When I said I missed old school difficulty to gaming you probably didn’t think that I would make the pledge process more difficult than fighting the toughest boss monster in Demon’s Souls!
Well neither did I!
Wednesday morning we set out to prove that PC gaming and Space Sims are not dead… and prove it, we did!
We’re absolutely floored by the attention and humbled by your comments. We hoped everyone would be excited about the big idea behind Star Citizen and Squadron 42 — but we had no expectation about the kind of praise and interest we received yesterday.
The downside of all this attention was that the huge number of people from all around the world trying to learn about Star Citizen and make their pledge, crashed our custom crowd funding page and also took down the core community site.
Until then, we were on track to break crowd funding records. Now, thirty hours later, we’re only just getting the core site back online. The proper crowd funding page is still unfortunately down, but we have a backup site that, while not having the full range of features we intended, can take people’s pledges. With this site we have to update the data manually as there is no way to easily collect the crowd funding statistics on a live basis, which is why you haven’t seen a counter on the backup site. We are working very hard to get the main crowd funding plug in to play nice with the rest of the site, so we can deliver the seamless experience we envisioned when opting to have the crowd funding integrated into the main community site. Don’t worry, no one has lost their golden ticket, and we will ensure that everyone who makes a pledge on the backup site is connected to their community account. Please be patient while we organize this process.
We didn’t just set out to raise money to build a game; we set out to build a community. The intention was never to shut off the forums, disable the Golden Tickets or stop the flow of information after the launch; anything but. We hope you’ll bear with us as we get the community back online. The features you’ve enjoyed for the past month will continue — the Comm-Link, RSI Museum and Time Capsule — along with much more information about Star Citizen and chances to interact with its development team. As we move forward in this endeavor, you are our strongest asset; a vanguard of dedicated fans who will help us build and promote this game.
If you’re one of the lucky few warriors that snuck past the Java trolls and WordPress goblins to access the pledge site yesterday, thank you so much for your dedication.
If not, we promise we’ve beaten back these evil interlopers and ask you to pledge and spread the word to make this new universe possible. We are listening to you on the forums, are committed to giving you daily updates and will be rolling out some exciting new features in the coming days that hopefully make up for our initial snafu.
We lost the opportunity to break the first day record, but the race isn’t over yet! We currently stand at $455, 590 raised from 4,564 pledges which is pretty impressive considering the outage we’ve had. Seems everyone wants the RSI Constellation and physical goodies!
But we need get this up. Space Sims trumped RPGs in the old days, let’s get a little of that inter-genre friendly rivalry back!
If you haven’t made your pledge yet, please do as I would hate for the technical problems to have derailed our initial momentum. We still have a ways to go but I have no doubt with your support we will get there. This is our chance to tell the world: PC gaming and space sims are BACK!
Chris Roberts
Cloud Imperium Games
Modern times have modern problems – but I think when someone comes and makes a dream come true I will support him… and learn more about pledges an international payment-issues
Not so easy, when the English-lnowledge is 30 years old… 
But my wife is willing to support me by becoming a bountyhunter – and my son will help me, using his amazon-ledger for the pledge…
Both were bressless when I showed the trailers… an I’m still breatless too… dear Chris – you built the game I ever dream of… thanks a lot!
Greez, Greaser
PS: I miss an edit-button – being ashamed of my mistakes
I’ve made my pledge and am looking forward on whats coming.
Take your time, we can hardly guess what kind of stress you guys have.
Maybe the better and smarter community rises here with less flamers
than known in other MMO’s or other type of games
I already know, that i will be visiting this site almost every day for
at least the next 2 years.
What you have done looks awesome and i’ve seen the trailer at least 10 times,
the musik is just great.
Keep up the good work and everything will be fine!
Thank you.
Go ahead Chris, we, the older pilots from Wing Commander, Privateer and other great titles space simulation support you 110%, from Spain to Latin America all we say:
Adelante, con paso firme y sin temor!
Hello Chris,
pledged “Make mine a Double”. My all-time-favorite is Privateer 2 – The Darkening.
Can’t wait for your next Masterpiece!
Keep on the good work!
Good to hear that the funding is on the right track.
Haven’t pledged yet because I’m still not sure which one to get.
