So, in the past when the game was first announced I was very proactive in trying to get people to back the game. I even helped a bunch of people from SimHQ get LTI when they first took away LTI. But then the years drug on and my excitement waned. Then there was a lot of fiascos which ended in me no longer recommending people buy into the game until they fixed some things and added some things.

The big issue was performance. The PU performance was atrocious. Even on high end PCs the game ran like crap.

Another big issue was ship buying/renting. Previously the game didnt allow any sort of in game buying/renting of ships. This meant if you wanted to fly a specific ship you had to buy it with real money. A lot of the ships were over priced and as the years went on they consistently increased those ship prices arbitrarily.

Well, right now with 3.3 the performance issues are resolved, at least for me. I went from 10-16fps in 3.2 to 45-60fps in 3.3. They also added in ship buying/renting.

So my two biggest gripes are fixed. I've spent a few hours now in 3.3 and... it is actually a really amazing game. It still has a lot of problems but I think this is the first version of the PU that is actually playable and fun enough to recommend to other people.

With that said, if you do plan to buy into the game now... JUST BUY THE STARTER PACKAGE. Dont spend a ton of money on a big ship. You can always upgrade your ship later. They have a CCU system which allows you to buy an upgrade for your ship package to a new ship. But with the addition of in game ship sales you might not ever need to upgrade your starting ship with real money!

If anyone is interested in buying into the game though Please use a SimHQ referal code. It will give you some extra in game bonuses as well as helping out whoever's code you use.


So post your referal codes here if you already have a SC account.

https://robertsspaceindustries.com/enlist?referral=STAR-BCJZ-5VV2
STAR-BCJZ-5VV2

Not played it in a long while, the extremely low frame rates really killed it off for me too. Now waiting for 3.3 to finish downloading.

I have maxed out the RAM my motherboard can handle at 24GB and thinking of maybe it is time to retire this 10 year old PC to light duties and build something with a bit more modern architecture and room for expansion, especially after seeing the specs CR was aiming for to run SQ42/SC

2Gb left to download, soon be there

Red

Nice video Red, pretty good summary of the presentations. I agree with pretty much everything he said.

I bought in ages ago but soon realised that with the millions they were making, very little was coming back to us, the punters.

Pretty planets. Did Elite ever get vegetation on planets yet?

PTU opened up to all accounts.

Log in on the website then go to this link.

https://robertsspaceindustries.com/account/copy/ptu

Follow then instructions to download the PTU launcher. Then hit the copy button and follow the instructions in the email they send you.

How drastic is the performance improvement?

MY SSDs died so all I have is a platter drive, so I don't want to download unless it is significant.

Thanks Master!

Did, but wondering if the download is big?

Red

I've got an i7 3.4ghz quad core with a 980ti and 16gb of ddr3.

I went from 3.2 10-16fps to 3.3 45-60fps (it still dips down into the 20s sometimes but mostly stays above 45)

If you still have 3.2 downloaded you can copy your 3.2 folder over (delete the user directory) and then its only about 3gig. if it is a fresh install I think it is 20-30gigs. It expands out to be 43 gigs worth.

I still have 3.2 installed. Thanks Master.

That's significant, Master. Maybe I'll try to install it, thanks. I only have a 3770k @ 4.2 Ghz and a 670 GTX though.

Well, I just waited 10 - 15 minutes for it to load into the game to join a starport and it never finished, so... I gave up.

Edit: The second time I tried to play the loading only took a few seconds. Strange. Framerate seems to have improved, though I still don't know how to break into someone else's ship. As a pirate, this is a job requirement.

To be honest,I have no idea how to play it. I was able to get my ship launched a few times but completely clueless otherwise. I didn't attempt to learn it at that time because it was after all,very bare bones and E:D was far superior (in my opinion).

most ships can be broken into with a gun or your ship bound weapons. Can take a few clips but you can get into a hatch.

No veggies yet in ED.

With the performance improvements, I'll load this back up, once it goes to 'Live'.


