"T0" is marketing/PR term. Every single deliverable has been massively cut and what was delivered was in a perma-broken state.

It's not about the bug, it's the gameplay. It is just so bad.

I like trading, this was my experience with trading in SC (from another thread):

I tried their free trials 4 times. Twice I encountered game breaking bugs (required a restart and switching servers respectively).

Let’s ignore that for now. I will start with the good things. The planet to space transition was pretty cool, not going to lie. The cities were also detailed and looked nice (the first time you take the train in one of the cities, it does contribute to the world building). That being said, both the planets and the POI have nothing to offer in terms of actual gameplay structure. The cities might as well be a menu based system for purchases/interactions. The planets just have some random uninspired mission locations that all feel the same. You might as well have a separate map that you enter via cutscene.

But the biggest issue was the horrible gameplay. It’s one of the reasons I believe star citizen is a scam.

I will use a small trading indie game called Merchant of the Skies as a comparison point. It was developed by a husband and wife duo in less than 12 months. The game has:

• Dynamic world impacted by trading activities. City taxation/reputation, new resources, new locations, new ships and upgrades all open up as you complete various trading missions.
• Bazaar system. There are several location on a map that have weekly bazaars. Certain days have peak visitors while others are off days. You have to time your arrivals/trading.
• Supply and demand system in bazaar sales. You over/under price your goods depending on how much of your ship’s inventory you want to sell. This is also tied to the weekly visitors intensity system.
• Refueling system. Locations on the edge of the map have refuelling station that are few and far between. There is a simple RNG system for bonus fuel during travels.
• Mail/passenger travel side missions. You can occasionally help travellers and deliver mail. It’s fun to align this with your trading activities.
• Different late-game ships that you can pick depending on your play-style (it’s not only about cargo capacity, it does actually have a relatively big impact on how you go about the game).

This is just the gameplay that is relevant for comparison. There is also in-depth base-building, complex trade fleets and delivery scheduling, a simple RPG system, a simple ship employee system, a simple bank system, a resource gathering system, rudimentary exploration (map is randomized on each run), a mainline story and a bunch of different side missions.

Now compare that to star citizen. No supply/demand. No world impact. No economy. There is nothing to do except get more money to get ships. Sure you play with other players, but is there any kind of competition in terms of trading? They don’t even have a functional escort system where you can hire NPC ships for defence against griefers.

And crude gameplay is not limited to trade. FPS combat with single digit ticks? Exploration with one fully explored system? I will add that they sell non-functional “exploration ships” for hundreds of dollars; some of them are literal JPEGs. There is a bunch of other stuff that they’ve marketed but have simply not implemented or completely abandoned after the initial cash shop sales campaign (data running, journalism spaceships, refuelling spaceships, passenger transport spaceships, medical spaceships, farming spaceships, flying bazaar spaceship, mine laying spaceship, the list just goes on and on).

In context of a multiplayer game, you would want some sort of dynamism and player interaction. Something along the lines of “planet X is building Y, requiring delivery of Z within the next 2 IRL months.”

Successful completion of this mission would result in % discount on trade NPC escorts (which don’t exist in SC) or additional NPC security on major trade routes. Pirate players and NPCs pirates would need to try and stop traders/haulers from successful completing the mission within 2 months. You know, real gameplay for traders and other “classes” with an impact on the game.

The art and music are incredibly good.

Looking forward to trying the demo (and hopefully the full game too.

I am surprised Unreal Tournament 2004 is not part of this initiative.

Come on, man.

I support reigning in corrupt oligarchs (full asset seizure, 20 years mandatory community service as a live-in junior janitor in a hospice care facility) as much as the next person, but this is stupid.

Everything they have delivered so far is barebones and broken. The only thing they excel at is nice looking assets.

The gameplay is particular is crude and done in a very lazy manner.

Foundation is an excellent city-builder with both fun gameplay and an extensive system of decorative customization. You can build some crazy castles and all without a grid.

Do check out the demo if this sort of thing sounds even vaguely appealing.

Considering CIG's track record with delivery and their less than honest approach to marketing, what % of the mentioned features will be cancelled? 80%?

That's ancient Rome, no? :)

As an early millennial, I can't help but get good vibes from their 90s-era desktop UI.

The game concept and 80s retro-futurism are also appealing. 😃

Raptor often covers economic strategy (including EA and demos) and city-builders, although not exclusively.

Thanks for the recommendation for OrbitalPotato, his content seems to fit my interests.

Havendock is in early access and late game is incomplete, but the current build already offers many hours of gameplay. Havendock also has rather unique gameplay, narrative style and interaction model.

Looking forward to the updates.

At the end of the review, there is supposed to be a DOSbox installer to get the win 3.11 version running on modern systems:

https://collectionchamber.blogspot.com/2016/04/ace-ventura.html?m=

Haven't tried it myself (although I might give it a go over the weekend).

That's too bad. I think they were in EA earlier.

Give it another go. Maybe min-max the early game a little bit. IMO it gets easier later on.

I have ~250 hours in TPH (haven't tried Campus for some reason); for some reason I just can't play the game anymore. Even though I have a compulsive desire to get all the achievements in TPH.

I should really get Two Point Campus when they have base game + all DLC on sale.

I would argue the price is low enough for an impulse purchase. But yes, more clarity in the gameplay description wouldn't hurt.

With clear inspiration from the Foundation game as well.

I think No One Lives Forever was inspired by the general style used in Ace Ventura.

I am really excited for this one. I did not expect anything from the original; I was very pleasantly surprised.

The original Citizen Sleeper had relatively simple RPG/adventure mechanics, but the world-building and the story really got me in. I think I finished the whole game in two sessions (with one break for sleep).