[Megathread] Star Citizen

**MrAnderson** · 2019-04-30, 11:35 AM

Yeah FOIP is getting smoother with each update!

Some nice shots in this one too!

**Val the Moofia Boss** · 2019-05-01, 12:45 AM

It's been a month since 3.5 launched. Overall thoughts:

Positives

300i rework is an improvement but the interior feels like a downgrade from the WIP screenshots we were shown.

ArcCorp is the most visually interesting planet to visit. It feels like an actual city. It has a vibrant color palette, and it feels like a place I'd be fine in living in. It far more welcoming than the stuffy, claustrophobic, and militaristic Loreville. Only wish that the skyline was higher and that more traffic weaved through the buildings in the sky. Would also be nice if the no fly zone was lower, near the bases of the builds and that I could join those spaceship highways that have cutlass'. I also really like the towers with landing pads on top; makes for a nice gathering spot and it feels atmospheric with the city bustling below without having to go to Riker's or Area 18.

Twitch's drug lab mission is pretty user friendly. First, she offers to a Cutlass to use when raiding the drug lab. This allows players with Auroras/Mustangs/300is/Avengers/Hornets to try out a larger ship. Second, because it is a multicrew ship, I can bring my friend along. Third, since another drug lab raid contract at the same location appears on the mobiglass, the player I can bring along is able to get a monetary reward as well, so it's a stand in for mission sharing. Fourth, because said contract is on the mobiglass and is open to all, it also invites confrontation with other players at the same drug lab. While raiding the drug lab, my friend was killed down below while I was stowing drugs in the Cutlass. I went down and avenged him... and then was shot in the back by another player. It was tense and a lot of fun.

I already said this before, but I really like the variety of colored space suit and armor pieces that are available for sale. Really allows us to differentiate ourselves from each other. Too bad the Microid suit doesn't have recolors yet. Player customization (as in, the actual player, not the armor) needs to allow for more faces and body customization. Would like to be able to choose to play as a younger or an older character, rather than gruff middle aged men and women in their early 30's. Need bulky and slim body types as well. Need more hairstyles and beards.

And now, for the negatives.

Flight model needs some tuning. Ships are not able to turn their velocities fast enough, resulting in jousting.

I'm somehow able to pretty easily destroy AI Cutlass', but it is very difficult - if not impossible - to destroy a Buccaneer. I spend upwards of five minutes shooting at them and it seems like I don't even scratch them. I don't know if my shots are missing (I've tried using auto-aim for gimbals, as well as manually shooting at the pips within 1500 meters) or the Buccaneer's shields and/or shield regeneration is too strong. I consequently run out ammo and have to withdraw to restock, meaning that the contract expires before I can return.

Other players are saying that they can refuel, but personally I've been unable to repair and restock my ship. I land on the pad, select refuel and restock, select accept, my mobiglass closes. When I open my mobiglass up again, my wallet balance hasn't changed and I have the option to refuel and restock, and my ship hasn't been repaired. Current solution is to just self destruct the ship and then claim it. Fortunately, 300i variant owners like me get two 300is, so I'm always able to immediately summon a 300i to the pad while the other is being claimed. Still frustrating.

Size 3 and below laser weapons need to be more readily accessible for purchase. It really sucks to spend to upwards of five minutes in space combat and then have to return to a station to restock after having only destroyed a couple of ships.

Buying any ship equipment besides weapons is pointless, given that you lose the equipment when your ship is blown up and none of the equipment besides weapons offer a substantial enough performance boost to be worth spending your credits to upgrade.

Missiles feel useless. I launch missiles towards my enemy... and nothing happens. Again, I suspect this has to do with the Buccaneer's shields, as Cutlass' go down really quick and only Bucaneer's last long enough that I feel like I need more firepower.

Had a frustrating experience with delivery missions. I accepted four Corvalex missions in the ArcCorp planetary system that would have resulted in me dropping the packages off in the Hurston planetary system. One Corvalex delivery mission pays out 6500 credits, so I figured I could make 26000 credits in one trip. I spent twenty minutes flying around gathering the packages. While collecting the third package, I ran into a problem where my 300i's cargo bay malfunctioned. When I lowered the bay, the cargo fell out of it and I had to put them all back in. When I tried raising the cargo bay, the bay would not move, while the cargo slid out. I tried flying the ship ever so slightly up and then trying to close the hatch, but then the cargo clipped through the bay and fell into the ground. One of the cargo disappeared. I eventually gave up and just stashed the other two in inside my pilot cabin. When I went to pick up the fourth package, the vending machine would not give it me, presumably because I had already picked up a package from it before. After a ten minute quantum jump to Loreville, I picked up one of my packages and got on the train to the gate. While en route the gate, my contract was withdrawn. Furthermore, my 300i had despawned within the hangar bay. I was still left holding one package, and managed to complete one turn in. 6500 credits for an hour's work. Meanwhile, I can get 6500 credits from four minute of shooting skimmers around Crusader. Sighs.