After watching that teaser for the Kraken... oh yeah!... but I stopped buying ships quite a while ago and it's going to be expensive once they finally release a price.

Here is me trying to patrol levski and prevent piracy!

https://www.twitch.tv/videos/324489021?t=01h16m48s

Oh yeah? Well here's be BEING a pirate!



Alas, those unfettered days be long gone, sos the fishies lost to the mobius bowl. Arrrrrrr...



You have a super computer? Is Star Citizen viable and competitive with a HOTAS yet, or are we still forced to use mouse or face certain death?

Nice! I got me 1 too. Really like it and hope they continue to improve it.

Just wish they would improve the key mapping. Each PTU build screws up my controllers (Using 4) and its getting a right royal PITA reassigning them each time. Did try other sofdtware like SC Key mapper but could not figure out how to change the inputs...maybe one day...

This new 3.3 really boosted performance. Im sure they will have a free flight by years end. Id test it then to see if it runs well.

Are the joystick profiles still unnamed? I found that quite frustrating not to know what profile you were mapping what. Four profiles but with no ID, so what´s what! At least that´s how it was not long ago...

Yes, they are still un named. I've given up on the joystick until they leave PTU. In PTU they are releasing one patch a day minimum and every new patch requires you to reset your joystick profile or at least copy it out and write over the new profile.

I've been just flying around with the mouse for now. Its not perfect but it works for seeing the sights.

Ok thanks Master!

So much money and they can´t name (ID) your hardware! Oh well...

Red

I think they've spent almost ALL of the money sofar on core tech. They rewrote the whole cryteck engine to be 64bit multithread. But they just finished that monumental task this month.

Now that they have it done they are trying to get it working right. (still CTD every 30-60 min) but once it is smooth they are going to start adding content and QOL stuff like new flight models and joystick support.

It's been a long road to say the least, keep your eyes on it over the next few months. It should get better at an exponential rate compare to the past few years.

EVAing near crusader gas giant

I guess you're lucky, Master. Star Citizen crashes for me constantly, and I can't play for more than a short while.

Did you go in and delete your USER folder?

If you want you can jump on the SimHQ discord and we can see if we can get your up and running.

https://discord.gg/0m2XEcx3ywjsGkFt

Cool...





Red

I put my Track IR away ages ago because I was done with flight sims. Looks like I'll be setting it back up tomorrow

Yep definitely use track IR when you fly.

Track IR is now working,I just need to fine tune it. I can't remember what the best settings were for me,it's so long since I used it. I don't seem able to zoom in/out,is that not working? I have ver 5 Track IR.

I had to hunt a bounty in a cave today. That was fun. Shooting a random civilian next to him who I thought was his hostile buddy... not as much. Human player dead. Oh well. I got the bounty.

Also, popping Constellations is pretty easy if you get behind them. Falcon BMS Formation flying skills come in pretty handy here.

After watching the "Hard Flying" videos above, that´s what came to mind, it would be cool to put together a acrobatic team in SC, as there is for DCS

I've done some of that myself.

I only wish SC's combat was less yaw focused so I didn't have to set roll to my pedals and yaw to my x axis on my stick. I'm fine as it is, but my flying skills suffer because my hours in sims are used to the other way.

Once I'm on the six of a Constellation, that thing is gonna pop. And my maxed out 300i eats them for breakfast. Dual shredders plus a predator shotty. Holy moly the predator is nasty on ships sized medium and up. Once a Constellation's shields drop, I'm able to pop them in a couple of seconds.

In the Arena Commander, the Vandul swarm clearly out maneuvered my 325a, speed wise aswell. My rist was starting to feel strain, that said I don´t have curves tweaked or anything, but inicialy I think the ratio (pitch/yaw) of the 325a is quite weak (slow). Maybe I need more time flying in SC, and last time I did anything flying related was in 2015, so rusted is not the word hehe. Or Iam just used to flying in DCS, and have to get used to flying in space (SC).

