Star Citizen - media blowout, Chris Robert's new game

What is the actual gameplay? From Reddit it's a screenshot simulator.
Main loops:
Cargo hauling
Package deliveries. (Some can’t be QT, others are time sensitive)
Bounties.
Mining.
Bunkers (fps)
Random one-off missions (mix of the above).
Medical responses
Taxi services (rare right now- no penalty for just respawning your ship, so…)

There are two or three story arc sets. The most well known is the idris loop, which is a 5-10 person space combat against a capital ship at the end of the loop.
 
Man that sounds like a wet dream. You on the 3.18 test?

I am, but this was done in .17.4 live, as that was the first patch that enabled it to work like I elaborated. I only have the PTU installed so I could go wander around my vulture lol

Nice, awesome it works much better now than before. Prior you had to spawn one, fly it off then go spawn another and hope things were still there when you got back.

Are you able to equip ships to the larger ones through mobiglass yet? The snub should spawn inside and with the Carrack so I would only need to add the rover and dragon fly to be around the limit but I dunno.

I can live without one depending on where I am going and trade it out for now. Sucks that refueling is not quite working yet from it. Last time I played the bug was going on where you couldn't get fixed, fueled or resupplied anywhere. Had to despawn and respawn. Not a big deal in most of my ships for what I was doing but did get annoying lol.

Long term being able to land the big ship and use it as a base of operations and a friend or two in the prospector and other craft should make for some fun activity.

You cant spawn a ship within a ship at first yet, but you can reliably store a ship with another ship or vehicle in it and recall it from storage with that vehicle in it. I just fly my carrack to a mining outpost to load the C8 and ground vehicle as you can spawn snub ships and ground vehicles on the ground pads now, then dont have to worry about it until the ship is destroyed.
 
I am, but this was done in .17.4 live, as that was the first patch that enabled it to work like I elaborated. I only have the PTU installed so I could go wander around my vulture lol



You cant spawn a ship within a ship at first yet, but you can reliably store a ship with another ship or vehicle in it and recall it from storage with that vehicle in it. I just fly my carrack to a mining outpost to load the C8 and ground vehicle as you can spawn snub ships and ground vehicles on the ground pads now, then dont have to worry about it until the ship is destroyed.

Better than the mess it was so I'll give it a whirl once 3.18 is more "stable". Want to be able to actually go out to the boonies and explore but not have to return home when I log out. Persistence was very poor back then lol.
 
And by grind, it goes pretty damned fast - quant mining is printing UEC.
Speaking of mining, does the Mole have a stronger laser than the Prospector or is it just the amount of them that makes it better?

I cracked a 40% rock last night that filled my prospector after only half was harvested. Would have been nice to have the cargo capacity of the mole but for me the other two mining seats would be basically unused so I probably won’t get it if it can’t crack bigger rocks solo.
 
Speaking of mining, does the Mole have a stronger laser than the Prospector or is it just the amount of them that makes it better?

I cracked a 40% rock last night that filled my prospector after only half was harvested. Would have been nice to have the cargo capacity of the mole but for me the other two mining seats would be basically unused so I probably won’t get it if it can’t crack bigger rocks solo.
The mole has more power because it has more range - the effective range of the lasers is significantly higher (basically double), so at 50m you're putting in more juice than the prospector would be at that range (since neither can close to 0m). Plus the other two lasers, of course. And more storage. I crack a lot of things with the mole I couldn't with the prospector, because you can actually apply the power vs not. The extra storage is then a major boost - I often find a good laranite or heph rock, crack it and scoop some, then resume looking for quant. Coming back with a full load is extra money in your pocket.

I did make a second account so I could mine an extra laser if needed - the nice part is with lancets, the boost stacks, so the second laser only needs to be engaged, not actually throttled, to make cracking a BIG rock easy.
 
Speaking of mining, does the Mole have a stronger laser than the Prospector or is it just the amount of them that makes it better?