I was wondering where my gold ticket had gone now I known. I think I managed to get my pledge in on the main site even if it was running as slow as hell. Well paypal say the cash has gone lol.
With most pledges dropping about $100 we are doing well.
But a question for you. There are going to be a fair few people like that are out of work, still in school or just in a low paid job that would like to of pledge more than we did.
My question is this, will there be a way later to top up my pledge to a higher level right now I put the most in can afford. But in a month to a year or I would like to put cash in?
This is a very good question and something I would like to know as well.
It was stated on the RSI FB page yesterday that, once the site is fully back up, there will be an easy way to increase our pledge.
This is a great idea. Thanks for letting us help you!
Chric you must be the most gifted man on eart.125 us dollar will be send soon as i got Money.
Chris
Keep up the good work!
Chris, do what ever its needed but… RELEASE THIS GAME!!! I cannot wait and hope we make it. In the FAQ stands if its not making the 2 Million you will still make it but its going slower, right? I’m not really a Trader
I’m a Militäry Pilot. So my hope is at lease the 4 Million with the full story and Mod tools. Still I would pay for Mission Disks…ähm… Mission DLC 
I really just want this game and my games in the time to its release will be World of Tanks / Warplanes / Battleships and Mechwarrior Online.. GTA 5 what? No need
Field of Dreams
Build it and they will come.
Build it Chris, we are coming
agreed 4O euro n the way to you. Like the idea of beeing a merc
I gotta wait for Payday, because I’m going hard after that Constellation!
I want to see you shatter your 4 million dollar expectations Chris, and I want to be in your universe…
The alpha cannot arrive fast enough.
Lets just do what needs to be done, get things up and running and lets fly.
We never went away we just got stranded on this rock for a few years, so lets run those thruster up and get exploring.
Pledged $125 just after the announcement. Didn’t think it worked, so pledged it again. Now, my pledge seems to be $250 because it did work the first time. And the second. You know what, if I had the money to pledge it a third, fourth, fifth, and seven hundredth time, I’d do it. I don’t care that I’ll have to buy a new PC to play Star Citizen. I don’t care that my wife will probably leave me after a week of missing work, meals, and general hygene because I’m transfixed to the monitor the way I was when I was a kid playing Wing Commander and Privateer. All I care about is that the space sim is back; and so is Chris Roberts; and, nothing could make me more excited! So, I’m proud to be at the $250 level and thrilled that so many others are supporting Star Citizen. The technical glitches will surely be solved and we who believe aren’t going anywhere!
This +1
Yesterday I made my account and tried to make a pledge. But I noticed that the account created is not “activated”, so when I tried to loggin from another computer the system wouldn’t let me
. So I can post because the account is still logged on the computer that created it but I’m afraid to pledge since I cannot loggin from anywhere else (and If I logout I’ll loose the ability to post).
Any solutions?
Now on topic: this game is everything I wanted and dreamed, the only thing that would make this even better would be the ability to assault a big ship in a FPS style… awesome.
I had a similar problem, Canalla. I sent an e-mail to site support, and they had to activate it for me manually (which they did promptly, mind you). Then, when the system crashed on reveal day, I couldn’t even log in. It didn’t even believe that my e-mail was registered!
It had a few problems, but it seems to be fixed now! Shoot them an e-mail. I’m sure they’ll get back to you as soon as they can.
“I felt a great disturbance in the Internet… as if millions of voices suddenly cried out ‘SHUT UP AND TAKE MY MONEY’ and the RSI server was horribly obliterated.” — Obi-Wan Kenobi
Hang in there, RSI! You have our support!!!
Oh good you’ll be able to increase your pledge. I only pledged $30 (half the price of the game) but after I get paid I want to “make mine a double” since essentially it’ll be the same as preordering for the full price.
All I have to say, is that you made a grown man cry with your GDC Online trailer… sniff.
You Sir will receive a $125 pledge from me and I will increase my pledge amount as much as I can. I will scrape together pennies if necessary.
I had to make my pledge as a guest since my user name of the community didn’t work there in the pledge page. But I believe that RSI/Cloud Imperium would be able to associate my pledge with my community user, since I put there the same email account. At least, I hope so. Regardless the problems, I am supporting and asking everyone that I know to participate and to contribute. And of course, for now, I am spending my current free time playing Wing Commander, Starlancer and Freelancer, again, and again!