But yeah, loving the feeling Iam getting with SC overall Do need to do more flying though...

Wipe. as in reset status. Like when a new patch is released...

Wipe for a incremental update?

Wipe when 3.7.1 gets out of PTU, at least that´s how I understand it.

No wipe I hear per the patch notes.

Good They did leak that it would happen due to the ship spawn with missing parts bug, but have decided to do that manually (by reseting individual users via support)...



Red

I think I'd be inclined to do a lot more if they stopped the wipes.

Well, my ship blew up a night ago, and when I respawned... all my upgrades were gone.

This has never happened before in 3.7. But the patch to 3.7.1 had taken place that night. Is this a new feature, or a bug? Because if it is a feature, why bother to ever upgrade ships? Pointless if this is intended.

I would say it´s the "wipe" we were talking about. But it´s not a feature for future hot fixes.

Road map...



Red

Yeap, new players will get a kick in the nuts in v3.8



Red

Can't believe it... what got me interested in the whole SC thing was the chance to engage in some great space ship to ship combat, visit other worlds and play Sqn 42!
Now it's FPS shooter time, Prisons??? and melee combat!
Melee combat is a priority to work on????????

It will be something more to do, which will give more mission variety. Nothing wrong with that.

As for prioritys, I agree, other things should be on the to-do list before we get to melee. FPS has always been on the agenda, but melee might have to do with how they want to implement the law enforcement, who knows! Hands up or I´ll kick you in the nuts!

I jumped in at the free fly last month and have been flying it pretty heavily since. Already invested in a pretty healthy fleet. Connie, Freelancer, and Prospector. Can pretty much print money/aUEC with those three ships. Interesting thing is they threw in a Hornet, Mantis, and Aurora as a consolation for spending a bunch of money. I didn't really need those ships but they're in my hangar. Anyone need a wing man in the verse, look me up.

Welcome Skoop!

Yup, welcome to the verse!

We could start a small shipping company!

Me, Blastman and Chucky can cover your back! That will cost you some aUEC though

Red

I wish I could join in but I'm a bit of a loner. Besides which I'm a space-bourne conscientious objector. I did very little combat in Elite and I'm hoping I can get enough enjoyment out of SC without firing a shot

What is average UEC per hour you can make in Connie and Freelancer?

Best I can manage through... ways, is about 120k/hour and I think that's tops unless you have a Cat.

Free Fly Schedule (starts the 24th.):

Anniversary Free Fly Schedule

I wanna try the Terrapin

Red

Wow

The hype is on!





Red

Well I guess you all know that V3.7.2 is live!

Enjoy the verse!

Red

How do you get to try the free ships? Just logged in but only my starter ship shows up

You have to go to Area 18 and visit the convention center to rent them for free.

Thanks Mr_Blastman. Luckily I'm there anyway so I'll check it out.

That's better than myself if your doing trading hauls. I made a ton of money using the connies weapons for bounty hunting. Too bad the connies 52 missiles are bugged and won't fire or it'd do more damage.

That'd be great. I'll miss most of the free fly. Heavy work week, I gobbled up all the holiday overtime at double time to fund the heavy spending that's coming.

Have you tried the ship mining in the prosector ? It's a great money maker that has no upfront risk, you just search it out and gobble it up. I thought I'd hate the mining, but the mechanic has some skill and challenge to it. Not totally mindless, kinda relaxing really.

Not yet Skoop. I've been a little unadventurous so far. I've mainly run collect/deliver missions and done some sight-seeing.

Most I can make bounty hunting is 55 - 80k tops because the game seems to have an artificial limit built in where it ceases spawning bounty contracts often after you make 55k fast. My method of making 120k an hour is very boring and I spend most of that time sitting on the couch watching television.

