Star Citizen “CitizenCon” 2020 Round Up
we just had the Star Citizen Birthday Event that was instead of “CitizenCon” and I wanted to talk about the Takeaway from that event and a summary of the highlights.
CI have said that their iCache Tech is Planned for Q2 2021 now.
Physical Inventory & Item Storage Likely Coming with (or near to) iCache’s Integration.
The work for this is mostly done, it’s mostly them literally integrating it into the game now.
Server Meshing is coming in 2021 after iCache – They’ve said that this will allow Star Citizen to increase it’s players beyond 50 per server to thousands concurrently in the same instance. Now how successful or extensive that will be with it’s first iteration is not clear.
They said that the Pyro System would be coming at the same time as Server Meshing.
The Dynamic Universe Simulation elements are being worked on BUT we don’t have a timeline for them.
They have said that once icache, server meshing and the dynamic universe sim that they can
“open the floodgates in terms of locations and content”.
They have big plans for salvage, repair, medical, data running, farming, and manufacturing / crafting.
Cargo, Piracy and Bounty Hunting are going to be getting some love as a priority.
It sounds like Crafting is potentially getting a lot more fleshed out too.
The Start of Deeper Medical Gameplay is planned for Q2 2021. Also they are starting to think about character mortality and death of a SpaceMan mechanics. We should see more info on this shortly.
Base Building has a much larger scope now. iCache & full persistence enables them to do a lot more and will fully save your base and items that you’ve left there.
You will be able to place multiple structures not just “outposts” and then connect them to power generators, turrets, resource collectors, hydroponic domes and more. They are working on an RTS Top Down view for building settlements too.
The pioneer has been getting updates. They want it to be a mobile fabrication facility allowing you to make various structures easily rather than just a pre-made outpost. You won’t need a Pioneer to build yourself a homestead/base. We will see more on this next year.
They celebrated passing $300m in backer funding but the full funding for star citizen inc private investment and voluntary subs is closer to $440m in my estimation. Whatever the number its Record Breaking Funding this year already and still 10 weeks left of the year.
They are Coming up on 1 million unique players this year
AI Blades will be a thing in game allowing you some additional ship function or automation BUT this actually allows for a huge range of operation, automating turrets, automatically firing appropriate counter measures BUT also drone controllers, security systems, criminal databases, assists for salvage or mining… better encryption.
Squadron 42 is not going to be beta ready in 2020, Squadron & Star Citizen is done when it’s done and they won’t make compromises on quality.
the team is in “close out” mode and we are actively looking to burn down our remaining tasks and focus on polishing gameplay.
Squadron 42 is going to have a lot of replayability and a huge amount of detail in it’s environments, ways to approach missions and interactivity of how you complete tasks.
In some of the new Squadron 42 teaser footage they showed off the Cydnus Mining tick in a little more detail BUT also a junker looking ship… that maybe is a shipjacker/junk version of the Terrapin. It’s kind of hard to tell… I think the shipjackers take bits from other ships and wield them together.
CI also showed off more of the Aciedio Comm Array which is an early location in the SQ42 campaign. You’ll spend 90% of the game in the Odin System. There are 80 crew on the Idris you are stationed on for a “good chunk” of the game, each with their own personality, speaking of which there is lots of wild lines and ways to get involved with conversations or breakaway from them in a semi-believable manner.
They are hoping that the 1st iteration of the “New Roadmaps” for both Squadron 42 and the PU by the end of the year. These will give us a much more in depth look at development, what features are being worked on by what teams and when a task is completed that is updated in real time.
There were no “new” ships unveiled, the assumption being that there will be 1 OR more during the IAE.
The November IAE will be at New Babbage on microTech
They said there has been “some disturbing transmissions coming from Pyro…”
This could be Xenothreat turning up and potentially the start of some more large fleet events… like the Fleet Week UEE Fleet but more combat ready and as part of server wide raids to defeat them and their capital ships.
What we can almost certainly expect tho is a 2 week free fly event, loads of ships to try out, new ships straight to flyable/drivable and concept ones too.
Expect the IAE at the end of November to be the Biggest Event in 2020.
Rumors of what might be new range from Titan Suits, RSI Odin Gunship, Xi’an Cargo Ship, Mobile Refinery and more…
Make sure you get involved with the October Events… 3.11 is LIVE, you have been given a Gladius and Glaive to use thru the month. Get 50 unique player kills (with the Gladius or Glaive) ALSO get to benny hendge to earn an in game mask for each of those achieve.
There are some other free bits players were given too, a Digital Goodies pack, flight suit, helmet, pistol, and birthday-themed Pico.
As well as an additional 300m milestone pistol.
The Verse is reasonably active… be aware that GrimHex is very dangerous with lots of players trying to get their 50 unique kills. It’s pretty fun tho!
Also make sure to vote in the imperator elections, there are 5 candidates and you have until the 24th October to cast you ballot and I’ll be getting more info on the candidates out over the next few days!