CitizenCon 2019 Speculation

Welcome to some more Star Citizen, today I wanted to talk about CitizenCon 2019, what we know & then a hefty amount of speculation about what we might see this year. It’s worth mentioning as well that I doubt that CIG have CitizenCon fully planned in regard to exactly what will be shown or their panels will be BUT we can take educated guesses.

What is CitizenCon?

CitizenCon is the Official Yearly Star Citizen FanFest which takes place over a whole day & celebrates the game with new information, panels, presentations, reveals, cool things to do for attendees, ship sales and more.

A huge amount of information is gained about Star Citizen, it’s future plans every CitizenCon.

Date & Time

CitizenCon 2949 otherwise known as 2019 (as the game universe is set 930 years in the future). Is on November 23rd at Manchester Central Convention Complex in the UK.

This years CitizenCon is a lot later than previous years (which was typically around October 10th, so 6 weeks later) and that could cause some knock on events that we will discuss later.

Last Year’s CitizenCon – Gave us a New Squadron 42 Cinematic Trailer, a mighty Concept Ship the Drake Kraken Assault Carrier, Revealed a New Flyable Ship the Anvil Valkyrie Drop Ship which came with Alpha 3.3 which went to PTU for everyone, we had a gameplay demo of 3.3.5 which had the additions of Hurston, Lorville and Object Container Streamer, they also had a road to release presentation which talked about the pillar of the game they are focusing on Org Features, Full Persistence and Server Meshing.

There were panels throughout the day across 2 stages as well covering tech, future features, animation, the new flight model, economy plans, NPC Simulation, vfx, sound, biomes & cities.

Anniversary Sale

2019’s CitizenCon now coincides with the Yearly Anniversary Sale that CIG for Star Citizen. This looks like they will combine the 2 events together.

Ship Sales

The Anniversary Sale last year saw over a week of ship sales, with each day highlighting another manufacturer these manufacturers vehicles were available to buy on the RSI Website BUT also there was a showcase in game mirroring the manufacturer for the day with ships on display, that were rentable in game, as well as some new ones / works in progress. We got the very cool Anvil Arrow Flyable and the SantokYai, Medium Xi’An Fighter Concept in 2018 as well as the Idris M on the show floor at one point.

CitizenCon / Anniversary In Game Event?

I am expecting a CitizenCon/Anniversary in game event in 2019 & then ship sales to extend for a week or 2.

We may see either Area 18 at ArcCorp or another location with a show floor area showing ships and a CitizenCon Event.

As last year seemed pretty successful I would expect something very similar with the ability to try ships out (that said ship rentals are properly in game for 3.6 as well).

New Concept Sales

There will almost certainly be something new concept wise and potentially something immediately available in game, CitizenCon and the Anniversary Sale are the 2 biggest money earning events for Star Citizen:

The Titan Suits could potentially go on sale, not some much concepts as they are being built out for SQ42.

I’d also expect Something Big like a Capital ship of some kind maybe, we could see something that’s in SQ42 make it’s way into the PU too.

Has Alpha 3.7 moved to later or earlier?

Something that’s worth talking about is that the 3rd Major Release of the Year previously been released at CitizenCon BUT now that it’s 6 weeks later than normal. Will Alpha 3.7 be released at CitizenCon OR go to it’s Q3 end of September Default?

My Guess is that 3.7 will be released in September with potentially CitizenCon getting a 3.7.5 update (if needed). I do expect CitizenCon to be heavy on Alpha 3.8 Gameplay

They typically show off some new gameplay for Star Citizen for an hour or so, last year this focused on near future content with 3.3.5 gameplay of Lorville & Playing the Downed Satellite Mission. So what 3.8 stuff could we see:

I think it’s very possible they are trying to get static server meshing working for CitizenCon or at least SSOCS and some other server optimizations, but we could certainly see microTech & New Babbage they can have it running in a local environment and fake bits if they need to.

The Carrack, The Prowler, Hull-C

Static Server Meshing / SSOCS

Dynamic Mission System – with a new mission.

Salvage Gameplay

Cargo Improvements

Beyond 3.8 Stuff

This year’s CitizenCon Home page has a quote “We have become explorers again. We have resurrected mystery, discovery and adventure.” – Nick Croshaw

In lore Nick Croshaw found the first Stable Jump Point and the Croshaw System, this leads me to believe that we see a some exploration based content.

My mind drifts to a few things that I think are possible they will show or talk about.

Jump Points & A New System makes sense, it’s CitizenCon they like to tease things coming next year and they are likely able to showcase this in a small enclosed environment at the same time they can talk and show off Static Server Meshing or the work towards it.

Star Citizen is in Space and has Aliens, something that has been severely lacking in the PU, I am hoping we see some more animals that are less scripted than the previous Sandworm and Xiphopods previously shown.

More Biomes, maybe a look at Alien Cities or Characters.

Titan Suits – It’s possible Titan Suits will be shown off at CitizenCon, they are pegged to be ready for SQ42s needs Q4 2019. If they can have these stomping around I will be happy.

Squadron 42 “Broader” Vertical Slice

We know that they have been working on on a Broader Vertical Slice of Gameplay of Squadron 42 Episode 1 focusing on the first 3rd of the Game. It’s very possible this will be part of what they show off during the day, if not that, then I think maybe another trailer. They have been making lots of improvements to the Vanduul so it’s as good a place as any to show off this terrifying foe in a bit more detail.

Panels

There should be a variety of panels again throughout the event / over the day I am expecting to see a variety of things, I think like last year they will have at least 2 concurrent stages for these panels.

Panels on Animation, Biomes/Cities, Planets, Aliens, Salvage, Other Gameplay Mechanics, Something looking at future design of Repair, Science, Exploration

Tony Zurovec talking about something amazing like last year with what he did with the Economy, NPCs & Bounty Hunting

Land Claims are one that I want to bring up as I know they had a lot of the plans nailed down with this to get Land Claim Gameplay in originally for the end of 2018 but then they started their massive rescheduling, it’s something I still think is planned in the not too distant future.

Updates to the Road to Release

Last year we had the Road to Release where Chris talked about the evolution of Star Citizen & then the more major future focuses; Org Features, Full Persistence & Server Meshing. I would expect a similar presentation to end CitizenCon with, updates on those features & any new plans.

Something I think we could potentially get is a SQ42 Release Date.

Squadron 42 Episode 1 is planned to be in Beta for 2020, it’s possible they may announce a release date, madness I know.

Some other things

I expect they may update the Roadmaps for Squadron 42 and the PU.

I think it would be cool to see an updated Admiral Bishop speech or Morrow tour for SQ42.

We could see new Ship Commercials and Gameplay Trailers for the PU as well.

Something that I would very much like to personally see is Capital Ship combat at whatever scale CIG are able to show it at this stage, we saw 2 Idrises fight in 2017 at GamesCom 2 years later I’d hope to see something more.

Whatever is at CitizenCon it should be pretty awesome, it’s an interesting choice to combine CitizenCon and the Anniversary into the same event BUT that is a good thing for many reasons, not least of all that they are only focusing on 1 event and that is more devs working on the game rather than preparing for presentations.

Tickets are not on sale yet, I am planning on going and I’ll link the CitizenCon Page that will be updated in the future here https://robertsspaceindustries.com/citizencon