I could not spawn at Area 18, I even flew there but they would not give me permission to land! I guess it was only for VIP´s Or my grade 1 crime stat didn´t let me. I decided to landed on a roof top at Area 17 but no elevators to go down to the city, but the views were awesome, any how, went back to Olisar. I traded my Hornet Tracker for the Terrapin, had to sell the Cutlass too, now I have a flying "tank" LOL. That thing has some heavy armor! But just a size two gun slot, either way same concept as the Tracker but better IMO, and better for a solo player.

Although I didn´t land at Area 18, on port Olisar I did have a Hornet 7/M, a Arrow which I own, the Terrapin and a Avenger Titan. I can understand (some how) that the Hornet, Arrow and Terrapin came from Anvil, but the Titan (Aegis)? Hope it´s a Christmas present

BTW, QT seems to work alot better now with v3.7.2, I kind of found everything to run a bit smoother, even the hangers worked like they should now. I did see some global chat Issues were it didnt work at times.

Red

QT needed some work. The times I had to thump the console to make it work...

About the Expo...

IAE 2949

Any pledge done receives a exclusive 10 year insurance contract

Red

I'm struggling with this part

What elevator? Is the event actually on now?

*EDIT* Never mind, I was following the instructions and got off at the first stop. It's actually the 2nd stop (Bevic Convention Centre).

Red you can't have any crimestat whatsoever to visit Area 18 or Lorville. And sadly in order for your bounty to show up for other players to hunt you, I think you need a crimestat of 3 or greater, so get to killing players to rouse them up to get rid of it.

I miss being able to pay a fine in Elite to get rid of the wanted status.

Ahh, ok. That´s what I though! Darn it, now Iam an outlaw and really didn´t do anything (bugged). "You picked a fine time to leave me Lucille"

They said you will be able to pay off fines in a near future.

Oh well...

Good things a coming!



Red

You should be able to still go to the security station and hack your crimestat away.

I liked the presentations at citizencon. It felt more subdued. I think the community is really starting to feel the wait for a good playable game. They really need to get something out this year. They cant just keep stringing people on. It feels so close to being a fun playable game but its just still not there yet IMO.

Hey Master! Nice to see you around here again

Yeah, gotta watch a video on how to get rid of the crimstat again. I´ll try tonight...

Thanks.

Red

I go on a murder spree until a human player takes me out. I ain't paying 6k to get rid of my crimestat. :P

If they want to make crime unprofitable, I will profit off the chaos.

Nah, only paid 3k and bought the cheapest cryptokey. Iam clear now, but was late to the RSI expo. Had to fly there, no option on start up like they say. Rented a Tumbril RN, will rip some dirt tomorrow with it.

Red

How do pull 120K per hour sitting on your couch, inquiring minds want to know ? Is there a secret NPC crew you can hire to run your trade routes while you watch T.V. ?

Generally you stock up on drugs at the drug labs (like fill a freelancer) then fly it out and sell it. If it doesnt glitch you can make like 30k and you can do it 3-4 times an hour if you are quick and dont run into anyone. It's not real balanced yet (have not played 3.7 so it might be different.)

This citizen con has got me excited for this upcoming year. 3.8 just went to evocati for testing so it is on track for a mid december release. 3.8 contains SSOCS (server side object container streaming) which means multiple systems will be possible as the server streams in and out content. Right now they are at the limit for planets / bases. To add anything new they have to remove something. But once they get SSOCS they can just add and add and add. Going to be a good year if they can get it running properly.

Red

Logged into the game and tried out one of those 890 jump ships. Completely useless as far as doing missions but it was so much fun to play around in. Had several people just hanging out in the ship as we flew planet to planet. Was very cool to stand in the observation deck and watch the ship flying about. Not sure I would ever buy one as there are probably other more useful ships with the same features but it was still pretty cool. It's finally starting to feel like a game.

My run up for this 2949 CitizenCon...

- Swapped my Hornet Tracker (with LTI) for a Terrapin (my dream tank LOL).

- Swapped the Hawk for a Galdius Valiant (all came from a Arrow with LTI).

