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Star Citizen – Should You Get a Subscription

Welcome to some more Star Citizen today I wanted to talk more about RSI Subscriptions, the voluntary subscriber model that CIG has for Star Citizen.

There have been some updates to what they are doing for August & continuing forward.

But is it worth it to get a subscription, what is the money supposed to pay for and what exactly do you get – Let’s Talk Star Citizen Subscriptions & New Perks.

There are 4 main reasons IMO that someone might want to get what I refer to as an RSI Subscription.

Either to support development and video content, get some benefits for in game OR to get more access to more information (like sub forums, newsletters and the jump point magazine) OR to get early access to the PTU and builds of Star Citizen. CIG have been updating the perks that subscribers receive and iterating on some of their video content as well. Based on the income figures we have from CIG in 2017 it’s estimated (at least by me) that Subscribers generate around $3 million plus a year.

August Subscriber Changes

Starting August there are changes to what RSI Subscribers can expect – Taken from the August Subscriber Promotion Post:

Starting this month and moving forward, you’ll see a variety of offerings from the Character Art team designed to personalize your Star Citizen experience in ways more distinct than a simple color variant.

The items that come between August and December 2019 are being created specifically for Subscribers with an eye towards life in the persistent universe. Some of them will be the helmets we’ve already previewed in previous newsletters and Star Citizen Live, others will be things you may have first seen if you read Jump Point magazine each month. We’re excited to bring this additional focus to the In-Game Rewards (often referred to as Flair) with an eye towards truly unique offerings not found anywhere else, at least not in the immediate future. It’s one more way we want to say thank you for supporting the continuing development of the game each and every month.

This Month’s Flair – Divided into two packs of three, these “Life in the ‘Verse” shirts are intended to represent the same type of novelty clothing many of us wear in real life, just with a Life in the Stanton System flair. Shirts with the same acerbic wit and charm found in our own personal clothing.

Life in the ‘Verse Shirts Pack #1 – Whether it’s the landing pads of Port Olisar, the “breathable” atmosphere of Lorville or the crime-ridden areas around Grim HEX, you’ve survived what the Stanton System has thrown at you and now you can have the shirt to prove it. Current Centurion Subscribers get this pack as part of their subscription.

Life in the ‘Verse Shirts Pack #2 – Of course, it’s not just the places you’ll go. Show the ‘Verse that you’re no stranger to the trials and tribulations to life among the stars with this collection of dangers found throughout the Stanton System. Current Imperator Subscribers get both packs as part of their subscription.

If you aren’t a subscriber but want to acquire these packs as part of a Subscription, you can still receive them if you SUBSCRIBE by August 19th.

So What Video Content Does it Pay for?

CIG’s Disco Lando is Now in Charge of the Subscriber Content, so he basically deals with the video content it pays for currently Inside Star Citizen (a Weekly Show looking at the next major patch cycle and things CIG have been working on) Star Citizen LIVE (another weekly show BUT LIVE with Devs from different disciplines, sometimes these LIVE shows are more Townhalls, typically once a month and they might have very special guests like Todd Pappy or Key Members of Staff and answer some of the most pressing questions) and Pillar Talk (a quarterly show that looks at the latest patch in a bit more detail).

Some of the video content & live shows only take questions from Subscribers.

What Else Do you Get?

One of the Main Reasons that people will consider an RSI Sub is Early Access to PTU Builds. New Patches go through phases before they go LIVE to everyone, Evocati Testing which is a closed NDA’d phase for people that have been invited by CIG but then after that typically a couple of weeks after there is the Subscriber & Concierge Wave that get access.

It then goes out to waves of backers based on their participation with the Issue Council and amount of PTU builds they have participated in.

Jump Point – a Monthly Digital Magazine that has lots of behind the scenes information on STar Citizen & Squadron, typically mirroring what has been shown off in the Weekly Shows with additional content.

Ship of The Month – August has all of the Cyclone Variants available for Subs to use in the PU. Each month will have a different ship/vehicle or collection to use.

For September has the entire Masters of Flight Series of Ships to use – the Avenger Titan Renegade, the F7C Hornet Wildfire, the Sabre Comet, and the Gladius Valiant.

The previous months vehicle / ship will be made available on the pledge page for Subs as well BUT they are also adding some additions for subs as well buying from the Subscriber Store:

The Ship of the month that’s being sold with some additional free bits and pieces, they will have 1-Year Insurance (Up from the base 6-Months). They will also come with 3 pieces of decorative flair items from the past, these will change to a different 3 items each month.

In the future (not August), they’ll be enabling CCUs for select vehicles that aren’t stock limited. This requires them to add functionality to the CCU system to allow for sub-only promotion.

So for August the Vanguard Warden is available in the Subscriber store with 1 year Insurance and flair wise a schematic of the warden an MPUV & Space Cactus. September will see all the Cyclones with a different set of flair and the month after that the Renegade, Wildfire, Comet and Valiant with a different set.

