This thread is a collaborative index of all the concerns, FAQs, and other things that would most likely need answering/addressing in something like the (apparently) coming up AMA on Reddit. The idea is to help the Inovae team be ready for the AMA onslaught.
Add your suggestion! I’ll edit as they come in. “Trusted” users are welcome to edit more questions into the OP, in my stead. Particular answers are welcome too.
“Infinity:Battlescape” is from here on “I:B”.
You’ve been working on this thing for 10 years to get to the prototype stage. Why should we believe that you can go from prototype to alpha test in one year?
How do you expect to compete with [other/big name space sims] with $300,000 and a part time team?
We already have [X number of] big space games. Why build another one? How is I:B not redundant?
When will the first public alpha be released?
What is the current minimum price to get access to that first alpha game release?
When will the first public beta be released?
What is the current minimum price to get access to that first beta game release?
Do you expect you’ll regularly publish updates on development progress after the Kickstarter?
When should I:B go gold, approximately?
What is the current minimum price to get access to the first general game release?
Will there be loading screens or instances in I:B?
Why does it matter that there are no such loading screen interruptions?
Why does full realistic scale matter for a game like I:B?
How large will the I:B star system be (roughly)?
Does your entire game revolve around flying down to planets?
Will players actually be able to exploit the emptiness in between celestial bodies and/or battlescapes, or will they always be visible on [sensors]?
Do you have a list of concessions you will most likely make to realism? (e.g. no time dilation, no absolute realism for detection, artificial time-to-live/limited range ballistics in vacuum, sounds in space / speed of sound in atmo, etc)
Will there be instances in I:B?
Where in the world do you plan to host servers?
How long/little could matches last?
How many players will any single I:B server host?
How many players will I:B actually allow within visual range? (i.e. close enough that the ship is more than a few pixels and/or positionally updated more than something like 1Hz)
Will I:B include voice channels?
Do you mean for all control schemes (HOTAS, mouse+keyboard, etc) to be competitive?
Can you concisely characterize what combat will be like for fighters, capital ships, and intermediate units in I:B? [twitch-like responsiveness, how much BVR combat, how much reliance on teamwork; whatever the main/essential characteristics are]
Will I:B accommodate players who don’t want long travel time to get into action? Will it accommodate those who don’t mind that delay? Will it accommodate both?
What types of ships will I:B feature?
Will capital ships be controllable?
What kind of features do capital ships add to I:B gameplay?
Will capital ships be able to fly down to planets/moons surface?
Will ships be customizable? Weapons? Equipment? Appearance? [something else]?
How many planets/moons/asteroid rings/etc will I:B initially have?
Will we be able to fly into gas giants? Into stars?
Will asteroid/planetary belts have realistic amount of rocks/asteroids?
How many battlescapes will I:B approximately have?
Do you expect/aim for an optimal number of players per battlescape?
What kinds of natural/environmental features will I:B have? [storms, tornadoes, solar flares, etc]
Will I:B’s flight models be different in vacuum/zerogravity/atmosphere/etc?
Will vacuum and/or atmo flight models be full newtonian or something like conventional “WWII” atmospheric models?
Will I:B feature non-combat roles, such as trading or piloting cargo ships?
Will players be able to man units (e.g. AAA) on the planets/moons surface?
What will the I:B star system scale be?
Will celestial bodies orbit their star? (if not, why not?)
What will the I:B main travel speeds be?
How long will it take to travel from the furthest points of interest in I:B, at [warp/whatever the fastest speed is]
Will I:B feature jump points to travel across the star system even quicker than “warp speed”?
I don’t think that “we” as a community should be the ones asking questions during the AMA unless it’s really needed to keep it going, we are way too biased and the questions we can come up with are too. Genuine newcomers should be the focus of the AMA.
The above questions are supposed to be questions that we the community (or anyone reading these forums really) expect could show up in the AMA, and thus this list would allow the Inovae team to prepare for them rather than need the time to spontaneously, thoroughly think through an answer before actually replying to an AMA question.
Of course, the more unbiased the questions we the community and/or anyone else can come up with and submit here, the better.
That’s actually the best question submitted so far.