- Bought a Anvil Pisces with LTI (don´t mind the ship but bought for it´s LTI if needed for a future upgrade). Bought the Anvil gear pack too, haha!

Would have really liked to see the Cutlass Blue and Carrack in game, to bad for that. Looking forward to SSOCS and persisten user content in v3.8

One day left for all your shopping needs

I bought a CCU to a Polaris and a CCU to a Hercules and a CCU from a Cutlass to a Nova tank (that ccu was 5 bucks, figure it's worth it if the tank turns out good else ill melt it for 5 dollars credit.)

Need to at some point update that SC ship spreadsheet. Im sure a lot of people's ships have changed over the years.

Cool! But not in-game yet...



Roadmap and ship updates...



Red

Yep, kind of a cool ship. The original concept for the Avenger was an "a-10" type ship with a single big gun center mounted but they gave up on it when they changed the weapon sizes in the game engine. I guess this ship is designed to take the place that the avenger had before the resize changes.

A size 7 ballistic or size 7 laser is pretty nice for a fighter the size of other medium fighters. I have my doubts about how useful the ship will be though and like you said its not going to be in game for a while so the ship might change. I wouldnt risk the buy on this one but I am sure many people will.

v3.8.0 PTU first wave...

Awesome stuff a head!





Red

I haven't fired SC up for a while. I'm sure that will change once the wipes stop happening. Assuming there will come a point when that is so.

I really hate grinding towards an objective,whatever it might be just to have it all taken away in an update.

A look at the upcoming (v3.8) Argo Mole...



Red

SC Alpha 3.8 is live...

Yes, there´s a wipe. Also, delete your user folder before the update.



Red

Well, bounty hunting is impossible now against AI. Even 2500 UEC bounties spawn 4 - 5 cutlasses fully upgraded with max shield gens, power plants, quad predator scatterguns and a mass driver mix. Basically in a stock 300i with fixed weapons... you're screwed.

That they warp around makes fixed weapons impossible to use. I've seen ships dead in my reticle vanish and reappear 300 meters away, wasting my ammo.

And my multitool stopped working so I can't mine rocks.

Haven't made it to Microtech yet. I'd like to figure out a very fast route to 200k in UEC.

Red

I tried 3.8 this weekend. Just flying around and exploring was fun. Many of the atmospheric and weather effects look fantastic. And it seemed really stable and I was able to mess around for a couple of hours without crashing or having any bugs. Until I started doing trade runs. It seems the more valuable the cargo, the worse everything gets. Either the game crashes, pirates jump you, the controls lock up and you crash, or invisible insta death walls destroy you while trying to land.

A friend of mine loaned me an Argo Mole and mining seems fun and is currently a quick way of making cash. The Mole does have some problems. It has 3 mining lasers in different stations, but only one seems to work at a time. It also doesn't have much fuel, so you're limited on where you can mine and can't really explore much with it to find the really good mining locations. I guess that's what the explorer ships are for.

You currently keep ship upgrades until the next wipe. This includes if your ship is stolen, you crash it, or it gets destroyed for any other reason. Next time you spawn the ship, it'll have all the components on it at the time it was lost.
On the ship upgrades, the power plant produces a ton of heat, so you should improve the coolers first. But, so long as you're power plant can run your current ship and components, there's currently no benefit from having a larger power plant. You're probably better off not upgrading it.

Thanks for the tip Wormfood

Havent been playing it much lately. Due to that I have to revise all my controls which got wiped when I deleted my user file for the recent update. It´s a pain in the a** because there´s a certain way to do it if you want to use your rudder pedals for yaw, and axis get all messed up if you don´t do it right. The UI dosent tell you what surface you are using when keybidding either which also sucks!

Red

How do rudders as yaw work for you in Star Citizen for combat? I've debated trying this but aiming was so yaw dependent in the past. In Elite this was fine because the combat flowed differently but I wonder in Star Citizen. Planetary flight would likely be a lot easier, though. I've always used rudders for roll in space combat games, aside from Elite.