More Minor Things You Get each month:

You get 20k REC, the currency for renting items in AC.

Access to the Sub forums & areas with the vault which has concept and early wip pictures, a monthly newsletter.

Early Access to Tickets for things like CitizenCon

Access to purchase Exclusive Physical Merch & T-Shirts

If you Subs for at least 12 months you get a 10% off Voucher capped at $50 max discount.

There are actually 2 types of Subscription Centurion (the Standard sub for $10) and Imperation the Premium Subscription for $20. Imperators get some additions to their Subscriptions beyond what I have already mentioned.

Additional Flair – so typically this will be a variant of the centurion flair BUT you will effectively get twice the amount of flair.

Twice the amount of REC – so 40k

After a New Ship has been released to LIVE you’ll have access to it for a week. I suspect that when the 890 Jump, Carrack and some of the Capital Ships are released that Imperator Subs will spike.

There are Imperator Events, that are typically ticketed such as being a physical audience member for SC LIVE. Though these are separate from Concierge Events such as the Aegis Frankfurt Event on the 24th of August, some of these might be for both Subs and Concierge though.

You also get a 20% Coupon – After 12 months of Sub Time instead of a 10% one.

Is it worth it to become a RSI Subscriber?

Well currently it’s relative. It’s certainly not essential & it’s not Pay2Win.

Though the perks are going to be valuable to players for the different reasons I outlined earlier. For me the Imperator $20 are ridiculously expensive for not much.

As Ship’s are purchasable in game now & rentals should also be coming potentially in August the getting access to ships is less essential… though something like the 890 Jump might not be available as a rental and be extremely expensive in game.

The additional flair is as of yet not been worth it, though this may change in the future.

They have talked about silly star kitten helmets, we have previously had christmas flair & the Holo-Skull & Centurion Helmet look amazing, that’s something that I’d sub for when they are out… maybe… Or if they start doing sweet Bounty Hunter Flair.

Disco actually made a comment about them on Reddit, that Matadors Aneut Spotted for me, thanks buddy:

“Holo-Helmets are still on the way. They’re blocked by the need for an update to the hologram shader to make them look as cool as possible. They’re still on the docket, just no ETA at the moment.”

Early Access to Star Citizen Builds might be one of the main reasons backers get a Sub.

You do have access to buy any previous flair and see any previous jump points when you subscribe.

Thrifty people may of realized there’s a way to maximize flair and subs. If you wait to subscribe until after the sub announcement has gone out each month it says, if you sub by the XX you get the sub items, if you sub for 1 month during this time you are likely to get that months and the next months sub item. You can then sub again the month after if you want to after the announcement of flair… so basically you are potentially getting 2 sets of sub flair for a single months sub fee each time, that said you can buy all the flair items from the subscriber store… so you could just wait and buy all the flair when there’s something you really want, to give you an idea each of the packs of 3 t-shirts is available for $3 a pack, some individual items of clothing from $1.50 and typical weapons and flair items $5.

That fact that Centurions can be the Imperator Flair for a few $$$ also takes away the need to go for the more expensive sub.

I am currently a Subscriber, I do this for a mixture of insight and the perks BUT I also do it as it feels like I have more of a say on the video content CIG create & I personally would like to see more.

Are the Subs worth the money – not really imo from a capitalist what do I personally get out of it POV, maybe when they have flair that is super cool or you want. It does help support the project though and some of the perks are going to be more valuable to some than others, with that in mind occasionally subbing might be for some backers. One of my bugbears is I don’t feel that the current amount of video content CIG put out that’s funded from Sub money is appropriate for the amount they are generating.

I would like to see them bring back Calling All Devs, videos on Game Design – Mechanics, regular Ship Shapes as well as deep dives basically the elements that the old AtVs had separated into their own videos.

Something worth mentioning is  – At the start of August Disco put out a thread “Broken Subscriber Flair – Info Needed” Getting the community to help build a list of all Subscriber Flair items from 2014 to now that have broken due to one thing or another and are still broken as of 3.6.1 

They fixed some for 3.6/3.6.1 – There’s a Subscribers Thread but basically they want reports and verifications to others reports on the issue council about sub flair items not working.

Actually looking at what flair can be placed and works correctly, there is a lot that is broken, can’t be placed or doesn’t function correctly so it’s good that they are fixing this.

Flair is going to be a lot more interesting when we can bring it into the PU and place in our hangar, ship & habs, more over to that when we have fully physicalized static habs then I think the players are going to actively want more flair.

There is a worry for the future that Subscriber perks could start to encroach on Pay2Win territory, it hasn’t yet BUT I suppose we will have to cross that bridge and be appropriately angry if that happens. We should see a concerted effort from CIG and Disco I suppose to encourage more backers to become Subscribers though.

And hopefully they will increase the amount of video/live content that they put out in the future.