I stopped to play for a while Space Sims, but Chris and his team now brought me back!
I managed to squeak on by in the main site, but this Rear Admiral is really glad to help fund this. And I’m very excited that even with all the problems we’re near 25% funded, that’s really fast, and I sincerely hope we break all expectations, reach for the stars!
Well i for one am glad i got mu pledge through. I would have done a higher pledge than $60 but if i did my wife would have killed me and buried me in the back yard her self.
It is going to be great to see this game develop.
WordPress Goblin! I fought him! And lost … Now I’m dead
You will have $125 from me, when everything is stabilized
Got my Lancer Pledge through. I’m hoping to pledge more later, because the Constellation sounds interesting, but let’s see what it looks like! Throw us a bone, Chris.
Hi Chris,
Take the time to make it right! I didn’t pledge yet, because I could not do it from my account and wanted to be sure that it will be link to it. I could not be there at 10 on the 10th, because you now, as yourself people work. I was thinking 125$, but choosing between a fighter or an explorer ship is a tough choice. In my old days on WC and even Freelancer, the choice would have been simple, fighter. But in an open universe MMO, the explorer ship could be more appropriate. And I grow older too, my fighter pilot are sadly not the same they once were, but I’m sure I can still beat some youngster:-) So, now I have to choose between 60$, choose one ship at 125$ or go for 250$. If I will the lottery tonight, 50 000 000$, I will go for the 10 000$ and meet you guys!!!!
I talk about the game to some friend, didn’t manage to get them on board yet, but some are very interested, but may wait till the game is out. I will not, for sure!
Thank you and your Team for all your work!!!
I´ve been amazed when I saw the trailers to the new game and can´t wait to play it.
I hope the first of november comes quick so I can secure my Anvil Aerospace Hornet
This game will have the type of graphics I always looked for in any game. I only wish that the deadline was not so close.
I’ve made a german Translation of this Message, I hope it’s ok for you.
Ich habe eine freie Übersetzung dieses textes erstellt welche zumindest sinngemäß die Nachricht von Chris Roberts wieder geben sollte.
Bitte zerreist mich nicht in der Luft, der Text ist teilweise relativ kompliziert zu übersetzen da dort u.a. Zeilen vorkommen welche nicht wirklich sinnvoll ins deutsche übersetzt werden können, normal würde ich diese Teile weg lassen aber ich möchte den „Brief“ nicht noch mehr verändern als ich es bedingt durch die Übersetzung sowieso schon tun musste.
Als ich sagte das ich den „old school“ schwierigkeitsgrad an spielen vermisse hattet ihr wahrscheinlich nicht gedacht das ich den Pledge-Prozess schwieriger mache als den schwersten Endgegner in Demon’s Souls!
Nun, das dachte ich auch nicht!
Mittwoch Morgen brachen wir auf um zu beweisen dass das zocken mit dem PC und Weltraumsimulationen nicht tot sind und wir habens geschafft!
Wir sind absolut überwältigt von dieser Aufmerksamkeit die uns zuteil wurde und sind gerührt von euren Kommentaren. Wir hatten gehofft das alle die Idee hinter Star Citizen und Squadron 42 begeistern würde – aber welches Interesse und welches Lob wir Gestern erhielten hatten wir absolut nicht erwartet.
Das blöde an all dieser Aufmerksamkeit war die große Anzahl an Leuten die von überall auf der Welt versuchten sich über Star Citizen zu informieren und ihre Spende zu leisten, dies crashte sowohl unsere Crowd funding-Seite als auch die komplette Community-Seite.
Bis zu diesem Zeitpunkt waren wir auf dem besten Wege bishere Crowd funding-Rekorde zu brechen. Jetzt, 30 Stunden später, haben wir es schlieslich geschafft die Haupt-Seite wieder online zu bringen, die eigentliche Crowd funding-Seite hingegen ist leider immernoch down, aber wir haben eine Backup-Seite welche, solange noch nicht alle Funktionen die wir wollten gehen, zumindest die Pledges der Leute annehmen kann. Auf dieser Seite müssen wir die Daten manuell abgleichen da es keine einfache möglichkeit gibt die Crowd funding-Statistiken direkt abzugleichen. Deshalb gibt es keinen Counter auf den Backup-Seiten. Wir arbeiten sehr hart daran die normale Crowd funding-Seite wieder zum laufen zu bekommen um die nahtlose integration in die Community-Seite zu haben welche wir ursprünglich im Sinn hatten. Keine Sorge, niemand wird sein „Golden-Ticket“ verlieren und wir werden sicherstellen das jeder der ein Pledge auf der Backup-Seite gekauft hat dies mit dem Community Account verbunden bekommt.