I'm the same way. Roll goes on the rudder for most space games. Elite was the only one that didn't seem to work with.

Iam just so used to rudder the yaw that anything else feels wierd. I still have my old Saitek Cyborg joystick which IIRC has that twist rudder on the joystick, but not to practical when aiming. Might try the twin stick deal see how that works.

3.8.1 is live, Cutlass Red is flyable...



Red

Server stability has also been very good with 3.8.1 in the ptu. Its a step in the right direction. They also fixed a lot of the minor bugs that were really inconvenient. (while introducing new and inconvenient bugs.)

Red

MEDIC!!!



Red

LTP is inbound...



Red

About time! Now I may get back into it.

Version 3.8.2 is Live! Carrack is available and at last LTP (long term persistence), in it´s early version...



Red

Ugh,lots of stuttering,that's with 16gb ram and an SSD. I don't remember it being this bad before.

I haven't read any patch notes so I'll ask the good folk here. Why do I have a Freelancer in my hanger?

Did you rent one in the past?

I'm pretty sure I only ever tried out the free ships when we could. I don't think I've ever rented a ship tbh.

Is there a way of telling if it's rented?

I've got a carrack I need to check out this weekend.

Chucky,
If you did rent it, it should show a timer on the ship spawn terminal.
But, I think it might be a temporary loaner to everyone at the moment.
https://support.robertsspaceindustries.com/hc/en-us/articles/360003093114-Loaner-Ship-Matrix

I don't know how long it'll last, they've been there for over a month now.

I ask because there seemed to be a issue with rented ships still in users hanger after the time exp.

Carrack is pretty cool. Not very easy to solo but still a cool ship. Lots of bells and whistles.

Yep, got a Carrack too. The standup pilot console with the remote turret console 5 feet way to jump to make solo possible. But having 1 or 2 crew with you is where this thing rocks. When they allow you to spawn the ship with the piceses and rover all ready loaded will be great as you have to manually do it now.

Having a bug with it at the moment where I can't even spawn it, so I hope that gets fixed soon. Luckily I fleshed out my fleet, so I'll fly the other ones in the mean time.

I now have another launcher problem. A while ago it was the 'javascript' error that I went through RSI support to try to fix. It still happens occasionally but now when I run the launcher I have no play button to click on and no patch notes or settings to peruse. Looks like quite a few have this issue too.

I've had the blank launcher a few times.

You've probably already tried this, but I just log out from the account and when I log back in the launch buttons back.

v3.9.0 is now LIVE (no assets wipe)...



Red

Grrrr. STILL a stutter-fest,even on low detail.

Plus now they've added the one thing I hate about any game,eating and drinking mechanics

First FD ruined E:D for me and slowly this is going the same way.

I would have loved to have explored the game further (I spawned at Babbage) but the stuttering just drove me to quit.

Why the #%&*$# do they keep adding new stuff when the basic game runs like a 3 legged dog?

My basic PC specs are i5 6600/GTX970/16GB mem/SSD.

I get horrible FPS on all the starting locations. It's annoying and I have no idea why they thought starting every player in the worst FPS sink was a good idea but once you get off planet everything clears up and as long as you stay away from the big planets and stick with the moons and bases it stays smooth for me. If you want we can get on a server and I can fly you off world then you can give it another go.

The eat and drink is once every 3-5 hours depending on activity. To me thats not so bad but I'd have rathered it just buffed you instead of being a survival mechanic.

Yeah,I hadn't looked at the actual eating and drinking mechanics to be honest. In a lot of games it's completely overdone. This doesn't look terrible but I'd still rather it was optional.

I did have a separate thread up about performance issues but I deleted it as I wasn't sure the conclusion I'd come to was right. My system isn't cutting edge (it never was) so I'll just have to accept that I have to run it in 'low' mode and suffer issues in the built-up areas and hopefully they'll optimise the code at some point.

