-tech (OCS) online, making the game perform a lot better.
But since the quarterly release, there have only been made very small little steps, and things which should be focused on, are not being adressed at all. I think it's the best way to just be honest with us, since honesty is very important in a crowdfunded project, and also one of the very reasons I backed the project in 2012. Sadly enough, I have not been very content with the latest 3 years of development, and you now suddenly telling us that CIG will focus on QoL, while we had 30 months of QoL, really strikes me.
I think the development of the game, should take precedence over the playability of an early alpha project. As you look at history of CIG/SC, you see that 2.0 take long time to develop, there was a big drought just before that and people were amazed by it, the same happened with 3.0, where there was an 8 month content drought and people were amazed by it. I can only assume that when CIG does not spend as much time on a Live product, they can actually get some development done, and come up with groundbreaking tech.
A feature-driven approach, or maybe a 6-month patch cycle, would be a better solution here, where stabilization overhead is less prevailing within the project, and when doing this you can also do away with the staggered development (which does, or does not work, I cannot know).
I have written a small piece myself on something CIG can improve on, when they want to go into QoL, I have written this sometime ago, but I believe it still holds, and that is that CIG should focus on repeatable and low maintenance kind of gameplay loops, which do not take away a big chunk of the development resources:
https://robertsspaceindus...-server-meshing-cig-shoul
To cut it short:
1. CIG should focus on player beacons, this are easily replayable loops, which require very little maintenance (since the players are making their own content).
2. CIG should let people persist, this should probably not be a hard thing to do, but when you get back into a server, with or without bed-logout, you should always remain in the place you are, this also prevents combat-logging and the like which is a big problem with PVP Bounty Hunting (other games are doing this, which started later then SC, I also written a piece on that:
https://robertsspaceindus...ng-behind-compared-to-gam)
3. Base-building, this one actually allows players to create content on the very vast real-estate the planets offer, making the game a lot more interesting and filled with live.
Of course I can only assume point 3 is something for the bigger picture, but I feel like point 1 and 2 (especially 1 with the new building blocks) can now easily be done. Also I would love CIG to talk about crash-mitigation, this has had very little talk. Which is weird, because I think this should be (or should have been) the primary focus from the get-go within the project.
Ultimately crash-mitigation could make a 30K meaningless, just like a crash to desktop nowadays is meaningless, because you will start right off where you started. If you could do the same with an 30K, by somehow saving the state of a player, there would be way less demand from the community for stabilization and therefore stabilization overhead within the development of the project. In other words, please don't spend more development resources on QoL of the project, but actually focus on the stuff which contributes to the bigger picture, as you said yourself back in the day, you were focusing on getting the most game for every dollar spent on Star Citizen/Squadron 42, and I can only assume and hope this is still the case, which is why your most recent statement about QoL kind of baffles me.
There is a lot more I can talk about (for example CIG not focusing on the newest tech, like raytracing, and in this regard not coding for the future), but that is just a whole different debate, which I would love to discuss in person or in a Q&A with you (perhaps next Citizencon, who knows). But for now I will leave it at this, I hope you keep doing what you are doing, and I hope you make a more often appearance on Spectrum or any other show to discuss the pillars of the game, and what lies in the road ahead. I am excited for the future (as much of you are), and I hope communication improves. For now, good luck, and godspeed!