Wir bitten um Geduld solange wir daran arbeiten.
Wir sind nicht aufgebrochen um Geld für ein Spiel zu sammeln; wir sind aufgebrochen um eine Community zu formen. Es war nie unsere Absicht die Foren abzuschalten, die Gold-Tickets zu deaktivieren oder den Informationsfluss nach dem Launch zu stoppen, ganz im Gegenteil. Wir hoffen das ihr uns weiterhin unterstützt sobald wir die Community wieder online bekommen. Die Funktionen welche ihr die letzten Monate genutzt habt werden weiter gepflegt – das Comm-Link, das RSI-Museum und die Time Capsule – zusammen mit vielen weiteren Informationen über Star Citizen und der Möglichkeit das Entwickler-Team zu beeinflussen. Wenn wir fortfahren mit unseren Bemühungen seid ihr unser größter Lohn; eine Vorhut von einzigartigen Fans welche uns helfen werden das Spiel zu entwickeln und voran zu bringen.
Wenn Du einer der wenigen glücklichen Krieger bist welche Gestern die bösen Java Trolle und WordPress Kobolde austrickens konnten um auf die Pledge-Seite zu gelangen, vielen Dank für Deinen Einsatz.
Wenn nicht, wir versprechen das wir die bösen eindringlinge zurück treiben konnten und bitten Dich nun das Du über die Pledge-Seite „spendest“ und darüber redest um dieses Universum zu ermöglichen. Wir hören euch in den Foren zu, werden euch täglich neuigkeiten vorstellen und in den kommenden Tagen einige aufregende neue Funktionen präsentieren welche hoffentlich die anfänglichen Probleme vergessen lassen.
Wir haben die möglichkeit verloren den First Day-Record zu knacken aber das rennen ist noch nicht vorbei! Zur zeit sind wir bei 455.590$ aus 4.564 „Pledges“ was wirklich erstaundlich ist im anbetracht der Ausfälle die wir hatten. Es scheint als würde jeder die RSI Konstallation und die physikalischen Goodies haben wollen.
Wir müssen es schaffen. Weltraum Simulationen waren in den guten alten Tagen die besten RPG’s, lasst uns ein bisschen was von der guten alten Zeit zurück holen!
Wenn Du noch keine Spende getätigt hast, bitte tu es, es würde mich belasten wenn unsere technischen Probleme dem Projekt den anfänglichen Schwung genommen hätten. Wir haben noch immer einen weiten Weg vor uns aber ich habe keine Zweifel, mit eurer Unterstüzung werden wir es schaffen. Dies ist unsere Chance der Welt zu zeigen: zocken mit dem PC und Weltraumsimulationen sind ZURÜCK!
Chris Roberts
Cloud Imperium Games
Just became a Vice Admiral. Noe I just need my ship. Looking forward to my tour of duty.
[...] wohl doch noch nicht soviel – knapp 500 000$ erst. A Message from Chris Roberts | Roberts Space Industries Mal gucken wo das hinführt… __________________ [...]
All I can say is that the response to this prototype launch is amazing and I can’t wait to see the stats on pledges soon. I was concerned about the system having lost connectivity between the registered community and the pledge portal but using the same email address for both should make the process to put it all back together relatively painless ^^crosses fingers and hopes for best^^
The backup site worked, and you have one Wingnut of a bird enlisted and ready for duty!
checkout didn’t work for me, it said “invalid currency, eur” so i guess my pledge is not not for now.
anyway,awesome trailer, i made sure i passed along my friends. one who plays only on ps3 was really annoyed because he will have to buy a pc
When I first visited this website and watched the trailer, that was probably the happiest I’ve felt about game-news in years. I immediately made my pledge!!
Unfortunately Im still a student so I dont have huge amounts of money to throw around…
HOWEVER I am a Game-Art student! So if there is any other way I can support this project I would love to do so.
