Star Citizen Road to Release
Welcome to a Star Citizen Roadmap to Completion… The PU has many Features left to be completed before it can be considered “Feature Complete Beta”, there are also a load of other features that CIG want to continue with “after release” and improving the game BUT for the focus of this video we are going to briefly go over what features have been talked about, will one day be on the roadmap or are mechanics that are needed in the game…..
There is a bit of a difference between the game being “finished” and it being LIVE/it having permanent progression.
Obviously Generally Balance for everything, bugs fixed & all the ships complete.
We do have some indication of what CIG have in mind for the this year potentially, rescheduling permitting, though I am going to expand on them beyond their first implementations AND whatever the case CIG does need to get them in game at least at some point.
Deeper Outlaw Gameplay – Expanding the Law System, adding Prisons & a huge set of gameplay for that with players having to pay off merits to get out of jail, they will be able to mine under the prison complex to earn merit faster and even use merits to lease gear to mine more effectively, or use it to try to escape.
There is later plans for the Removal of Armistice Zones and fully automated defenses and security for stations and landing zones where appropriate.
Bounty Hunting – Capturing NPCs / Less than lethal Weapons, Tracking Signatures of ships, sharing data on characters.
The expansion of New Star Systems is needed with Jump Points connecting as well, 2020 will see at least the Pyro System BUT CIG have said there are plans for around 100 Systems and the Lore Team have said this is actually closer to 120… that’s going to clearly take many years to have fully in game BUT only a few handfuls would be required for a launch.
AI Updates – To allow NPCs to work appropriately including them being able to call in reinforcements, fly in atmosphere, get in and leave ships, fly in formations, NPC Scheduler…
They said they wanted Ships & Vehicles Spawning in Ships and ready for use for 2020. After this they want to get Ship to Ship & Ship to Station Docking in game which will allow for parasite craft like the the p-52 in the constellation as well as larger ships to dock with stations to do their rearm, refuel and repair / trade.
2020 will also see Lots more POI, Stations including Cargo, Automated, abandoned Stations, asteroid fields They also want Dynamic encounters & Missions. This all eventually builds into a Dynamic Economy & Dynamic Mission System that bases all missions and economic inputs based on whats going on in game and simulating their effects.
The economy will also need, Personal Economy Systems & Accounting Apps – a robust Contracts System, Wallet to Wallet Transactions, Auction House / Buying & Selling of all goods & Ships.
Missions can have multiple parts, secondary objectives & will have a large amount of variance as will events that happen during travelling in QT and that you potentially stumble upon.
Environmental Effects – Nebula, Dynamic Weather, associated environmental hazards, Gas Giants. Player Status System / Light Survival Mechanics dealing with temperature, hunger, thirst & more. There is also new SDF Shield Tech that CIG already have planned.
There are major Engine Optimizations that SC requires – a Physics Queue Refactor,
Vulkan Integration – Renderer Improvements – Expanded Graphics Options, Scaling to CPU Cores & New Hardware Support (VR is still being looked at too BUT do not expect it in the short to medium term)
More over NetCode & Server Optimizations are need Removing Jankiness, delay and poor hit reg as well as Better Player Animations, Sliding, Swimming (later they do want more water gameplay to). Further to netcode and certainly beyond 2020 Server Meshing first Static having set areas of the game run by individual servers that seamlessly handover data to each other – then Dynamic Server Meshing allowing for something as small as a room become a server based on population rather than having set areas that are handled by servers.
We should have Platform Persistence in the very near future meaning that CIG can choose when to reset databases more readily, so it’s more likely aUEC and purchases will persist between patches, some else that CIG is working on in 2020 is Full Persistence and the item Cache which will track item and entities locations and save them between sessions.
Beyond this there is a lot of Other Features Needed some of which will be at least started in 2020 others later that I will summarize briefly here.
A Finalized Flight Model is obviously incredibly important, this leads on to balance for Dogfighting, Ship Combat, Atmospheric Flight and both pve & pvp gameplay.
Cargo Updates are needed to allow for cargo to be moved by hand allowing for piracy but also larger cargo containers, different types based on what’s being stored and even volatile cargos. We also need expanded smuggling and NPC behaviors with this at some point too.
Ships will be getting Physical Components, which can be individually destroyed and removed, this will replace artificial ship health and have ships being disabled or crippled more often (allowing for proper boarding gameplay), Sub Components are also a feature for additional customization of your ship components. Some components like capital sized ones will require specialist facilities to change them over.
There is a Physical Damage System that will have projectiles being stopped by armor, piercing through hulls and hitting what they actually hit, various types of damage affecting shields, systems and anything else it hits.
There is a Physical Inventory & Storage System coming which will have players storing the gear in ships, locker, at habs or on themselves BUT they will have a very limited carrying amount.
There is a huge amount of roles and jobs in the game that need to be implemented and fleshed out and have associated Missions.
