14 DAY TRIAL // Star Citizen hasn't launched the much-anticipated dogfighting module today as promised, because, in spite of the development team's efforts, there were still some game-breaking bugs within it.
The dev team has been working around the clock for the past two weeks, but Cloud Imperium Games has ultimately decided to delay the planned release of the Arena Commander module for Star Citizen.
Star Citizen is Chris Roberts' brainchild, a space-opera game on a grand scale that will offer an immersive experience for fans of spacefaring. The game has seen the most successful crowdfunding campaign ever recorded, which is still ongoing and seems not to be losing any Steam.
Chris Roberts has offered a lengthy explanation concerning the decision to postpone the release of the Arena Commander module, assuring the project's backers that they'll be getting their hands on the controls of their favorite starship soon.
"I sat down with Star Citizen's production leads for a go/no-go meeting. We went around the virtual table, like a ground control team preparing to launch a rocket, and the decision was that we are not able to release Arena Commander tomorrow as there are too many blocking and critical issues outstanding," Roberts reveals.
"Game developers classify bugs based on their severity: blockers, critical, major, moderate and minor. The most serious of these, blockers, are bugs that completely prevent the game from working and from being in a releasable state. Unfortunately, as of tonight, there are still two blockers and half a dozen critical issues which we would like to fix before launch," he further explains.
The biggest cited issue is a newly developed DirectX crash that breaks the single-player Vanduul Swarm mode that every single one of the backers will gain access to, which would make releasing the unstable build just for the sake of meeting a deadline not the very best of decisions.
As such, Roberts has pointed out that Cloud Imperium Games is focused on quality and will be taking a few more days to iron out the kinks and make sure that they provide something that is stable for everyone.
He has promised that the production team will provide daily updates for the community until Arena Commander V0.8 ships, talking about various bugs and the overall health of the build, allowing the backers to follow the team as they solve each and every "blocker" that prevents the release.
The entire list of known issues is listed on the Cloud Imperium Games website. It may end up taking more than just two days, and will certainly upset some of the game's backers, as this is not the first time the Dogfighting Module has been scheduled for release and then postponed.