Star Citizen is a first/third person MMO in development for PC. It's being designed as both a space and universe simulator, with a vast selection of different ways to play. You can be a solo pirate, be a part of a crew of a massive capital ship or decide you hate space and live in massive cities on planets. Planned occupations range from mining, to salvaging, from farming to researching compounds and fauna, from healing players to capturing criminals as a bounty hunter, and more. Play with your friends, random people you meet on your journeys, or by yourself (though it's likely you run into people, it's an MMO). You are able to play in space, or on moons, planets, cities, all in first or third person, in ships, on vehicles or on foot, with fidelity and scale unmatched in any MMO so far.
While Star Citizen is being developed, the developers are releasing quarterly updates to allow players to experience content quicker and provide feedback.
What can you do right now in Star Citizen?
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This is a list of some of the major mechanics/features currently in the game:
- Dogfighting
- FPS Combat
- Explore/Visit - Space, Space-Stations, Moons, Planets, and Landing Zones.
- Mining - Mine materials in space and on planet, sell them at outposts/space stations/landing zones for profit.
- Cargo Trading - buy/sell between outposts/space stations/landing zones for profit.
- Ship management - Tweaking/overclocking components, managing power allocation, fuel and heat.
- Scanning - Scan for materials/items/people, ships for information about their cargo/personnel/status.
- Complete procedural missions - Delivery, Ship/FPS Combat, Investigation, Recovery and more.
- Complete Missions from unique Mission Givers who are characters within the 'verse.
- The reputation System and your CrimeStat change which missions are available to you.
- Join an instance with your friends and group up with the party system.
- Purchase Weapons, Armor, Ammo, Clothes, and Components with each landing zone having unique items.
- Purchase and rent ships.
- Limited Character Customization.
- Experience plenty of bugs, crashes and all the frustration that comes with playtesting an Alpha!
Star Citizen can be fun to sign on and check out as a new player, but the game can wear thin after a while. It lends itself to a GTA-esque sandbox style style of fun, we end up enjoying our time together and have memorable moments when we play, but it's still very light on interesting/engaging content to do.
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What's New?
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This is a list of some of the additions in this patch:
- The new city on microTech - New Babbage
- Klescher Automated Prison - Prison gameplay includes missions, mining to reduce prison time, finding escape routes.
- 3 New Moons - Callope, Clio, and Euterpe
- Player Status System v1 - Various attributes of a character, including health, stamina, and oxygen levels. Expanded to include thirst, hunger and temperature. These values will have knock-on effects for player stamina and ability.
- Weather locomotion - Ships/players will react to wind and other inclement weather.
- Contacts List Refactor/Friends List Unification
- Player Interaction System Improvements
- Bounty Mission NPC Improvements
- AI Improvements.
- New weapons, missions, ships and more!
- The planet microTech.
- Server-side Object Container Streaming - allows the server to stream in and out entities on the server based on the players connected to the server.
- Planet Tech V4 - improved planet surface blending, objects scattering and transitions, generation driven by climate data.
- Weather Effects - driven by planet surface types, wind strength, and other information taken directly from planet terrain.
- Atmosphere Improvements - additional density layers to capture effects like an ozone layer at high altitudes that will result in more natural looking skies at sun set on planets.
- FPS Combat (punch with fists, use knives)
- Mining improvements.
- Camera improvements.
- AI Improvements.
- New weapons, missions, ships and more!
- Getting rid of Hover Mode. 😍
- Character Customization improvements.
- Addition of Caves.
- FPS Mining - Mine small rocks with the multi-tool.
- Mission sharing.
- Personal Inventory.
- Harvestables (pick up fruits off plants, etc.)
- The ability to rent ships with in game currency.
- Addition of Player Interdiction (allow players to pull others out of Quantum)
- Improvements to the flight model.
- Improvements to Weapon Attachments.
- Improvements to Arena Commander.
- Improvements to AI.
- Added Star Marine Map: The Good Doctor
- New Ships, Weapons and Armors.
- Improvements to rest stop space stations.
- Hover mode. 🤢
- Weapon Attachments.
- Player Free Look.
- Ship System improvements to misfires and degradation.
- Law System Adjustments
- Improvements to core tech such as network refactors, and planetary distribution improvements
- New Ships, and Weapons.