I think once you get out into space away from the 3 starting worlds performance gets a LOT better. Im on a 7 year old system myself and I get maybe 10fps on those planets but then about 40 out in space even with ships around. You just have to slideshow yourself out of orbit!

I think that zone is one graphically one of the harshest of the starting zones. There's a lot of weather and atmospheric effects, much more than any other planet. I think Master is right though, the starting locations are the worst spots of performance in the game.

The food and drink mechanics are annoying and I don't like them in any games. It would be better if you could get food and drink from the landing zones, but many of them have no services. I'm not talking the little shelters either, places like Levski don't sell any food. And even there, it took me awhile to find water. At least it's not like other survival games where you have the metabolism of the Flash and have to eat nonstop.

Mining on ships is currently broken. The asteroids will just vanish once you break them up. There's no current fix, other than to log off, then log in and hope you get a different server/instance where it does work.

Still having tons of 30ks which is annoying but also having a lot of fun with this patch. The game almost feels ready for prime time except for those #%&*$# server crashes. If they could get a handle on that it would be a lot easier to recommend the game to people.

I got a 24 hour prison sentence for killing AI NPCs in a mission the game generated and gave me...

Not exactly keen on this whole prison concept. Punishing us to play their game?

That was an entire day of real life I had to wait to play the game again. That or break rocks, which I couldn't...

That's unfortunate Blastman. What was the mission?

The caterpillar rescue prisoner mission.

It's Q2 2020! How do I sign up for the Squadron 42 beta?!

Yeah, that does kind of suck. You do a mission and get thrown in jail.


On the other hand, you did just attack a prison ship and tried to spring the prisoners, so, what did you expect was going to happen?

There's guides on breaking out of prison, it's not too hard, you just have to have someone pick you up on the planet's surface. Then, try to avoid running into bounty hunters.
You could also just try hunting down escaped prisoners. It's dangerous, but pays well.

Jail is the single best thing to happen to starcitizen and maybe even mmo survival games in general. Two days before the patch I watched people ramming ships at PO with their 890 jumps for literally 2 hours straight. When I finally found a server without people griefing the spawn I fled to daymar where people were camping the vehicle spawn area and blowing you up as soon as you left the no fire zone.

Since 3.9 I've not seen anyone grief the spawn or no fire zones. Yes people still grief and player kill but it is greatly (vastly) reduced to the point that I no longer kill on sight when I run into random players. When you do die from someone you know they are going to have to spend a LOT of time rotting in jail for that 30 seconds of gratification.

Best thing ever... might could still be tweeked a bit. Also, you can take criminal missions just like previously but if you commit a crime in a region with a com sat it's still a crime and you'll still have to do the time. Doesnt matter if the game generated the mission or not. Murder is murder! even if you are murdering other criminals. Especially if you murder police on a prison ship...

This was a game provided mission killing AI, no different than destroying aliens in Space Invaders or robots in Berserk. I did what the game asked me to do, within the framework of the game design, and I was punished harshly with real world consequences--24 hours of downtime, or spend my afternoon mining rocks.

That's not reasonable? Nobody can convince me otherwise. There's no way to rationalize penalizing a player for playing the way the game asks you to. This is insane, retarded, and will ultimately be Star Citizen's downfall if idiotic mechanics and decisions like this are implemented in the game.

Frankly, it doesn't get stupider than this.

Make a game -> punish players for playing your game -> ????

Moronic.


p.s. (not directed at anyone in particular)

Killing AI is not griefing. Killing AI doesn't affect other players. I wasn't pad ramming. I wasn't murderboating random players. I was playing the game within the scope of what it asked me to do.

Pad ramming is griefing. I'm fine with consequences for that.