**Odeezee** · 2019-05-01, 06:33 PM

CIG are having another Free Fly Weekend, so if you want to try out Star Citizen before you back it's development now's your chance.

First, make sure that when you create an account you use someone's Referral Code as it give you an extra 5,000 UEC (in-game currency) for when the game goes live and you can ONLY get it when you create your account for the first time. go here https://robertsspaceindustries.com/ to create your account. if you want to use mine it is STAR-3QDY-SZBG

just follow this link: https://robertsspaceindustries.com/p...ns/35-Free-Fly and see you in the 'Verse. the code to access the Free Fly Event is: GETINTOTHEVERSE

**Val the Moofia Boss** · 2019-05-02, 03:07 AM

Originally Posted by Myobi

I recommend you contacting a moderator about sharing this sort of stuff though.

There's no problem here; we've shared codes in this thread (and referral codes for other games in their respective threads) countless times.

- - - Updated - - -

If you want to make a ton of credits for the least amount of effort, now is the time!

Use a small ship (Aurora/Mustang/M50/300i/Avenger/Arrow/Hornet) and farm the 6500 credit skimmer missions. Stockpile at least 100k credits.

Get out of your small ship and spawn a Cutlass, or the ship that can haul the most cargo.

Quantum travel to GRIM Hex and cruise to the drug lab. Directions here.

If there are any ships at the Drug Lab, blow them up and toss a grenade inside. Otherwise, simply land and head in.

Buy the drugs. Because there is a limited quantity that spawns every two minutes, you'll need to stay around for ten minutes to fill up the Cutlass.

Fly back to GRIM Hex and sell your drugs.

Profit!

**Majestic12** · 2019-05-03, 04:54 PM

The SC community is completely on fire over an article at forbes.

Actual article: https://www.forbes.com/sites/mattper...ready-to-play/

Star Citizen reddit:
https://www.reddit.com/r/starcitizen...date_fuck_you/

In CIG's defense I will say that some claims are cringy(such as Chris being the Keith Richards of PC gaming) and the blatant character assassination of Sandi(bringing up her personal life and drama in the family).

I really dislike Chris and Sandi but I think that didn't fit well with the article.

With regards to the timeline of the game itself and the background of Chris, they absolutely nail it. Same with the progress of the game and where it is currently headed.

That's probably what pisses people off the most - the slow realization that the progress being made on SC simply isn't enough.

I personally still think Star Citizen will crash and burn, while Squadron 42 will be tossed out as a last resort. The fans that are left defending CIG will go down with the project.

**apelsinjuice** · 2019-05-05, 03:43 PM

star citizen is a cult just like anthem before launch but 100x worse, ofc people will blindly defend something they have poured thousand upon thousand of dollars into that may never happen

**Easo** · 2019-05-05, 09:27 PM

Gotta say, their reddit after the article is... cringy. You do not have to convince anyone otherwise, so why do you try that? And completely dismissing the entire article does not help.

**Odeezee** · 2019-05-06, 05:04 AM

https://i.redd.it/r4c0xxbofsv21.png

https://i.redd.it/0mkynvjcz1w21.jpg

Dat fucking detail doe...damn!!!!!

https://i.redd.it/npdfj0gblaw21.jpg

Stop embedding massive images in the thread. Links are fine and don't kill peoples data on mobile. -Edge

**Kyanion** · 2019-05-06, 06:19 AM

Originally Posted by Odeezee

stuff

Nah don't comment on that article about the money pit. Just do your usual posting way too high res photos so you murder some poor fool's phone internet data plan.

**Ophenia** · 2019-05-06, 07:23 AM

Originally Posted by Kyanion

Nah don't comment on that article about the money pit. Just do your usual posting way too high res photos so you murder some poor fool's phone internet data plan.

How dare he post pictures of the game in a topic about this exact game

(if your Internet Data Plan is screwed up by 1Mo pictures, it's probably time to change for a more 2019 one)

**Katchii** · 2019-05-06, 03:06 PM

Originally Posted by Majestic12

The SC community is completely on fire over an article at forbes.

Actual article: https://www.forbes.com/sites/mattper...ready-to-play/

Star Citizen reddit:
https://www.reddit.com/r/starcitizen...date_fuck_you/

In CIG's defense I will say that some claims are cringy(such as Chris being the Keith Richards of PC gaming) and the blatant character assassination of Sandi(bringing up her personal life and drama in the family).

I really dislike Chris and Sandi but I think that didn't fit well with the article.

