Star Citizen - Chris Roberts, lots of spaceship porn, lots of promises

[Wendelius]

@Paradroid

Ah, nice! Much better than courier jobs then! I might have to give it a try.

It’s less manual work for sure.

2 caveats:

• The profits come from bulk buying the minerals you want to trade. So you need a ship with some cargo space. Use sites like SC trade Tools to find out the worth of commodities in various locations: SC Trade Tools
• If you disconnect / crash during the trade run, your cargo will go poof. So don’t risk all your money on a run, unless it’s very short and you are happy with an unforeseen event making it disappear.

Players on the PTU have been saying cargo hauling works better in this patch. But I would be wary the first week of 3.13 going live, just in case the servers are slammed.

[Wendelius]

Alas, cargo trading has pitfalls I wasn’t aware of. My first experience was… not profitable.

This it the terminal UI I mentioned above. It allows you to transfer ore or commodities to/from your ship or rover. Select a container on the left, whether you are buying or selling, and the UI is pretty easy to figure out.

Alas, Arial was once again pretty much sold out of Laranite.

Using SC trade tools, I realised I could take what little I had to Arc Corp and make big bucks buying and selling E’tam over there: SC Trade Tools trade route for E’tam

So I took a road trip to Lyria. Onward to mercantile success!

Or not. Lyria was pretty much sold out. I got enough to fill my smaller hold, but that was it.

And that turned out to be a blessing in disguise. Because the only high price buyer for that stuff is a place called Reclamations & Disposal Orinth. A strange location in the middle of a junkyard; kinda uninviting.

And that’s where my second painful lesson of trading was learned: you can also max out the demand of a buyer. Someone had obviously sold a lot of E’tam before I got there, and the place would only buy a small portion of my modest cargo every 10 minutes.

Then I got stuck, not being able to release one of the new mounted turrets I tried. So I had to force a respawn at base after shooting down my ship (might as well make use of the turret. It’s insured).

Bottom line of my cross system expedition: 90K aUEC loss.

Ah well. Easily recouped. But I need to figure out resources with alternative pick up and drop off points.

[Wendelius]

I joined a group meet today. We met on Hurston and went driving and flying around, looking for a near mythical harvestable that supposedly spawns near coastlines.

The game can make it difficult to rejoin the group after a game crash or an in game death, but it otherwise works quite neatly. It was a pretty cool way to see ships like the Nomad, Mercury, Cutlass and the huge 890j up close.

Coming back to my ship, I saw someone that didn’t seem to belong to the group on the lift of my Constellation. I shot them… and got a crime stat. When I tried to land back at the space station, permission got denied and they shot me down.

I then respawned at Grim Hex, a hive of scum and villainy if ever there was one. No weapon interdiction there. And it would feel right at home in a Cyberpunk setting.

So friendly that I got shot by a bounty hunter while taking off. Definitely not going back there without being prepared…

[Menzo]

Shitshow or not, the game looks amazing. Thanks for the stories!

[Thrag]

They should split off a studio just to make ships for people that can actually make games to put them in.

[cornchip]

That big one is the yacht full* of party people and a lady that maybe wants to sleep in your black space bed, right?

*in the trailer video

Love these photos. So if shooting gets you in trouble, how do you peacefully deal with people sneaking onto your ship? Make them shoot first and get the criminal point?

[Mike_Hernandez]

I imagine you’d make them your space janitor. @Wendelius love the pictures and stories! Game seems much more enjoyable when the forum has you to vicariously play it through!

[Wendelius]

@Menzo

Shitshow or not, the game looks amazing. Thanks for the stories!

I’m glad you, @cornchip , @Mike_Hernandez and others enjoy the screenshots.

The kindest way to describe development is “scattered”. SC is what it is. From a project management and funding hose perspective, I’m quite happy to call it a shitshow. And my screenshots do not represent the jank and bugs.

The way it looks is not a fake though. That’s why I find the endless jpeg jokes very 5 years ago.

In fairness, CIG keeps announcing and selling new ships for game systems that aren’t in the game. And the ships for those are expensive to buy with real money (though you can get them in game). Of the professions bringing in gameplay loops, only mining is in now; the medical profession, salvage and refuelling aren’t. The only use of a $160 Cutlass Red (beyond looking cool) is currently as a mobile spawn point.

@cornchip

That big one is the yacht full* of party people and a lady that maybe wants to sleep in your black space bed, right?

Yep, that’s the one. If you saw the “Architect reviews” video, you can tell it’s all about roleplay and eye candy, including fancy cabins to get the ladies (or the men) into your black silk sheets (fortunately, this is no Second Life. There are no “pose balls” on the beds…).

@cornchip

So if shooting gets you in trouble, how do you peacefully deal with people sneaking onto your ship? Make them shoot first and get the criminal point?

You know what? I have no clue. I know the game gives crime stats for things like ramming another player’s ship. I know trespassing exists as a crime in some areas. But, as far as I know, if you leave your ship cargo door open or lift down and a player can get in it, they can fly away.

You can easily reclaim your ship. So nothing is lost. That’s how players can lend their ships. But, as far as I know, I probably shouldn’t have shot them. Was interesting to experience being on the wrong side of the law though.

SpaceTomato is a SC content creator (and less of a cheerleader than the likes of BoredGamer, but not as cynical and salty as SaltEMike). He has made a video about 3.13 that’s not about bombast like CIG’s trailer. It looks at what the patch really brings. And he shows some of the jank in his video.

