I am not really sure about a lot of what is said;
- where has the graphics downgrade directly come from in terms of 3.0 to 3.3 mentioned?
- Why are we suggesting a development alpha should not have bugs or issues?
- Why was only half the news about why they wanted to charge for the viewing of CitCon missing the fact it was for a full pro camera crew etc to run it all for them and do all the setup, sound, etc rather than doing it in house.
- Why suggest about the finance stuff considering they have provided the info: https://cloudimperiumgames.com/blog/corporate/cloud-imperium-financials-for-2018
- The number of studios doesn't even make sense to comment on other than it actually gives them multiple time zones to work in and elements such as tax relief or talent pool in different parts of the world
- Why bring up Derek Smart whom has no idea about this and can't develop his way out of a paper bag. It was only about 12 months of real talk and only to a small demographic
- Some people like the flight model, some don't, hey that is called development. It has gone through at least 3 reworks and will go through more
- The point A to point B is exactly what the game has lots about and so that is not a negative at all. Part the reason I enjoy my time
- The unbearable grind is the gameplay, you either like these gameplay loops or don't.
- You don't have to purchase anything beyond starter and now you can rent most ships in game by earning monies in game yet this was ignored completely
Not suggesting there isn't issues, things wrong but it is negative and doesn't come across neutral at all. It is like skimming all the headlines about the game and making points from there. Also if you read his reply to any slight criticism or view point he just gets rather defensive and dismissive that anyone else might enjoy travelling about in cities, space and similar and do mining and cargo runs etc. It really isn't a good summary of where SC is today because it doesn't give any details on what is in there at all. It just talks about some points and puts them in a negative like.
Seems like a hit piece really.
Now in regards to a few things then and what is in game now;
Missions
- Delivery
- Maintenance
- Mercenary
- ECN Alert
- Service Beacon - Other player
- Investigation
The missions can be done solo or shared with other players. Some are meh tbh at least in my view but they are there and will be expanded on, hopefully with 3.9 they link to the economy system that was shown at last Citcon which should make the system more dynamic and diverse then.
Mining - Current Gameplay Loop
Then there is also the mining gameplay loop that has just been expanded so there are two different ships, a single seater and a multi-seater with different abilities. The mining involves flying, scanning and mining itself. Different attachments provided different mining abilities.
There is also the FPS mining that you can do whilst on foot, for instance if you decide to enter a cave on the planet surface as an example. This requires you to have a multi-tool and the ability to store the mined material
You then sell your mined material at different locations, all whilst giving different prices at different locations (this should be dynamic soon)
Vehicles/Ships
There is around 90 flyable ships and drive-able vehicles (some are variants) in game currently that you can purchase inside the game with in-game currency by completing the above missions or gameplay loop
Ships have components in them, these can be brought and swapped to change the performance of the ship such as shield generators, coolers and similar. These are physical items rather than just stats on a page so in later iteration the idea is that they can be damaged, wear out and can be repaired by the player (for most part, some items too big etc for the largest of ships).
Weapons are also similar in that they also can be switched out and changed for different types again allowing further customisation of the ship you own.
See this page for more on the components and similar:
https://starcitizen.tools/Ship_Components
Locations
There are a number of different locations all currently in a single star system named Stanton, from planets to space stations to moons and asteroid fields.
- Port Olisar - Orbital station located near Crusader (planet WIP)
- Levski - decommissioned mining facility on Delemar (asteroid)
- Grim Hex - Orbital station located near Yela (moon)
- Lorville - Landing zone/city of Hurtson (planet)
- Area 18 - Landing zone/planet city of ArcCorp (planet)
- New Babbage - Landing zone/city of Microtech (planet)
- 9 moons currently in game
- Planets and moons have various outposts on their surface for locations to land, sell mined material or for mission based elements
It is buggy and broken most the time and things fail etc. That is where it is at in development but there is this whole system to explore and you can have 50 players in game per instance which is more than say Elite Dangerous or No Man Sky support.
Patch 3.7.0 was by far the most stable and honestly pretty playable. 3.8.0 has gone backwards in terms of that because of SSOCS which although in premise is simple and many other games use it, the issue here being due to the scale and how things work in terms of AI or trains on planets and similar they can get a little wonky at moment till they get functions all correct then issues will remain.
So yes there are plenty issues, plenty left to do but there is a reasonable foundation. The game engine is getting there and the tools to create everything is moving forward well. V4 planets are a big step in right direction. Everyone whom has a go seems to talk how it is a space game, but in a space there are planets and why do we explore space, to find new planets/locations. Why? Human nature really. So without them making large effort on what is out there to explore as you fly through space why would you play it?
That was always my issue with Elite Dangerous and to this date has pretty much been the same, why explore. To collect resources, okay great I get that.Why though, what do you do then? You buy a new ship right? To then either just shoot each other or collect more resources? I haven't played in a while but that was the premise of previous gameplay loops I can remember.
So what CIG is doing is really adding more points of interest to vist and explore to allow an expansion of those game loops. The materials wants and needs feed direct into the manufacturing of the ships, components and in future locations of the universe. That to a point is in now. It needs expanding, improving and similar but it is there to a fashion and you can test where that gameplay loop is.
Longer term it means a lot of these loops feed into elements such as having own land and somewhere to place your hanger on planet etc. To explore from there, find somewhere to settle, to defend, to attack, to trade. That is kinda the NMS side of it. Bases etc will be very different in terms of modules currently planned but should hopefully make a viable direction and reason for all of the other gameplay loops to feed around.
And all those gameplay loops feed into wanting to purchase other ships, upgrade them, repair them, paint them etc. That goes full circle. At moment we have the gameplay loop there now you can rent and purchase ships in game and you can do some basic gameplay.
So yeah at least that is a view for me on where SC is now and a little on where it looks to be going over the next few patch releases.
If you want to have a look through in more detail this page is handy
https://starcitizen.tools/Star_Citizen_Wiki