If you’re going to help them prepare for an AMA, help them to prepare for hostility and baiting. They can answer the easy stuff off the top of their heads - they’ve been thinking about all this stuff for the past two years. But hostile questions could throw them.
We already have two big space games. Why build another one?
How do you expect to compete with Star Citizen and Elite:Dangerous with $300,000 and a part time team?
Does your entire game revolve around flying down to planets?
As friends of Derek Smart, do you also think Star Citizen is a scam?
You’ve been working on this thing for 10 years to get to the prototype stage. Why should we believe that you can go from prototype to alpha test in one year?
In the questions, assume that the asker is already convinced that INS or the product will fail and they’re just looking for confirmation.
What’s the meanest, cheapest shot that you think somebody could take at the team? That’s what they need help preparing for. Especially questions that are cleverly worded, such as number 4 above. It just assumes that the team is friends with Derek Smart. If that’s not addressed first, folks will assume that the team is and they will draw whatever conclusions they like from that, good or bad.
Just 1 thing – not trying to be argumentative, just want to watch our step here.
Wouldn’t it be better to simply not mention Derek Smart? He has no actual input on the game. Not financially or artistically, etc. It just seems too much like mentioning that other GG thing; no matter your intentions it will attract trouble.
Assuming connection with DS seems like asking if you beat your wife. E.G. A lot of people on Reddit didn’t even know about him till it started showing up regularly in Reddit.
I’m going to start grouping the questions together for easier reading when I get a chance tonight/tomorrow.
Yeah while I don’t think mentioning DS is automatically bad, talking about him and then going on about the whole SC controversy right after would just make a LOT of mad people.
Yeah that’s what I was thinking. I’ll put those questions at the bottom or something.
The purpose is to help INS see/think of all the questions/comments/etc that could come up in an AMA. As much as I’d also like to just avoid the subject altogether, if there’s nothing to avoid it coming up then we might as well be ready.
Axe them altogether the only Derek Smart related question could be “what does DS think about you” and if someone really asks that you have DS tweet that he thinks game is good. That’s kind of it.
This is by far the biggest comment I’ve seen regarding I-Novae’s progress. We really need to hammer out a short, to-the-point answer for people. Something like “Contrary to popular belief, this game has only been in production for a year. The rest of that time has been spent developing the engine behind I:B” maybe.
I made the one DS question in the OP the only one that matters as far as I:B is concerned. If someone asks about what the INS team thinks about SC, that’s already answered in #3 - why another space sim?
@Magellanic
I’ll separate the list into categories that way when I get a chance.
That’s one of the KS FAQs. I’ll list those here in full instead of just linking to them. The devs probably know that FAQ by heart but readers here might not.
More to the point, @Cinder, a loooooot of people are throwing around the term “vaporware” to describe I:B. It’s lazy on their part (because they didn’t do any research) and it’s sloppy negativity for the sake of brevity. We really should push a PR campaign of “this is not vaporware” in order to calm the storm. Got any ideas on how?
In my opinion, the list is far too academic. I presented my questions as combative as I could so that the developers would be forced to deal with their initial emotional reaction and then respond in some calm and measured manner. Ideally, with wit and class.
The Derek Smart question specifically tries to implicitly tie the team to him. It is the implicit tie that is significant to the question, not what they think of Star Citizen.
This is about rhetoric and debating techniques. They already have an intellectual grasp of their own product.
If we know it’s just lazy keyboard warriors, then it seems like admitting that something they made up has some truth to it, to get into an actual campaign against [whatever strawman]. I have to get some work done and then I’m going out pretty much all night… I’ll think of something for tomorrow.
Now I of all people will interject here and say that that is one BAD idea. Just post actual videos screenies and don’t go “NO VAPORWARE!!!” about it, that will only make people think why the hell you are doing that and plenty of them will get a bad idea from all of it.
You have to realize that people assume a lot of things automatically. A game that they see in front of their eyes is assumed to be real for instance. Bringing up the idea of it being vaporware does the opposite of what you think.
I have the same issue with Flavien constantly talking about how framerate is choppy or prototype is bad in this or that because people usually assume it’s not bad and it’s not choppy and all is fine and pretty… Until someone brings up said topic and then they start overanalysing everything and the magic is broken.
Show, don’t tell and it’ll work because this game has A LOT to show.