With regards to the timeline of the game itself and the background of Chris, they absolutely nail it. Same with the progress of the game and where it is currently headed.

That's probably what pisses people off the most - the slow realization that the progress being made on SC simply isn't enough.

I personally still think Star Citizen will crash and burn, while Squadron 42 will be tossed out as a last resort. The fans that are left defending CIG will go down with the project.

Pretty much where I stand.

**Benggaul** · 2019-05-07, 08:11 PM

I gave the free week a try. I've been ignoring the game since shortly after it was first announced because I knew that, as with most crowdfunded games, it will take longer than expected, cost more than expected and be at the mercy of an inexperienced dev for a while. While everything they've promised have been things I've been wanting for a space sim for ages (I have not been able to buy Elite Dangerous yet...funds are tight), I'm loathe to throw money at alphas...particularly one that has already set crowdfunding records just for what looks like promises of neat ships.

At any rate, I played it for about a total of 20 hours this past week and my first impressions are such:

1) It's very pretty. Obviously a lot of care and time has gone into details on the ships/stations. The "seamless" transition between land and space works fairly well and the lack of loading screens between waking up in your bed in a space station and landing on a distant planet keeps you immersed sufficiently...although the UI leaves a bit to be desired. I didn't get to explore it too much, but if you have to hold down F instead of using it as a toggle each time you need to access a menu (or open a door) it gets tedious. Much of the UI in general is a bit hard to read...sometimes just because you've transitioned from day to night or vice versa. The text does not change color based on the background, so the light-colored text in space, which works well enough, suddenly becomes invisible when on a planet dayside. I get that this is in alpha still but I'm hoping this is one of the things they work on before moving to beta. It feels like such a base line issue I'd rather see it be addressed early on than patched later. As far as the rest of the graphics goes, there's still some pop-in issues that are a bit of an issue and sometimes it seems indicators/waypoints will become "stuck" on the screen or completely unresponsive as time goes on. There's still some work to do here in alpha.

2) I did not touch combat. At all. I feel like that needs a lot more time dedicated to it than I have right now to do it justice and I gather there's the real risk of losing your ship once you engage, and since I have no idea how I'd go about getting a new one I didn't want to deal with that right now.

3) Exploration was okay but somewhat restricted, I felt. Maybe it's because I'm playing the free week, but it seemed I was limited to 3 planets and a space station as opposed to some vast galaxy of worlds. I do not know if, as I stated, this was because I was in the free pool or if this is what everyone is currently limited to in the alpha but I sincerely hope it opens WAY the hell up before it moves on to beta. There were also very few points of interest on the 3 planets themselves, from what I saw. A few mining spots. Aid stations. Nothing exciting. No caverns to explore or such. Kind of disappointing on that front. The space station itself was also very barebones. A few shops, terminals to call your ship or sell items/ore and a small personal room that seems to serve no purpose except to give you a spot to wake up in whenever you log in. Very underwhelming, even for an alpha and again something I hope that's expanded on a lot before it moves to beta.

4) Mining was one of the things I was looking forward to since resource gathering/selling is an activity I enjoy in various games. It can be very therapeutic for me. The system they have in place here isn't TOO complex but it does require your constant attention, which is okay. I did find various points that needed to be improved upon in alpha however, such as the fact that scanning for ores in the area gives you very confusing markers (I wasted about 20-30 minutes trying to find an ore that was supposedly in an area outlined by the indicated scan box before giving up and moving a few thousand meters away to find more scan boxes that also seemed empty). It also seems like you constantly have to switch between Mining mode and scanning mode just to see if the rock you've found is worthwhile...which is silly since the only reason to BE in scanning mode is to find the rocks to mine to begin with. Combine the two and assign the scan a few buttons. It's very clunky, overall. The scanning issues should definitely be worked out in alpha at the ground level before moving forward. Mining the rocks themselves is fairly straightforward (though I needed a YouTube video to tell me what to do since there's very little in-game help apart from random contextual hints that don't paint the full picture. One problem I came across nearly every time was that once you fractured a rock the UI made it difficult to tell on which piece you were focussing to either further fracture it or extract ore. Purple, white or orange outlines aren't good enough. Oh, another big "meh" for me was selling the ore itself. You take it back to a station, go to a terminal and hit "sell" and poof it's gone. There's no real market (except maybe traveling from station to station to see where it sells the most at, but how this is done is a mystery to me since again, there's no real in-game help here) so it's almost a "sterile" experience. I'd like the ability to mine something, check the markets from my ship and then fly to whichever system/planet/station is offering the most...but whether or not this is possible I have no clue, which leads me to

5) I get that this is an alpha with minimal hand-holding, but apart from a few popup hints at various points you're very much left on your own to figure out how everything works. Again, some more tutorials and in-depth explanations for how to do EVERYTHING needs to be in at the ground level for such a massive game rather than tacked on at the end. How do I get to a new system? Is that even possible? How do I see where my ore will sell for the most? What happens in combat? If I die do I lose my ship? Where can I even buy new ships? Do you HAVE to donate 60$-3000$ just to get neat new ships or are there in-game ways of earning them? If so, WTF? Far, far too many questions and very few of them are answered in-game. You should not have to spam chat or trawl forums to find answers to basic gameplay questions.