Love this project! Surely would like to reserve my space ship.
A question though: is it possible to do the European pledge w/o incurring a shipping charge?
Dera Chris Roberts and the Team,
I Hope you coud bring a feature to upgrade pledge. I woud like to get the real admiral. At the moment it is just the 35$ pledge for me. Sorry about that.
Regards
Will dreams come true????
Chris Roberts Your games are always Awesome and one of them which i like the Most and i m addicted of is Freelancer , its old but i still play it on Discovery Gc Server like a new Release. and I hope star Citizen will be the Best , Best of Luck
…thanks for the letter, chris – i’d been holding off my pledge until the e-commerce site is back in full working order, but you gave me the confidence to go ahead with the same email address and trust that everything will be sorted out in the end…
…those of us who have pledged so far can only be the most dedicated of the general public, so i must confess to sharing your concern over a loss of momentum…cloud imperium’s best strategy from here has to be getting the websites sorted quickly, and then keep the big splashy updates coming strong over the next thirty days: mindshare is a fickle thing and one month will pass very quickly…
…anyway, speaking as one voice among the throng who were there back in those heady days of aggiecon demos who haven’t seen you active in a decade – welcome to the third millenium!..and a hearty welcome back; we’ve missed you!..
Good luck Mr Roberts!! Ive been waiting a long…long…long time for a game like this! IF YOU DELIVER, THEY WILL COME!!!!
One dollar for every tear that dropped down on my keyboard during the GDC pitch…
…and i could buy a Fleet full of RSI Constellation
Make our dreams come true
[...] announced today that after just two days, over 4,000 backers have given almost $500,000 in pledges. The campaign still has a month to go, and the developing company has already reached a quarter of [...]
Detailed information on the ship’s you get with pledges will get you more money.Detailed information on the benefit’s of rank will get you more money.Detailed information on the benefits of starting off with 10-20k credits (example) Will there be a repair bill when destroyed? Is 20k credits a small fortune meaning credits are hard to come by? will get you more money.$250+ pledge ship’s should be increasingly beast the higher you go, will get you more money.Pledges above 10k should really have their own custom craft designed by the gamer and dev team bristling with weapons for those cashed up fashion boys will help move things along quicker.Diablo 3 absolutely robbed nations and that game is garbage so I don’t want any excuses Chris because this game is a true monkey see monkey do gold mine. This is your chance to go down in history so I would be pulling out all the cards and party tricks.Just be cruel if you need to and they will love you for it because it’s in our nature to want a bigger gun than the other person.You would be amazed what people do to get what they want if it’s “flashy” enough.We only live once and this game has to happen.If some of the above is addressed I’m very confident that your website will crash again.I’m doing my best to infect everyone I know and everyone they know about this game and everyone reading this message should do the same.This game has got some nice tit’s on it hey…get it into the bedroom innit? Character creation *hint *hint
If I could have afforded more I would have given it. I/we have been hoping abd waiting for this resurgence for so long. And none could of asked for a better leader to bring back space sims to PC!!!!!!
Thank you Chris!
I was getting a little frustrated that the site wouldn’t just, “Shut up and take my money!”
But the pledge is now in and it looks like you guys are raking in the dough very quickly
My game budget well into 2013 just got dumped on this great looking concept, and I don’t want it back if you don’t make your goals. Keep it and do something awesome with it; we all know you will!
Thank you for bringing back my favourite game genre!
Finally, a PC game that doesn’t have to have it’s balls removed to accommodate a console port, This is going be just like the good days, bring it on!
Forgot to mention – I think this is going to be great for the PC as a gaming platform in general – if it works, and I’m pretty sure it will, I think it will open the door to more cutting edge PC only games. I hope and suspect this is going be the game that brings in a PC gaming renaissance.
Please build our dream, we’ll fund it.
Thank you Chris, for creating the game we have always wanted! I can’t stop watching the trailer, and just looking at the majestic carrier ship send shivers down my spine – I can’t wait to walk on the flight deck towards my fighter and get in the fight!
Nevertheless, don’t rush with this game! We space sim fans have waited a long time for salvation, and you can bring it to us
We can wait a little while longer knowing, that you will bring back what we have longed for all these years!
I’ve been following this for quite a while, has great potential… keep up the awesome work!!