Star CItizen Update Review | Alpha 3.13 Features & Additions | Should You Play?

It’s 22’. So let me give you the TL;DW: answer to “Should you play?”. As a game, it’s still lacking:

If, unlike me, you have been playing more than a few weeks, have tried it all and have gone past meeting up with other players, there isn’t much to keep you coming back. That’s the reality of SC today. It’s incredibly detailed, costly and still very empty gameplay wise.

I’m having a blast because there is quite a bit to see and experience for a new player. I’m making money, completing missions, trying new ships, visiting cool looking places. But don’t let my stories sway you into spending money. Try it on Free Fly Week if you are curious!

[Wendelius]

As an epilogue to my Crime Stat story last night, I logged in to find myself… in prison. Tiny cell, “cheerful” announcements on enrolling in the work program to reduce your sentence and guards patrolling.

Fortunately, the time I was logged off counted as “time served”. So I was immediately eligible for release.

But next time it happens, I’ll have to post an account of life as an inmate in the mines.

I did like the announcement on the tannoys when I headed out of the inmate processing facility. It told other inmates that one of their own had served their sentence and was being released. “Let’s all give them a big round of applause!”, it said. Nobody did. :(

[Calelari]

@Wendelius

There are no “pose balls” on the beds…

Yet.

Perhaps there were… issues… with the mo-cap.

[dsmart]

@Wendelius

CIG has released a new trailer to celebrate.

Man, the comments in that video don’t disappoint :)

[dsmart]

@Menzo

Shitshow or not, the game looks amazing. Thanks for the stories!

It always did. That’s why they have way more artists than they do devs. Eye candy sells. ;)

[Wendelius]

Oh yeah. There is entertainment material for everyone in there.

Prompted this week’s Answer the Call to be titled “What do you think Star Citizen is?” in answer to that trailer.

Answer the Call: What Do You Think Star Citizen Is?

I’m not through it yet, but from what I’ve heard I’m sure it will be a mix of imagined overly complex and fully realised worlds, also people who don’t want to even guess anymore after 10 years of no system being complete and plans ever changing.

CIG tried to show what they think it is right now. But even they are not clear on what it will be, pretty clearly.

[TheWombat]

All that comes to mind from all of this is the idea that amateurs throw a billion ideas into something, and while some of those ideas are gems, the whole thing doesn’t hold together well and most components are less than fully functional. Pros scope it down and make sure that what they put into a product works, works together, and while it may not always reach for the stars it generally actually works really well.

[Scotten]

@dsmart

@Menzo

Shitshow or not, the game looks amazing. Thanks for the stories!

It always did. That’s why they have way more artists than they do devs. Eye candy sells. ;)

I don’t play sims, I don’t play games online, I’ve been reading about this fiasco for years but watching that trailer makes me want to buy into it. It’s almost like they’ve hired psychologists to help craft these videos.

[Destarius]

At this point, weaponizing psychology is a thing. I would not be surprised if Star Citizen did that, and like artists, they would be worth more than devs.

[Wendelius]

@Destarius

At this point, weaponizing psychology is a thing.

Yep. People call that a “marketing department”. Big companies generally have on in house / hire one. What’s new about that?

There is certainly a chasm between the super slick trailers and day to day life in the verse. But the ideal presented there (as in commercials) aims to represent what CIG sees SC being right now (more than the end game, whatever that is. I certainly don’t know). And if you have ever seen a commercial, you are familiar with the process.

[Destarius]

I think there’s a difference between a marketing department, versus a team that’s designed to engage in predatory behaviour to target a segment that may be engaging in unhealthy overspending.

It’s true that Star Citizen isn’t in the game of loot boxes (where this is most prevalent) but none of us could have spent $25,000 on Cyberpunk 2077. I do believe that there’s serious money to be made from abusing the psychology of peer pressure and addiction that surpasses what we expect to see in marketing.

edit: here’s a marketing article specifically hunting these whales. This is an issue akin to taking advantage of poor impulse control. Governments are starting to legislate but we’ll see where it goes.

[Wendelius]

I was answering in the context of the trailer. There is no doubt they are going for this kind of reaction:

@Scotten

I don’t play sims, I don’t play games online, I’ve been reading about this fiasco for years but watching that trailer makes me want to buy into it.

And if @Scotten bought the game based solely on the trailer, I think he would be disappointed as it’s an idealised version of the current game. But, that said, I don’t think that trailer is an egregious example of the psychological warfare / “hunting whales” type of marketing category you mentioned afterwards. It’s just a trailer.

All the concept ship / gameplay related sales to get people to buy one more ship fall into that more pernicious category though. At least, it’s not loot boxes. People who spend money know what they are getting (hopefully).

Personally, I’ve just about made my first million aUEC by playing and am saving up for a Mercury Runner ship to be bought in game. I’m enjoying the missions and the progression to get to that ship. But CIG would definitely not mind me spending over $300 on it. I would though. :)

[Destarius]

I was one of the believers when Croberts first pitched the game but that’s marketing for you!

I was responding to the psychologists point which is sadly a real thing. Good on you not spending more money on this until it’s a real thing. Some people have spent that $50,000 though and I must suppose not all of them are in a Columbian cartel.