- The planet ArcCorp and its city Area 18.
- 2 new moons : Lyria and Wala.
- New Flight Model.
- The ability to play with a female avatar.
- DNA face customization to customize your avatar.
- Mission giver Tecia Pacheco.
- Improvements to AI.
- Improvements to ship systems such as heat, scanning, item degradation, and gimbaled weapons.
- Improvements to the Party System, Radar, VOIP/FOIP and Missions.
- Improvements to Star Marine.
- Improvements to core tech such as OCS fixes, Projectile Manager, and Shader Improvements.
- New Ships, and Weapons
- An expansion to Lorville - the Lorville Business District.
- Mission givers Constantine Hurston and Wallace Kim.
- Improvements to FPS AI.
- Improvements to Mining, Player Interaction, Quantum Travel and Missions.
- New Armors, Flightsuits, Ships, and Weapons.
- The ability to purchase ships with in-game currency.
- The planet Hurston and its city Lorville.
- Transit system on Lorville that includes riding the train to get to locations.
- 4 new moons : Arial, Aberdeen, Magda and Ita.
- Rest Stops - Space stations that allow players to refuel, rearm, repair and shop with stores inside.
- New content and missions to complete .
- AI FPS Combat.
- Improvements to AI flight.
- Missions givers Recco Battaglia and Clovus Darneely.
- Asteroid Mining.
- No-Fly Zones
- Improvements to the group system.
- VOIP and FOIP - FOIP allows you to plug in your webcam and other players can see your characters face animate with the same head movement/facial expressions you perform in real life.
- New Armor, Clothes and Flightsuits, Ships, and Weapons.
- Improvements to the ship degradation systems.
- Performance Optimizations.
- Object Container Streaming - stream in new environments, locations and ships seamlessly as you approach.
New Player Guides
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Here are some links that should get you on your way in the game:
- Download Link
- Request an experienced Star Citizen player to guide you (must be logged in)
- Official new players guide
- Star Citizen Tutorial (Youtube)
- Starter Ship Guide (Youtube)
- Money Making Guide (Youtube)
- Quick Start Guide (Youtube)
- New Player Guide Playlist (Youtube)
- How-To Playlist (Youtube)
FAQ
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Hey, this thread seems dead sometimes. What gives?
Due to the general hostility aimed at people who enjoy Star Citizen, a lot of our communications happen on Discord. It also has to be said that there are dry spells between patches as Star Citizen doesn't offer the type of gameplay needed to sustain our interest in playing it as often as a completed game would.
What is Squadron 42?
Squadron 42 is a single player game and shares the same universe as Star Citizen, it's being developed as a modern Wing Commander. It's described as "a cinematic single-player adventure as a rookie Navy combat pilot" where you will "encounter a new level of immersion as you seamlessly transition between daring dogfights in space and exhilarating ground combat." There is character customization, some form of decision-making, AI crew that you can get to know and build relationships with, but it isn't a RPG. It is a single player cinematic story-focused campaign.
When will Star Citizen or Squadron 42 come out?
Star Citizen nor Squadron 42 have an announced release date, Squadron 42 is planned to go into beta at some point in 2020 but this can always be delayed. Star Citizen can be played as it's being developed if a game package is purchased. There are patches to Star Citizen being released every 3 months with new content.
How much is Star Citizen/Squadron 42?
Star Citizen/Squadron 42 are each $45. The combo-pack for Squadron 42 and Star Citizen together is discounted at $65.
Is Star Citizen or Squadron 42 coming to console?
There are no announced plans of this happening.
How large is the download?
The game is ~40 GB.
What are the system requirements for Star Citizen?
The official system requirements are: Windows 7 (64bit) or newer. Quad Core CPU. DirectX 11 Graphics Card with 2GB RAM (4GB strongly recommended). 16GB+ RAM. SSD strongly recommended.
What performance can I expect with my system specifications?
Performance can be highly variable depending on the patches. With the release of 3.3.5 live, a visual tool will be released that lets you compare performance of other actual players compared to similar specifications based on client telemetrics
Experience from backers shows that a Intel 4690K equivalent or above is very much needed, since the game is more CPU bound compared to other games you might play. 4GB VRAM is needed to comfortably play at full HD, with 6GB or 8GB needed for higher resolutions. The game currently needs about 10+GB RAM, if you only have 16GB RAM make sure to not run any other resource hogging background processes. Anything less than 16GB may not be able to run the game well.
