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Is This The Year For Star Citizen?

Where are we going to be at the end of 2022 with Star Citizen? We’ve talked about Plans for Star Citizen for the first half of 2022 in another video but I want to talk about the 2nd half of 2022 and Q3 & Q4 Potentials for what CI might have completed for the end of the year and what’s on the roadmap. 

I have heard a some creators say that 2022 is not the year for Star Citizen… that’s a pretty vague statement and I don’t really agree… But others say that Star Citizen has blown them away or this could be the turning point of something great!

Whatever you think there is a lot going on this year, just maybe not as much as some people want… Star Citizen is a set of marathons for it’s development… with extra legs added just before you get to the finish line of any given one.

CI’s Focuses are currently on Squadron 42, more so than ever but that doesn’t mean that Star Citizen and it’s PU are entirely ignored. CI have said that this year we are on the Road To Pyro but haven’t confirmed if that means that they are trying to get it out this year… in fact from the way CI are talking it appears that they are trying to have it for Q4 at the end of the year BUT don’t know if it will be ready of not yet.

This is partly due to their Studio Expansion as they look to almost double their workforce over the next few years… they are taking on a huge amount of New hires and then training employees as well as transferring back from working from home to working in the office again at least for the most part.

Now please bare in mind we don’t know for sure what CI’s plans are and I am using a lot of I reckon, looking at the progress tracker on the Roadmap and going… yeah that’s makes sense as well as trying to interpret what CIs plans are.

We know that Q1 & Q2 look to be focusing on some major mechanics like 

Ship to ship Refueling allowing the Starfarer to fill up and charge ships for fuel, Expanded Selling allowing you to sell a much wider set of FPS items back to shops.

Then for 3.18 there is the Cargo Refactor which will start to really change cargo, trading and logistics in game and Hull-stripping Salvage both by hand and with the Vulture. 

Persistent Hangars was pushed off the Roadmap but I still think we may see it later in the year after the Cargo Refactor… we know CI want to have times and costs associated with loading and unloading cargo as well as the ability to store it by renting space. Persistent hangars are really important as a step towards player habs as well and we know CI are working on Rastar and their base building tech.

So what about for the 2nd half of the year and by the end of 2022 where might we be with Star Citizen?

We should see a load of Network upgrades towards sharding and Server Meshing generally making the game and servers better. Vulkan Integration and the Gen 12 renderer are seeing a load of work during the year and could very well be in a mostly complete state by the end of the year too.

My hope that for Q4 we are going to have Star Citizen Alpha 4.0 CI’s focus for the PU has been Alpha 4.0 and Pyro. 

Static Server Meshing would be great to have in an Alpha 4.0 build and was the plan for quite a while however CI have started talking a lot more about Sharding which is a step towards server meshing but I think it might be that SM requires more time to get in.

So Server Meshing is the connecting of multiple servers 

that handle different gameplay areas like a section of space or planet and then shares that data between server seamlessly. So you could have 2000 players in the star system but 100 on each server and you wouldn’t notice that you were on different servers.

Sharding then says well actually we might need multiple copies of the same server or star system, in the short – mid term we need regional servers, so this runs multiple versions of the PU simultaneously they will all affect the over all game economy and dynamic universe and provide redundancy for crashes but you may move between shards and they are sort of a more permanent instance. There is a lot of tech improvements here too and I believe it’s very possible that CI could be releasing that with Pyro and JumpPoints as Alpha 4.0 rather than with the first iteration of Static Server Meshing. CI have said that Ruin Station will not be part of the first release of Pyro. This would mean you would probably be changing servers when moving between Stanton and Pyro and there could even be a stealth loading screen… but it’s a sacrifice I would be willing to make.

With Pyro you’d get a load of new planets, biomes, new outposts, missions and a lot of danger.

We do know that CI have been working on the Nyx System too but I think that is a little further out beyond this year just because it would require too much testing IMO.

A lot of work has been going into NPCs, pathfinding and them being able to move between space to atmosphere to ground and then actually act in FPS. CI said that we could start to see this as early as 3.18 phased into mission with NPCs being able to follow you… that leads to a load of escort, defence, reinforcement and buddy opportunities as well as being more steps towards NPC crew. Realistically I think it’s something we will see in the 2nd half of the year BUT it is super important as important as Alpha 4.0 features in my mind.

I think it’s safe to say you can expect a deeper reputation system, economy updates, various new events. We know that CI have been building the dynamic universe sim part of the game and will start to have more elements of that phased in to the game ASAP.

I am hoping we see Rivers and Roads this year too, the Progress Tracker suggests work is wrapping up for Rivers,basins & Roads in Q2… so this very much could be ready later in the year. 

Something else I am expecting is a ground vehicle physics rework, just improving the way vehicles move and drive on the ground.

Bounty Hunting and Piracy is something that looks to be getting more and more expanded this year… we know that Cargo updates will eventually allow you to move all cargo out of another ship.

While with Bounty Hunting CI have been working on a tracking feature that records and updates where criminals are based on who sees them and interactions… that you can then use to help hunt them down.

I am expecting 2022 to be a record year again for funding and probably by some margin.

CI have got very good at marketing and ship sales as well as making hype events.

Fleet Week, CitizenCon, The IAE and then just a myriad of smaller events and ship sales could in my opinion push the game into making over $100m in a year… which would make sense as CI expand their operation further.

I mentioned Squadron 42 earlier, I am hoping to see CI expose some more development info on it this year and start a more traditional marketing campaign for it. CR is in the UK helping finish out the project. Disco Lando the Video content Guru at SC is also going to be moving the operation over to the UK too.

CitizenCon is likely going to show off JumpPoints, much more of Pyro, New Missions, better NPCs, New Ships, maybe the Banu Merchantman, Apollo, Polaris and Corsair in some state. It’s quite possible we could see the Corsair in our hands in Q4 as well.

We could see a Squadron 42 advertising campaign start here… tho I have expected that for the last 2 years… so what do I know.

Beyond that I am expecting CI to swell and evolve current content. We may see some physicalized components like shield emitters… I have a cautious hope that CI will try to get more physical components and damage in later in the year… as this is an area of Star Citizen that really needs focus… you can expect a lot of the core game and experience to be more fleshed out as the work on SQ42 and bring those features over to the PU more and more this year.

I’d expect to see the IAE at Crusader Orison this year most likely too and Jax McCleary will almost certainly be returning from his trip to Pyro… anyway… I do think there is a lot CI are doing this year with Star Citizen, Squadron 42 and building out their studios further. It’s possible we won’t see Pyro in game this year… but I remain ever hopeful personally and at the end of the day… it’s done when it’s done… the Development is slow in the areas I want but I do like what I see from CI… I am always going to want more tho… I am willing to give CI the time they need to make the game I dream of… but that’s just me!

What do you think? What are you expecting to see later this year? When could we see Squadron 42? What will they show at CitizenCon… is server meshing too complex, is development too slow or are you happy to give CI however long they need? Will 2022 be the year for Star Citizen whatever that means?