Star Citizen Alpha Stability & Server Woes – Could We See a Wipe?

There are commonly login issues currently with 3.13… login in queues, Infinite loading screens, game becomes unresponsive after trying to launch into the Persistent Universe.

This isn’t for all players but it seems that a lot of people are still affected.

We are also seeing a lot of client instability, occasional 30ks which are typically server crashes (but probably not more than normal for server crashes) and some 50k disconnects (these are timeouts for trying to connect to Star Citizen Services).

The client seems to crash for many people as well randomly… leaving Star Citizen.

One of the weirder things about this, is that it seems to happen erratically, I did not have any issues playing 3.13 the morning after it’s release BUT we have seen issues in the evening and over the start of this week. It’s possible CI are having a backend service issue OR they have changed something on their servers for testing or as an improvement (that’s failed).

Low performance – There were some windows updates that have since been patched that were causing some low performance in games including Star Citizen. 3.13 seems to be pretty good performance wise with the latest Graphics Drivers and Windows 10 Updates.

There has been a New Hotfix Patch 3.13.0a with various bug fixes along with some server maintenance which has put the game in a bit of a better position.

Fixed an issue that could cause a server to spawn doubled assets such as elevator doors
Fixed an issue causing players to die when placing boxes on ship lifts
Picking up a weapon off the floor should no longer break some animations such as leaning, crouching & jumping
Players should no longer be able to acquire or equip the mounted gun optic attachment and block all bullet damage
Fixed a Server crash

Since that Patch I am having a much more stable time again but others are reporting to have the same issues… tho it does seem to be a lot less from what I can tell.

However there is an issue here being that CI appears to not have acknowledged the problems that are still ongoing for some as a “known issue”. That may be because it’s still in triage OR known about and being fixed or for any number of others reasons.

Cloud Imperium needs to get the patch in a good state for Fleet Week at the end of May… last years fleet week was a big financial success BUT actually a huge game failure at it’s initial launch as servers were hugely broken, people couldn’t log in and there were frequent crashes.

The known issues that they have listed on their patch notes are:

Cannot Use New Babbage ship services
You some can’t quantum jump with another player on the bridge of a ship
Customizable nameplates do not appear on skin variants
Constellation can despawn when flying 30km away after undocking and is janky to dock with when moving. Tho someone had a work around of leaving a NPC or Player Body on your ship that’s been dragged there… and then that doesn’t despawn the ship… it may work with flair and other items potentially too.
Wallace Klim can spawn floating
Trolleys at Area18 hangars are clipping through the floor and more generally can’t be pushed up ramps or on elevators
Players can spawn facing the wrong way in Arena Commander and the client can crash when loading in.
The eclipse has broken entry/exit interactions
Chat HUD issues for ultrawide resolutions

There are 2 more major issues imo here too

Bed logout can cause an infinite loading screens when rejoining the PU (a Character Reset may be required to fix)… tho I think this might be for many other reasons beyond bed logouts…
There is an Abnormally long delay between pick up storing of fps mineables/harvestables/items

This actually suggests to me there is an issue with the servers, backend services and database… we know CI are working towards icache and a faster more robust way of tracking items and changes in the game BUT it looks like there have been some bugs in the current patch with that.

And this is compounded by a notification or warning when you login via the launcher that you have to agree to:

This is possibility to combat grey market and eBay trading of aUEC currency which would be lost on a wipe BUT it could also mean that CI are planning a wipe… which could make sense if there is a database issue… there is nothing you can do if they decide to wipe (you won’t lose anything you bought with real money tho)… I am not saying that is what is happening just stating that it’s a solid possibility.

DONT BUY aUEC FROM eBAY is my hot tip there!

Some players have had potential success with a character reset (tho it is a more nuclear option). Some people are saying deleting your user folder and getting the latest drivers worked for them in fixing their issues… but to me it seems pretty erratic.

It’s disheartening when there are basic playability issues with Star Citizen such as poor performance, server crashes, client crashes and the like, especially after the PTU for 3.13 had a pretty solid experience. The latest hotfix has helped somewhat but there is more to be done. We do know there are 3.13 patches in the works and we could see hotfixes and the new 3.13.1 patch before Fleet Week (which is towards the end of May). I know some people might hate the idea of a wipe and hopefully they won’t need to do that HOWEVER if it fixes issues for more players then GREAT, I’d welcome it.