Any high end video card (GTX1070/1080, Vega56/64 and above) will allow you to play the game at 1080p+. Expect anywhere between 30 to 100+ fps, very much dependent on amount of objects and players in your vicinity. Some backers get playable performance with a GTX 970/R9 290 equivalent, though everything below may suffer from some serious bottlenecks.
Do I need to buy ships to play?
No, the base package gives you a ship and everything you need to play. Some mechanics like mining are currently locked behind specific ships, however you are able to rent/buy ships in game with in game currency.
Do I need a subscription to play the MMO?
No, Star Citizen does not require any subscriptions to play nor are there any plans to require one in the future. All you need to play is a one-time purchase of a game package ($45).
Is there a guild/clan?
Please see our Community thread for that information : https://www.resetera.com/threads/404/
Why are there two threads?
This thread is for the day-to-day discussion of Star Citizen's current patch. Any long term discussion of Star Citizen, anything about Squadron 42, and discussion regarding the weekly/monthly content that the SC community team put out should go to Community thread : https://www.resetera.com/threads/404/
What are these game modes I see?
Persistant Universe is exactly that, the full-featued mode of Star Citizen. Arena Commander is the mode dedicated to dogfighting, racing, and flight mechanics - it is recommended that people learn the flight controls here. Star Marine is for FPS, matchmaking much like COD/Battlefield.
If I don't buy ships, will I be at a disadvantage?
Star Citizen is being designed to have different gameplay at different levels and for all kinds of players. Someone who bought a lot of ships and may have a more powerful one than yours is likely to be pursuing totally different goals and be engaging in totally different content than yourself. An example would be that if you start out in a starter salvage ship, you will be performing missions and salvaging items that would not be worth it for someone with a end-game salvage ship, and you wouldn't be worth raiding by a high-end pirate ship. The equivalent to a typical MMO is that someone who buys a high level WOW account will be performing totally different raids and performing PVP at different levels than you if you start out at a low level. The economics make it not sustainable to grief.
I'm concerned about pay-to-win. It seems like buying ships will allow those with large wallets to dictate the game.
The most popular ships in the game are the starter ships, most people either have starter ships or just slightly upgraded ships. Star Citizen is being designed with the fact in mind that there may be large discrepancies between players, which would happen naturally over time regardless ~ someone who joined Day 1 and works their way up will naturally have better ships than someone who buys the game 3 years later. The game is systematically designed to react dynamically to ingame happenings. If a Pirate Org who bought lots of ships is camping a mining zone and griefing new players from being able to work their way up, the game will react appropriately. First, both NPC and Player bounty hunters will be offered increased rates to take out these people, NPC bounty hunters will also be spawning more and more frequently as the demand goes higher to remove these pirates. Secondly, even if the systemic mechanics fail, there are designed "safe-space" locations that will be patrolled and monitored by the in-game police force that will respond, and will bring the required force needed to deal with people who are trying to exploit the game. They will be known criminals and as they continue to try and invade safe-space areas, the police will be quicker and react more aggressively. Lastly, running large ships will be very expensive and with caps on how much currency you can buy per week, eventually they will run out of money to keep up their griefing. In conclusion, there are multiple systems to prevent trolling, griefing, and pay-to-win being designed. As said before, there is content being designed for people at every level, with many different interests and goals.
I'm concerned about grind, it seems like I'll have to grind forever to get a big ship and be able to compete with those who bought ships with cash.
The grind for a ship that costs thousands of dollars will be a likely impossible grind for just a single player trying to do it alone. These ships are supposed to be used by orgs with hundreds of people in them and are supposed to be very rare and extremely hard to obtain. That being said if you got a bunch of people and said our goal is to be able to purchase one of these massive ships, and you all worked together and contributed to a fund to be able to purchase one, the grind will be significantly less and a lot more attainable than going on your own. In terms of personal progression, you're not expected to go from a small ship, grind for months or years and buy a capital ship. There's incremental progress, as you go from small ships to medium, large, etc, those ships will allow you to make more money and the next progress step will be more attainable as you climb the ladder. You're also going to be able to buy used ships, rent ships, so it's not like you're going to have to buy each ship outright just to use them. In the end, Star Citizen is being designed in a sense that the only goal is to have fun doing whatever you enjoy doing, if they succeed then the grind won't be prohibitive to enjoying the game.