Salvage – stripping the hulls, weapons and taking materials off ships.
Medical – Treatment for various injuries & conditions, dragging downed characters, stabilizing wounds and medical items.
Exploration – with more POI, Deeper Scanning Mechanics, Location Saving / Sharing – 3d maps & better navigation, Surveying Land & Asteroid Fields, detecting New Jump Points and anomalies.Bounty Hunting –
Gas / Fuel Harvesting / Quantum Fuel Harvesting
Deeper Black Market – Selling Stolen Ships & goods at ScrapYards
Data Running Mechanics to allow data to be carried as cargo, science might allow data to be made from “refining” plants, chemicals & scanning data.
Science – covers a wide range of gameplay and touches a lot of others. Potentially even Manufacturing of certain things like space drugs…
Farming allowing players to obtain various flora to then grow in biodomes (on ships like the Endeavor) OR on the ground of some planets.
Refining allowing Mineables to be processed into other materials at specific ships / stations.
OverClocking or tweaking allowing for items to be permanently improved or enhanced
E-warfare allowing for ships to potentially spoof signals, jam locks & targeting and generally interfere with the operations of other ships.
There are Land Claims for placing in UEE territory, giving you land rights in a large area that then allows you to do some Base Building with the Pioneer that allows various types of outposts to be built for different needs, you’ll be able to build Defenses too and you won’t need land claims in Non-UEE Space (tho Alien Systems might have their own rules).
The mechanics for Refueling, Rearming & Repair between ships are needed, as well as Drone Gameplay, a mixture of remote piloting them and them having basic AI for doing certain tasks.
Minelaying / Sweeping Gameplay – Focused currently on the Nautilus
Deeper In Game Customization of Ships – allowing for changes to Paint, Decals, Flair & the placement of Extras like food makers.
Deeper Interaction System with various items that might be used as part of missions, puzzles, recreation or other in game reasons.
More Components Changeable – Computers, Thrusters, consumables
Animated/Dynamic Physics Grids allowing for Ships like the Hull Series to expand and contract.
Expanded Modularity – The ability to change major rooms in ships with ones with other functionality, like the Caterpillar.
An in depth Insurance System is required, to help stimulate the economy and provide players security. This goes hand in hand with the need for ships and items to be manufactured as ships that are destroyed will need to be replaced, so materials will be needed and become more valuable.
Death of a SpaceMan is an important part of the risk and reward that Star Citizen is supposed to have. Your character can permanently die in game, though you will have a few lives before you are dead dead and obvious damage and battlescars to your character, items and ships will pass to your next character. There may be ways to extend your life/lives.
There is going to be Gravity Generators on some ships/stations that can be turned On / Off
They are adding Grav Boots with thrusters that push you down and a Push/Pull Mechanic to help propel players in EVA.
There is a load of Gadgets & Ammo types Planned, deployable shields, holograms, different grenade types.
We are going to have Planets & Moons Orbiting their appropriate astral bodies.
There are Other Planet & Biome Types / Cities & Architectures that they are going to be creating.
Physicalized Habs & Hangars, that will be at least rentalable by players – and provide Storage for Cargo, Ships & More.
One of the Major Pillars of the game needs to be completed Organization & Group Features
Deeper Multi-Crew Functionality, things to do on ship, MFDs more ship roles and minigames associated with that, C&C gameplay allowing to control and communicate with a fleet.
A Permissions System allowing for players & NPCs access to certain systems, doors, areas MFDs, Stations and turrets on a ship or base… as well as a way to share ships or have group hangars.
There are plans for a deep Reputation System & Guilds (NPC Orgs with Benefits).
AI Modules & NPC Crew allow for stations on ships to be functional without a player being there. Though there will be restrictions.
NPC Buddies as part of missions.
NPCs Transporting Players & Other NPCs.
24 hour schedules for NPCs
Animals on planets, some of them dangerous
Pets – Which was the 2nd to last $64 million stretch goal
Intelligent Humanoid Aliens – Xian, Banu, Vanduul, Tevarin (maybe the Kr’Thakk) – And Associated Languages / Planets & architecture.
Once we have a larger portion of this gameplay we should have NO MORE RESETS & Permanent Progression coming with the game then switching over to UEC from aUEC, that is expected to mark the “final” reset. Before that we should get to a stage in the near future where CIG are not resetting aUEC & asset progression very often BUT resets will still occur when necessary before the final WE ARE NOW LIVE reset.
But that was a rough rundown of the remaining features for the game that need to be completed to consider it a Feature Complete Beta or there abouts. There may be other sneaky features or supporting gameplay that CIG sneaks in BUT I would expect it to fall under one of the categories or job roles in some way… the expansion and more varied gameplay is not feature creep, a lot of these mechanics as well will have stepped implementation and minor features coming online from patch to patch, eventually amalgamating into something we would consider a full blown gameplay loop.