Piracy is NOT griefing. If you're too greedy to hire other human players to protect your expensive cargo run, you deserve to be robbed and lose your cargo. One can't have infinite profit potential without risks. You don't get to trade for free. The natural penalty for piracy players is their significantly reduced level of income. Throwing them in prison for adding intrigue and excitement to a game is not good gameplay--it only hardens the criminals and makes them nastier and more vengeful. If the stakes are raised to the point folks are banned from the game for playing it in a way developers originally advertised as acceptable ways to play, then those who wish to pirate will do their damnedest to achieve their goals at whatever costs are levied on the innocent traders or miners or explorers or whoever, rather than nice, courteous piracy that could be. The stakes are simply too high.

So those who smugly smile at these implementations, be wary of the consequences, as one bounty hunter learned a night ago.

I was at Kareah removing my crimestat with a cryptokey--because I shot an AI, and just as I finished and my crimestat went away, a bounty hunter barreled into the room, weapon drawn, ready to sink his teeth into his prize. I stood there and waved, and he gunned me down. Soon after he was hauled off to prison to break rocks. I didn't intend for this to happen, but there are others who will, and are already devising ways to send innocents to jail.


Mechanics that punish players for playing a game within the scope of a game with real world consequences are awful design and can only hurt a game's player population.

p.p.s.

Some pirates might be the nicest, kindest and caring folks you may ever meet in real life, but once in a game... the gloves come off.

*edited to a new post that was less agressive.

I completely disagree. Now granted the game could have been better at informing you that the mission you are on is a criminal mission that will result in a criminal rating but other than that I have no issue with people lose days of game time for committing crimes. You can explore the prison mechanics to reduce your sentence. if you dont like that then you are SoL and have to wait it out. Does it suck? sure but you should have known that might be the consequence when you got into it with that mission.

Sofar this penal system that vastly reduced the pvp griefing and even wrangled the standard pvp to the point that I feel safe enough to play and learn the game.

Now granted we do need a more open area for people to run amok in and that is coming with pyro (un policed zone) but in a normal system what we have now works brilliantly and even though it might run some players off those are not players I care to play with anyways. This IS the direction the game is going for better or worse. This is just the first iteration though. it will get better/worse and vastly more encompassing down the road.

Seriously? You need big brother watching over your shoulder to feel safe?

Please.

Ships have guns on them! Use them! Combat is so easy to avoid in Star Citizen and Elite. If you want to run it is as simple as following a few quick steps and you're outta there, nobody can hurt you. Now if you're in a larger ship like a Caterpillar, this may be a lot harder to pull off, what with EMP in the game, but if you have a Caterpillar... then you're wealthy enough to afford players to protect you.

Don't do the trade if the guards won't be paid.




Regarding prison, question...

So I should go to prison every time I kill someone in Streets of Rage? How about every koopa troopa I squash in Mario games? I'm in Bowser's Kingdom, after all. Mario should be incarcerated for playing the game the way it is meant to be played?

None of those examples even remotely work for this situation.

In this game, prison IS how it is meant to be played if you commit a crime. If you dont like that dont commit crime in policed space or find a new game. It's not going away. In fact they plan to make it MORE restrictive and all encompassing.

So...

I play the game the way the game missions tell me I should play the game and do as the game asks me to do...

And I get sent to prison for a day or MORE? And this is how the game is supposed to be played?


TOTALLY MAKES SENSE!

LET'S PAY MONEY FOR SOMETHING THAT PUNISHES US FOR PLAYING THE GAME!


Do you not realize how ludicrous that sounds?

Some people want to play as criminals. You cant play as a criminal without crime and punishment. It's like you are getting angry at the devs of Grand Theft Auto because the police shot you after you murdered a bunch of people and stole several cars.

Your argument makes no sense to me. You took a criminal mission where you were breaking other criminals out of a prison ship and you murdered the prison guards. Yes, it was a mission presented to you by the game and you played it the way the game wanted it played but you accepted a criminal mission. It pays more but also gives you a crime stat. Surprise you got a crimestat for committing crime...

If you dont want that, then dont take crime missions.

24 hours of real time punishment for taking a mission?

A solid Earth day. One revolution on our axis.

I'm sorry, but I feel you're nuts if you think this is reasonable for killing bots in a videogame.