It's been a long road getting here but it seems we're inching closer to Cloud Imperium Games actually releasing Squadron 42, their cinematic single-player space adventure set in the Star Citizen universe. They also talked up Vulkan support with their ongoing tech work.
Chris Roberts announced during the event that "Squadron 42 is feature complete and has entered its polish phase".
You can see their full video on Squadron 42 below:
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Also interesting is their big upgrade they've been working on for native Vulkan API support, which will bring various benefits from improved performance to more advanced rendering techniques. They talked about this a fair bit on Day 1 of CitizenCon, which also included a note in their slide about it opening their tech up to a Linux port.
Pictured - Their Vulkan slide from Day 1 of CitizenCon 2023.
They didn't commit to Linux though, it's hardly even a passing mention. But, either way, if they do manage to finish up their Vulkan work, it will make running it on Linux hopefully better with Proton since there will be less translation that needs to be done which means it should hopefully be smoother.
You can see the talk about Vulkan below at 33:10:
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Quoting: ZeroPointEnergyYeah, I believe it when it is actually released.
We already had such episodes where they told us they where weeks from release and it will be out before end of the year. That was years ago, can't even remember how long. How can someone be so wrong? It boggles my mind.
They've never sated it will be out in a few weeks to be fair, Original release got moved due to added content that the backers wanted.
The trouble is it's taken longer than both backers and the devs initially thought!
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Quoting: EhvisNext free fly for Star Citizen should be for the IAE at the end of November. My guess would be the 24th, but I could be a week off.
Also, if you ever decide to give it a try and create an account, use someone's referral code. Not immediately useful, but if you ever decide to buy a game package, it could give you some extras if you time that right.
The LUG helper tool (https://github.com/starcitizen-lug/lug-helper) offers random referral codes of other penguins btw ^^
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So wait wait wait... Is this a sequel to a game that is not released yet? 
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Quoting: pete910Quoting: ZeroPointEnergyYeah, I believe it when it is actually released.
We already had such episodes where they told us they where weeks from release and it will be out before end of the year. That was years ago, can't even remember how long. How can someone be so wrong? It boggles my mind.
They've never sated it will be out in a few weeks to be fair, Original release got moved due to added content that the backers wanted.
The trouble is it's taken longer than both backers and the devs initially thought!
That's an euphemism. We are talking about years and years. The initial release (according to the Kickstarter campaign) should have happened in late 2014. They may be "only" 10 years late.
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Quoting: LinasSo wait wait wait... Is this a sequel to a game that is not released yet?
Prequel actually. SQ42 is the first part in a series of events that are technically "lore" for the SC universe.
Quoting: TuxeeQuoting: pete910The trouble is it's taken longer than both backers and the devs initially thought!That's an euphemism. We are talking about years and years. The initial release (according to the Kickstarter campaign) should have happened in late 2014. They may be "only" 10 years late.
As is often the case, there's a bigger story to that. They could have (and maybe should have) stuck with the plans they did the kickstarter with. If you look back in their youtube channel you can find the old concepts of what that would have looked like. But when the money kept pouring in they changed the scope, something that proper business people probably would not have done.
In that context, 10 years is not really extraordinary. Modern AAA games are in development for 5 years as well and that doesn't include tech/engine development which games back almost 20 years. The big difference is that AAA developers don't tell you much of what they're up to where CIG tells almost everything.
Personally I find it quite interesting. I have no real stake in the project since I'm not a backer, but according to Lutris I still managed to clock 280 hours in the current install (which probably means the total exceeds 300). From a technical perspective it's a fascinating piece of software with some good gameplay in there. But it's definitely incomplete.
But hey, the player counts of the current live builds rival the top games on steam, so they must be doing something right. And it would definitely be good for the games industry if this project got there in the end. Because the AAA industry could use a few more humbling experiences like the one that Baldurs Gate 3 gave them.
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ZeroPointEnergy Oct 27, 2023
Quoting: pete910They've never sated it will be out in a few weeks to be fair, Original release got moved due to added content that the backers wanted.
The trouble is it's taken longer than both backers and the devs initially thought!
I'm talking about Squadron 42 just to make that clear.
The release of this game was multiple times announced and then delayed again. First it was end of 2014 then beginning of 2015, then end of 2015. In October of 2015 they even had a trailer announcing the release of the campaign in 2016...
Maybe you are new to that game, so it's understandable that you don't know the full history. I was there from the very start over 13 years ago. Please stop making excuses for them.
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Quoting: LinasSo wait wait wait... Is this a sequel to a game that is not released yet?I was thinking along the same lines. This is like an addon to a game that isn't released yet -- a distraction. It makes me have no faith Star Citizen will ever release. I'm glad I haven't paid any money.
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Quoting: 14Quoting: LinasSo wait wait wait... Is this a sequel to a game that is not released yet?I was thinking along the same lines. This is like an addon to a game that isn't released yet -- a distraction. It makes me have no faith Star Citizen will ever release. I'm glad I haven't paid any money.
To be fair, Squadron 42 was a main goal from the very first day. The initial pitch was for Squadron 42 as a modern Wing Commander, with Star Citizen reusing the same work to provide an MMO component as well.
Of course, during the development it's Star Citizen that's been pushed to the people first, since a live-service MMO offers much more possibility for driving funding to the development.
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I might consider the game if it has an actual real native linux version.
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