Overall I was left slightly disappointed. While I like a lot of what they've done, this is a far cry from where the game should be after this much time and money spent in development and feels like they spent all of it working on making pretty ships for people who donate far too much money and hardly any time spent on the rest of the ideas they had. It feels like there is still a LONG way to go before this makes it to a release candidate worthy of a price tag. If any of the AAA studios are smart they could swoop in and take the audience for this game by releasing their own space sim in half the time and cost. Elite Dangerous seems like it comes close in several aspects. It wouldn't surprise me if similar games are already in development from teams that have a better idea of what they're doing.

**Val the Moofia Boss** · 2019-05-09, 05:02 AM

Originally Posted by Benggaul

Much of the UI in general is a bit hard to read...sometimes just because you've transitioned from day to night or vice versa. The text does not change color based on the background, so the light-colored text in space, which works well enough, suddenly becomes invisible when on a planet dayside. I get that this is in alpha still but I'm hoping this is one of the things they work on before moving to beta. It feels like such a base line issue I'd rather see it be addressed early on than patched later. As far as the rest of the graphics goes, there's still some pop-in issues that are a bit of an issue and sometimes it seems indicators/waypoints will become "stuck" on the screen or completely unresponsive as time goes on. There's still some work to do here in alpha.

The Mobiglass and helmet hud is currently getting a revamp, set for release in 3.6. The inner thoughts system (hold "F") will remain intact as it is one of the core features of the game's tactile atmosphere.

Originally Posted by Benggaul

2) I did not touch combat. At all. I feel like that needs a lot more time dedicated to it than I have right now to do it justice and I gather there's the real risk of losing your ship once you engage, and since I have no idea how I'd go about getting a new one I didn't want to deal with that right now.

While permanent ship destruction and insurance is one of the key features of the game, for the sake of testing they have not been enabled. As of right now, if you destroy or lose your ship, you can go to any kiosk, claim your ship, and then respawn it at the appropriate hangar.

Originally Posted by Benggaul

3) Exploration was okay but somewhat restricted, I felt. Maybe it's because I'm playing the free week, but it seemed I was limited to 3 planets and a space station as opposed to some vast galaxy of worlds. I do not know if, as I stated, this was because I was in the free pool or if this is what everyone is currently limited to in the alpha but I sincerely hope it opens WAY the hell up before it moves on to beta. There were also very few points of interest on the 3 planets themselves, from what I saw. A few mining spots. Aid stations. Nothing exciting. No caverns to explore or such. Kind of disappointing on that front. The space station itself was also very barebones. A few shops, terminals to call your ship or sell items/ore and a small personal room that seems to serve no purpose except to give you a spot to wake up in whenever you log in. Very underwhelming, even for an alpha and again something I hope that's expanded on a lot before it moves to beta.

CIG has a vault of assets ready and waiting to be implemented - caverns, stations, landing zones, and so forth. Development is currently bottlenecked by the lack of server meshing. Once it's finished, CIG will be able to fill out the existing system with more detail without crashing their servers.

While CIG has the tools to procedurally generate additional star systems, they don't want to reuse assets, ie no Hurston tileset on Terra Prime. If you look at Elite: Dangerous, every station and planet looks the same. The rate at which the art department can create new assets and the environment team can assemble and playtest them will always be a limiting factor.

**1001** · 2019-05-09, 11:28 AM

Originally Posted by Val the Moofia Boss

If you look at Elite: Dangerous, every station and planet looks the same. The rate at which the art department can create new assets and the environment team can assemble and playtest them will always be a limiting factor.

They really don't. There is a running aesthetic in the game along with an homage to the original games and there is certainly a limited number of assets used for stations/outposts but they are absolutely not all identical https://inara.cz/gallery/4/?page=3
There are a variety of obvious interior/exterior differences between large space stations as well as between space outposts, ground installations/outposts, shipyards etc

The planets are nothing alike unless we're going to call all non-atmospheric spheres identical https://inara.cz/gallery/7/
The planets especially have a huge amount of variety, colouration, size etc which varies dramatically based on a large number of inputs from Stellar Forge.

**Calfredd** · 2019-05-10, 07:54 AM