I cracked a 40% rock last night that filled my prospector after only half was harvested. Would have been nice to have the cargo capacity of the mole but for me the other two mining seats would be basically unused so I probably won’t get it if it can’t crack bigger rocks solo.

https://vngd.net/mining-guide

1673635507092.png


Not sure if its perfectly updated, but that was where I got most of my starter mining info. In short, the Mole has more powerful mining head on its primary (center) turret [S2], and the same heads on the side turrets as you can put on a Prospector [S1].
Which heads you put on it really matters, as they influence max difficulty you can do and change the different zone sizes. The most powerful heads usually have a pretty damn small "SAFE" window compared to weaker ones.
 
Thanks! I didn’t know it had a bigger laser, that changes things. Maybe one day down the road I will try it out.
 
https://vngd.net/mining-guide

View attachment 541480

Not sure if its perfectly updated, but that was where I got most of my starter mining info. In short, the Mole has more powerful mining head on its primary (center) turret [S2], and the same heads on the side turrets as you can put on a Prospector [S1].
Which heads you put on it really matters, as they influence max difficulty you can do and change the different zone sizes. The most powerful heads usually have a pretty damn small "SAFE" window compared to weaker ones.
They’re all S2 now, but they normalized the output - it’s just the range difference now. Or was as of 3.15 and I don’t think it changed since. And the range difference means more power at a given distance. (Slower falloff) - thus, more power!
 
Thanks! I didn’t know it had a bigger laser, that changes things. Maybe one day down the road I will try it out.
I love mine. Could not really get into prospector mining but the mole- I think I have more time in it than anything else.
 
I love mine. Could not really get into prospector mining but the mole- I think I have more time in it than anything else.
Compared to my ROC mining attempts I love the prospector. My first time using it I overcharged the rock and blew up my ship systems but after that it has been smooth sailing. I can crack rocks up to about 5200 with just the Lancet head. If I add the surge module it can probably do a bit more than that but I haven’t tested the maximum yet.

I think my next in game purchase is a Constellation of some sort to carry more than one load back to the city for sale. It’s getting time consuming doing multiple trips in the Cutty Black.
 
Compared to my ROC mining attempts I love the prospector. My first time using it I overcharged the rock and blew up my ship systems but after that it has been smooth sailing. I can crack rocks up to about 5200 with just the Lancet head. If I add the surge module it can probably do a bit more than that but I haven’t tested the maximum yet.

I think my next in game purchase is a Constellation of some sort to carry more than one load back to the city for sale. It’s getting time consuming doing multiple trips in the Cutty Black.
Oh I agree vs ROC. My luck finding anything with the Roc was basically nil.

I just had a hard time mentally flipping from flying and mining. Kept ramming rocks and stuff. I ditched it pretty fast for the mole though. Should give it more time one of these days. Either way, I love the mole.
 
Been watching some 3.18 content the past couple of days. It is going to be a game changer. So much content is going to come from persistence.

Just the ship wreckage staying is going to add a lot. Imagine flying around and finding a wrecked cargo ship and looting all of the cargo or being down on your luck and finding a downed ship near a poi and grabbing gear off a corpse.

Also pretty much fleshes out the piracy game loop.
The emergent game play is limitless.

Hopefully we can get some ui stability. There is also more of the gen 12 renderer implemented. So a bit better fps. Though my performance hasn’t been an issue since moving to a 7950x and 4090.

I’m hoping with all the ad campaigns that cig is running that they prioritize bug squashing, but I thing we are a year or so away from a refined experience.
 
3.18 is a step towards bigger things as it should hopefully lead to server meshing which should lead to Pyro. Persistent items and cargo will be fun, I probably won't interact with cargo salvage much until they get ship tractor beams working but I guess it's good that someone can get a full cargo load back if they screw up, assuming pirates don't grab it. Salvaging hulls doesn’t really interest me so I’ll probably stick to mining.

I think the patch will be chaos initially due to bugs, and there will likely be a lot of pirates running around with full ballistic setups shredding everything in seconds. Hopefully they get the data they need and can find a balance weapon wise later on this year. Until that happens it sounds like shields will be pretty much useless.
 
