I've seen a number of posts saying that people are contemplating or planning to stay here, even when Voat returns.
I'm doing my due lurking dilligence and trying to get a feel for the site myself, but I thought I'd ask in case I miss something.
Is it just the responsive admins and the lower traffic? Or are there other things that make this place superior?
Thanks.
So, here is the story on that. Originally, Cloud Imperium Games (makes of Star Citizen) were using CryEngine 3. At the time, Crytek (the parent company of the engine) was in freefall as they had been forced to lay off workers and sell IP just to make bills. At the time, they couldn't even pay all of their employees. Because of this, they had a very useful contract with Cloud Imperium Games. They ended up selling one of their Cry Engine versions to Amazon in order for additional money. Amazon took this tech and made Lumberyard which was essentially an upgraded/streamlined version of CryEngine.
After Lumberyard was released, CIG decided to go ahead and use Lumberyard instead of CryEngine 3 because they would be entitled to better support and a better product in general. This didn't make Crytek very happy as Star Citizen was really starting to gain headway and it looked like the project could be a way to resolve financial issues. The contract which CIG held with Crytek basically said "We'll use your engine for Star Citizen, Squadron 42 (the singleplayer component), and we'll provide Crytek with bug fixes and updated tech that we find." Switching to the Amazon version of CryEngine basically meant that CryTek was going to lose out on CIGs hard work, so they are trying a lawsuit over language in the original agreement.
Realistically, one of the main reasons for the lawsuit is that CryTek states that their engine wasn't supposed to be used for Squadron 42 (the SP component) despite the fact that it is clearly listed in the original agreement between CryTek and CIG. Many people believe this is a losing fight but Crytek is hoping to get something out of the lawsuit because CIG will not wanted a lengthy court case on their hands while they develop Star Citizen. It's effectively a patent troll level technique since there isn't anything that specifically binds CIG to ONLY use CryTeks engine. In fact, the lawsuit doesn't really touch on that point too much. It's really just about Squardron 42 and the right to use the engine for it.
In additional fuckery, CryTek has recently lost their CEO only for the CEOs brother to take over, IIRC. Some consider this a legal manuever as the lawsuit wouldn't be winnable in the long run and a scapegoat might be useful if/when CryTek has to back off. In any case, it is my belief that this lawsuit will not hinder development and when a judge finally makes a decision it will be in CIGs benefit. But that may take a while as legal actions are sometimes resolved much slower than common sense would dictate.
I may have glossed over some things but that's the general idea behind the situation.
I'm starting to remember now, I do know parts of this story as I know someone who is roughly involved. I think they may disagree a bit with the statement:
Lumberyard, which was essentially an upgraded/streamlined version of CryEngine.
The creation of Lumberyard did not go that smoothly, by some accounts.
Thanks for the writeup, obviously I am not familiar with the exact details surrounding the agreement that was made, but from what you've said it does just sound like Crytek are trying to desperately do something about their sinking ship.
It was a bit of a synopsis so I did skim over some things. Lumberyard did/does have issues, for sure, but it was hands down a better deal than what CIG was getting from CryTek. CIG ended up scooping up a lot of ex-CryTek employees and part of the reason for that was because they weren't getting much support from CryTek. The modifications CIG was doing to CryEngine weren't minor by any means and it required a lot of in-depth knowledge of the engine.
Speaking from personal experience, I will say this: The game performs a lot better now that they have switched to Lumberyard. Network binding issues have been getting better over the past year, FPS has been increasing, and the stability of servers has seen improvement. The current roadmap for this year focuses on improving the experience for the player. Granted, they still have to add features which were promised but they are making headway on that subject. We're seeing salvaging starting to come into play, mining is being shown off with in-dev tech, improvements to the AI subsumption have been impressive to say the least, and if you compare this current version to the version from last year, there are some stark improvements all around.
Some people at Voat still call this game a scam but frankly, if it's a scam then CIG is doing scamming wrong since they're actually making a game and new technology which they are providing to other developers. The funding methodolgy may concern people but I like it. Yes, they may sell pledges for large sums of money but this means they are less likely to rely on big publishers like EA or UbiSoft. I feel that the majority of current big name publishers are what is wrong with gaming in general these days. We don't have a lot of limitation pushing games because it's not a safe development for larger companies. The risk/reward ratio isn't there from a business standpoint. I truly believe that there is a market for a game like Star Citizen and clearly there is since it has broken funding records again and again and has steadily made progress.
Just my two cents on this though. I could never have these conversations on Voat because they tend to hate this project, so thank you for asking in earnest.
Switching to the Amazon version of CryEngine basically meant that CryTek was going to lose out on CIGs hard work,
Ehh, Cry was a dead company until we infused them with cash. Lumberyard was then a dead project before we had sign off for Star Citizen. Switching to LY didn't necessarily hurt Crytek, SC had already hired away their few remaining engineers that knew how to use the engine. I stopped getting any knowledge of internal Cry workings a few years ago so I can't really comment on the last 3 paragraphs.
There is some inaccuracy in the first part of your post, but it's not wrong generally. I work on LY and was there during the acquisition of Cry and worked on the engine before we acquired CryEngine. I can answer many questions about Cry/LY if you have some.
Thank you for your insight into the situation. I'd be curious as to the differences between Lumberyard and the original CryEngine as I'm a bit iffy on those. From what I can tell, it seems as though there are better development tools to work with in Lumberyard but I'm more of a network/server guy so I can't fully grasp the framework differences that get mentioned in the SC forums. The modifications that CIG implements do blur the lines between their own tech and Lumberyards existing tech. I am aware that Amazon gets access to many of the tech that CIG is creating for use in the Lumberyard engine as part of their agreement.
Now, I know the situation was a bit embarassing for Crytek and I couldn't weigh in on what the deciding factor was in the lawsuit. Frankly, I believe Crytek may just want the tech that CIG managed to create using their former engineers. CIG did make it sound that Lumberyard did provide them with a more streamlined approach to content creation and backend modification but I can accept that as being a bit of PR spin to sell the switch to the consumer base. I have no idea how much of that came from CIGs internal development and how much was from Lumberyards development.
@jobes weren't you telling me some shit ages ago about Star Citizen paying a ton for Cryengine?
I just googled it and it seems like there's an ongoing legal dispute over it, do you know anything about it?