Star Citizen Players Concerned By Free Event Items – Nothing has Value
There are rare and exclusive items and ships and flair in Star Citizen… and there have been various Star Citizen Backers & Devs talking to one another on Spectrum the SC Forums with some criticism of the devaluing of the more exclusive and rare items in game by making the findable in loot containers.
This is more in reference to the Day of Vara Masks… both Neveills Lot Mask and Vanduul Mask now being available to find around the verse and if you find them, they get permanently added to your account…
Previously you had to kill 50 unique players to get the Vanduul mask in a limited period.
There was a thread Nothing has value in the PU the OP (original poster) says:
Those of us that were around to earn the Vanduul mask remember it as being the first thing of any value you could earn in game. Yes, some cheesed it however others worked hard at it and it was a big accomplishment.
Now you’re offering it up just as a found item for anyone. What’s the point of taking part in any of these in-game contests to earn things if we can get them for little to no effort at a later date.
I’d like to be able to see something on a player in the verse and be like wow that’s really cool. That person worked really hard to get that or was a really talented player. Now it’s more like ugh that person paid cash to get that.
On the bright side when I’m wearing my Benny Henge mask and call for a medical beacon my rescuer won’t shoot me dead so they can loot my mask.
Zyloh CIG Responded:
This is totally fair feedback. As a passionate MMO addict (I play them all), I’m a big fan of collecting rares. In fact, my favourite form of progression is item based. Browsing my bank, recounting adventures, and enjoying the memories of yesterday’s spoils. For example, I’m still proud of my OG Runescape account which houses legendary rares, such as a set of bunny ears I looted from an exclusive Easter event in 2003. A moment in time captured, and a great conversation starter in-game (i.e. “what was it like back then?”).
The original Vanduul mask event was actually designed by the Community team, not the designers like it should have been. We didn’t have an “achievement” system, but we were so eager to provide in-game earnables for our community, we found a workaround way to do it without needing to pull development off their current tasks.
We came up with the 50-kill criteria to unlock the mask. The game didn’t have the functionality and wasn’t set up for an event like this, but as I mentioned above, to avoid distracting development, we simply worked with the data analysis team to capture player activity and manually run a script to award the Vanduul mask to anyone who had achieved the 50 kills.
This was sloppy. It meant no in-game notification or tracking of your progress in getting the 50 kills. It meant no user interface to alert you if you had achieved the reward. It also meant that you had to wait for your prize until we ran the script at the end of the event.
In hindsight, I wish we had not done this event. I do not consider it successful. It really came down to my eagerness to provide in-game earnables and forcing it into existence, when it should have been driven by development with proper in-game support, which it is now. Our developers have some seriously fantastic plans related to in-game discoverables/earnables, and fully understand the importance of being able to collect/earn rare items, armor, weapons, etc.
There will be those epic moments when you see another player’s adornment and it represents their achievements. You may think “woah, they must have killed X to get that helmet!” or “wow they must have explored X to have found that!”
In short, the original Vanduul mask event was not a good representation of the future of in-game earnables. It was a premature attempt (my fault). The development team has far more exciting and complex plans when it comes to looting, and I’m really excited to share more when we can.
Some players disagreed with Zyloh’s take on the Vanduul mask challenge in 2020 instead saying it was highly successful and some of the most fun they had, brining the community out and actually getting players active.
Zyloh CIG Responded:
It’s not that the concept/idea wasn’t a success, but rather the execution that I believe fell short. With proper development support (in-game UI, tracking, notifications, cheese avoidance, it certainly could work.
I don’t consider it a failure, but it did not meet my standards for what I’d rate successful, overall. It’s not that the concept/idea wasn’t a success, but rather the execution that I believe fell short. With proper development support (in-game UI, tracking, notifications, cheese avoidance, it would have retained what made it fun, but certainly would have been a far better experience.
It’s okay that I consider it unsuccessful. A requirement of doing better is identifying the areas that need iteration/improvement.
My thoughts:
I do want to say, I like the idea that there are rare loots to find in boxes but I’d like it to be new and different loot than something that is obtainable from a challenge.
Identify people that have done that challenge with that Vanduul Mask and then have a variant of different items or colour for one’s you can find and loot… seems fair right? I love that all the sub items can be found in game (they have a 3 month exclusivity period before going into the loot pool)
BUT I like both challenges and looting and I think SC would be a lot funnier if we had monthly challenges that were pretty hard each month to earn some extra flair, titles, skins. Talking of goodies…
CitizenCon 2022 Digital Goodies have been distributed to accounts.
The Jumpsuit will not be useable in game until 3.18 is out.
For players having issues logging on the the new RSI Hub page, I have a work around, logout on the main RSI site and then login via the Hub Page… works for me.
A Question on Spectrum What Planet would you (The Developers) Call Home?
Silvan CIG Responded:
Definitely a place with lots of islands with white beaches, crystal clear water and palm trees everywhere. Just want to build my base on a tiny island and enjoy the atmosphere and surroundings and chill on the beach after a nice trip through the Universe.
Sadly we don’t have a place like this yet in Star Citizen in game.
For people that remember the 600i concept art it’s exactly what he is describing…
There will be locations like that in the verse tho in the future, even tho there aren’t at the moment.
There was another Thread EVA T2, Zero G Push & Pull …and tethering? Which Asked can you latch yourself to a moving vehicle or what are the challenges in implementing this? As they want to repair vehicles while they are on the move!
Jens CIG
One challenge is the speed at which a vehicle can move and manoeuvre (particularly in combat), they are way beyond the safe operating velocities and accelerations of our actors. We’ll do our best to push the limits.
This is a technical limit. The constraints between each physical part (think limbs, like fore arm, upper arm, etc.) can break when velocity of the animation driven ragdoll becomes too high. I have some other concerns too, like being able to tunnel through smaller objects. But as it is a technical limitation, it is something we can improve as we get further along development.
Boom! Thats it for your dev responses today.