Does anyone else feel the shift? Am I alone in feeling like this game is quietly exiting open development? It seems like CIG is only breaking silence periodically to sell us things. Either we're getting the SQ42 ad campaign for the record books or we're on a roller coaster with no brakes. My pledge amount valued at around $11k isn't keeping my mouth shut like it used to, especially after I WASN'T informed that my money wasn't good enough to buy the Odin a few months ago.(still salty about it) But how are we supposed to feel when we're now in August with a still buggy PU to the extent that our patches are being diced up to save the integrity of the game, SQ42 is basically nonexistent other than an exclusive sneak peak for content creators? If all this silence leads to another SQ42 delay by the end of the year, I don't think the damage will be repairable. GTA VI be damned, this IP cannot survive another delay on community sentiment and ship sales alone. To be fair. I was expecting SC to grow out of open development at some point. but never before SQ42. and definitely after 1.0. especially when the PU is in this state. it really paints a bleak picture when I'm in my discord trying to convince my friends to get on and play and I look like a schizoid trying to get my buddies to try hard drugs suggesting to play my absolute favorite game that myself and and my entire group were all once starry-eyed over to the point where I was ready to drop nearly 6k on a battlecruiser. The lack of communication is unacceptable, Nobody from CIG is in these chats talking with people assuaging their concerns or answering questions . We don't care about new ships, we care about the backlog. people are on here waiting for over 10 years for content they've paid thousands of dollars for. My 600i was teased with a fully rendered and sketched rework almost 5 years ago and showcased with a ViDoc. And my Javelin is still tied to the forever delayed SQ42 release even though they are spawning in game today as NPCs. Who is making these decisions? Why does the pipeline continue to extend into literal decades of unreleased paid content, but new ships are developed on an assembly line in the dozens per year? Please make it make sense. We don't care about new features, we care about the obvious tech debt hindering the game to the point to where we can't even enjoy it. -just to reiterate for some in the comments, tier0 versions of features that stay in the game for so long that they become bedrock for the core game like going into year 2 of T0 item recovery do more harm to the sandbox than progress it. It feels like nobody is listening, we say what we want over and over and CIG drops a 2k Ship showdown ship pack alongside a warbond monthly bundle alongside a full blown event with it's own ship sale attached, accompanied by deafening silence. There are little things that CIG could've done to improve things. like adhering to the monthly ISC schedule that was posted at the beginning of the year, or a letter from the Chairman about surpassing a historic 1B in crowdfunding along with morsels about Squadron 42s upcoming release from Chris himself, or some sort of streamed event in October in place of CitCon. A lot has changed this year. How. are. we. supposed. to. feel? Edit: thank you guys for the support and great discourse, it's been fun reading your comments. I hate being negative. I hate that I feel the need to write this post. Hopefully the message gets to the people that need to hear it.