Will this game ever be finished? It seems like they have no incentive to finish it, they will keep taking without delivering based off the money they're raising.
Nobody here can guarantee that this game will ever reach "Live" until it does. However, it makes sense to believe that CIG would make more money by continuing to develop the game, add new locations, add new features, mechanics, and things to do so that the game doesn't get stale to backers who would lose faith in development. If they continue doing this eventually they will reach live. Despite the reputation Star Citizen has, the game has come a long way over the years and backers have been happy with the recent quarterly patches. It also makes sense to believe that with the stigma of this game never being able to be finished and forever in development off their back, they can reach a more broad audience. Finally, it makes sense that if they had no intention of delivering a complete game, they would not have a staff of over 500 people and hiring more all the time. This all being said, CIG has said their intention is to indefinitely release patches every 3 months, even beyond "Live".
Who is funding this game and why do they keep making so much money?
People are, people like you or me. The same decision you might make to build a new PC, or buy an Xbox/PS4 and buy a game to play with your friends are the same decisions those who back this game are making. They keep making money, because as said before, the games development is impressive to many people and we want to see this game fully realized and are willing to take the risk on potentially not getting the game we wanted.
This game seems impossible to be made, too many features announced, too many technological hurdles, why do you keep supporting it?
We've heard these arguments for the past few years and the game is still around, overcoming all these hurdles and impressing us with every new patch. This is game development with the shackles of a traditional publisher taken off, for better and for worse, and most of us are happy with the progress and choose to continue backing the game because of that.
Is Star Citizen losing money, will it be bankrupt soon, how long does it have left, is the money-tracker fake?
As of the end of 2018, Star Citizen has $50 million in the bank due to a minority investment, as well as continued pledges. 2019 set a new record in funding by far. They have 500+ developers and are hiring more all the time, they said they would be running it as a live model, viewing what they make each month/year and adjusting their budgets, putting the money they raise into the game. Funding in general is not something we talk about too much and just focus on the game itself.
How can I keep up with the development of Star Citizen?
We have a section here that we will update with recent development happenings. Good bets are to check out this thread or the community thread, check the subreddit, or the official site. The official roadmap is here : Roadmap Link
I think Star Citizen has a lot of feature creep, but I'm impressed with what they're able to do so far. Should I buy this game?
The recommendation we always have is to wait and see how it goes, you're not losing out on anything by waiting to buy the game. However, if you have money you're willing to risk, and want to play the game earlier than normal, there is a game to play and you might have a lot of fun or frustration playing it, we've had plenty of both. Nobody here can tell you to buy the game or not, we bought the game because we want to see this game made but we have no interest in "recruiting" anyone.
I want a polished experience and don't want to deal with all the frustrations that come with an Alpha. Should I buy this game?
Absolutely not.
Note: This FAQ will be expanded upon in the coming weeks, months, and years.
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Keep in Touch
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Inside Star Citizen : Weekly show updating on community events and development - Thursdays on Youtube
Star Citizen Live : Weekly show with a new focus each week, mainly one dev sits with a community manager and answers questions based on the topic. Live on Twitch Fridays @ 12 PM Pacific Time.
Roadmap Picture : Roadmap updated every Friday.
Roadmap Roundup: Additional information about why changes to the roadmap were made : Posts
Monthly Reports : In Depth development report posted every month focusing on Star Citizen and Squadron 42 from the 5 studios : Posts
Note: Discussion about the weekly/monthly content listed here should go to our Community thread unless it's related to something in the current patch.
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It's not a real Star Citizen thread without JPEGs...
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microTech
ArcCorp
Hurston
MOONS
AND EVERYWHERE ELSE...
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Thank you to NuMiQ, Dae, Rat for help with the OT, and thank you to the entire SC community for keeping this ride going! Let Shy and Captain_Raoul, who were banned from Era, be here in spirit.
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