Ode to a scam: Star Citizen

[wsippel]

Somebody had to. This game is huge. Bigger than GTAVI, really. Even (and especially) if it never sees the light of day, and two thirds of a billion dollars have just been burned with nothing to show for it. Maybe surprisingly, after this year's Citizencon, it looks like it might actually release this century. It might still suck, of course, but there might be something to judge, at least. Most people have probably seen it, but lets start with the two self-indulgent 30 minute trailers they've released this October. Because yes, Kojima isn't the only auteur on the planet who can release stupid long trailers:



Now this is kinda cheating, because it's for the single player campaign. That said, the shared engine got its own ridiculous trailer:



Shockingly, almost everything in that trailer is already in the playable alpha. It's just janky as fuck - but it's there. It's actually a pretty good time, if it doesn't crash. Which it probably will. At least until the next alpha release, which should introduce graceful crash recovery, unironically one of the biggest improvements to Star Citizen in four or five years.

Regardless of what you think of the project, CIG's cinematics team always bolts together dope trailers for every quarterly patch, and I did do summaries on the other Bore once a year or so, but this Bore only allows three videos per post even in spoilers, so here's 3.22:

[Potato]

I've always been peripherally aware of this game and it looks and sounds amazing, but never have I been interested enough to play it.

[wsippel]

It's always a good idea to wait for a free fly event, those happen a couple times a year (usually during big in-game events like Invictus in spring and the Intergalactic Aerospace Expo in fall). But the servers are understandably in a horrible state during those events, so expect even more jank than usual. Alternatively, around Christmas, you can buy into the game at a discount ($40 or so), and get extra referral rewards. This year, it's an armor set with a backpack, guns and a multi tool, all with special skins. Players also get a bunch of Christmas gifts ranging from paint jobs for random ships, Christmas themed clothes, weapons and other stuff.

Either way, if you ever want to give it a shot, make sure you use a referral code for some additional in-game cash (or the aforementioned Christmas rewards). My code is STAR-PDCG-3HPB. I wouldn't use codes from Youtubers, pretty much all of them have their referrals maxed out already, so you'd still get the cash, but they don't really get anything worthwhile anymore. 

Also, if anybody wants to buy the game, only get the cheapest starter pack, there's no reason to spend more unless you absolutely want to. If you have money to burn and want skip some very early grind, the Avenger Titan starter pack is pretty decent. And be aware that Squadron 42 is no longer included for free. You used to get both games for $45 a couple years ago, then Squadron 42 turned into a $15 upgrade, now it's no longer available for purchase at all. It'll come back closer to launch, and will probably be a lot more expensive.

EDIT: And never, ever install the game on spinning rust! You'll have a terrible experience! SATA SSDs are fine, NVMe is even better, but hard disks do not work!

[wsippel]

With the biggest update in at least six years and a free fly event (probably) right around the corner, it's probably time for an update: Alpha 3.23, which should go live in the coming days, brings a completely new character creator with tons of new options, reworked user interface and interaction system, a new starmap and a minimap, engine improvements and an experimental Vulkan renderer, many balancing tweaks, a new flight model, improved handling for gravlev vehicles, various FPS combat tweaks, updates to the reputation system and a new neutral outlaw faction, 13 massive new locations with missions and gameplay opportunities and a bunch of other crap, but most importantly, it introduces the replication layer, decoupling state tracking from the actual game servers. This huge new feature enables server crash recovery, meaning if a game server crashes, a new server will spin up and take over. So you're no longer kicked to the menu losing all your mission progress, loot and cargo, you'll just have to wait a minute and the game will continue as if nothing happened. The replication layer is also the foundation for server meshing, which has recently been tested successfully with 800 players spread across two meshed servers, one handling planetary surfaces while the other was responsible for everything else. Server meshing still needs some tweaking and is expected to come online with alpha 4.0 later this year. An upcoming minor patch in the 3.23.x cycle will also add instanced personal hangars you can decorate and use to store your stuff - basically the first iteration of player housing.

Additionally, one of the two big yearly events, Invictus Launch Week, will start May 17th, and there's usually a free fly week during Invictus, meaning you can check out the game and access various (military) ships for free. CIG wants to really stress the new replication layer it seems, I just hope the tech won't shit the bed too hard. The last time CIG added new fundamental core tech was also right before a free fly, and the game was borderline unplayable for more than a month. 

And because CIG always does nice trailers, here's the Invictus announcement:

[wsippel]

And here it is:



The release announcement also mentions that the next major patch after 3.23 should be 4.0, adding static server meshing and the Pyro star system. Sounds optimistic, but both those features have seen successful large-scale public tests already, so who knows...

[chronovore]

I've always been peripherally aware of this game and it looks and sounds amazing, but never have I been interested enough to play it.

I'm more interested in how long the ruse can be maintained. I mean, it's gotta be a money laundering thing for Russian oligarchs, no?

[wsippel]

Citizencon 2024 is over, so it's once again time for an update. First of all, Alpha 4.0 was delayed until the end of the year. It's a really big deal, and large-scale public tests unveiled performance issues with the new server architecture that need a bit more work, so we got an unplanned 3.24 release, which introduces a completely reworked, physicalized inventory and cargo system, and a bunch of other stuff:



Then, at Citizencon on Saturday, they showed a ton of upcoming improvements to Star Citizen, like the next generation of their procedural planet generation, lots of new social and organization features, improvements to the clothing and armor system and much more, and ended the day with a full live demo of Squadron 42's intro mission. It crashed a few times, but they wanted to prove that it's actually real, so they took the risk. They re-recorded the demo and threw it on Youtube (without the crashes) a few hours after the show. And the budget and time invested are very much evident:



Sadly still no firm release date, just a vague 2026. I was hoping for early 2025. But it's clearly more polished than what they showed last year.

On Sunday, they finally laid out what Star Citizen 1.0 will be like, as in, the official launch version. 1.0 will feature five star systems, two of which are done, and at least one more is currently in active production. They'll add a full crafting system, so players can build pretty much any item in the game, and the crafted versions will always be better than the ones bought for real money. Should at least alleviate some of the pay-to-win concerns. This will also be an integral part of a player-run economy. The basics of the crafting system are already in the game. Also, base building will be a thing in 1.0, and was already shown running in-engine, so that's promising. They also plan to flesh out the guild system that's currently in the alpha, as another meta-progression system in addition to crafting (acquiring and researching blueprints) and bases. And 1.0 will have a story. Nothing as epic and cinematic as Squadron 42, but something that introduces new players to the lore, and all the systems and professions, and takes them on a tour through the initial five systems. A ton of stuff announced over the last decade will be post 1.0, and I think that's great. They clearly finally understand that they have to get a polished product out the door at some point. I was honestly a bit confused when Chris Roberts handed over the reins to Rich Tyrer a few years ago, but it seems shit finally gets done since he's in charge - he appears to be a very focused and organized dude, and that's exactly what CIG desperately needed.

I've always been peripherally aware of this game and it looks and sounds amazing, but never have I been interested enough to play it.

I'm more interested in how long the ruse can be maintained. I mean, it's gotta be a money laundering thing for Russian oligarchs, no?

Maintaining large offices in Manchester, Frankfurt, Montreal, Santa Monica and Austin, and employing more than a 1000 people would certainly be a convincing front for a money laundering scheme, but not very economical.