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3.18 is a step towards bigger things as it should hopefully lead to server meshing which should lead to Pyro. Persistent items and cargo will be fun, I probably won't interact with cargo salvage much until they get ship tractor beams working but I guess it's good that someone can get a full cargo load back if they screw up, assuming pirates don't grab it. Salvaging hulls doesn’t really interest me so I’ll probably stick to mining.

I think the patch will be chaos initially due to bugs, and there will likely be a lot of pirates running around with full ballistic setups shredding everything in seconds. Hopefully they get the data they need and can find a balance weapon wise later on this year. Until that happens it sounds like shields will be pretty much useless.
I remember hearing a few things about weapons - what was the final change on that vs shields?
 
I remember hearing a few things about weapons - what was the final change on that vs shields?
I’m not sure about the final numbers as I’m not in the test, but initially they said shields would only stop ‘a few percent’ of ballistic damage. I haven’t seen anything that says they have rebalanced it since.

Reddit is saying shields stop 0-30% depending on the weapon vs 50-95% previously but I don’t know where those numbers came from.
 
They updated the ballistic changes to be 90% shield penetration but hulls give 50% resistance. That sounds a bit better. However the following ships don’t get the 50% resistance since they don’t have armor yet?

Starlifter A2
Starlifter M2
Cyclone MT
Cyclone TR
Nova
Freelancer DUR
Freelancer MIS
C8 Pisces
C8R Pisces
C8X Pisces Expedition
Valkyrie
PTV
Ursa Rover
 
None of the ships have armor in any real form yet, they havent implemented physical armor plates yet. All you have now is the hull HP and a damage reduction percentage applied to the entire structure.
When its implemented fully (Having ballistics do their new behaviour is part of that change testing down the road), smaller guns wont even be able to penetrate the armor of larger/heavily armored ships. There is a reason S1-4 are classed as "Anti-fighter" weapons, while S5+ weapons are "Anti-ship" weapons.

There will be a point in time where no matter how good of a pilot you are, an Aurora or other very light fighter will not be able to even penetrate the armor of a heavy fighter like vanguards or armored transport like the terrapin. It can still knock out engines and damage parts that are not armored, but that will make it SIGNIFICANTLY harder to attain a mobility/effectiveness kill on anything you cant penetrate, much less somehow manage to get a lucky pen and kill crew.
Stepping up to things like a Polaris or Idris and larger, you arent going to have to worry about small fighters for the most part as even S3 and 4 weapons will struggle to penetrate the armor on those class ships unless heavily swarmed or just raw lucky hit. Something like the A2 will be nearly impenetrable with S1-4 Ballistics from below due to its armor layout and purpose.

The start in .18 of persisting hulks and such is also a massive part of the future damage system, as its an integral part of ships not having health pools anymore and not blowing up on destruction. It was needed both for salvage and for combat/damage updates.
Remember, percentage decreases and such are (At this point still) not the intended functionality of armor and shields in the long run, just the current system to have us able to play and benefit to some extent
 
Some or all ships have an armor value it seems, until they get to the armor rework later. It looks like they took the value and converted it to physical resistance as a placeholder until real armor exists.

The Valkyrie is missing it’s value which is why it has 0 physical resistance: https://robertsspaceindustries.com/...insight-on-the-latest-armor-rebalance/5690833

You can check the physical resistance numbers on erkul.games now and most have at least 50%. Oddly enough the A2 and M2 both only get 15% while the C2 gets 50%. Plus they all have the same hull HP which makes no sense.
 
Some or all ships have an armor value it seems, until they get to the armor rework later. It looks like they took the value and converted it to physical resistance as a placeholder until real armor exists.

The Valkyrie is missing it’s value which is why it has 0 physical resistance: https://robertsspaceindustries.com/...insight-on-the-latest-armor-rebalance/5690833

You can check the physical resistance numbers on erkul.games now and most have at least 50%. Oddly enough the A2 and M2 both only get 15% while the C2 gets 50%. Plus they all have the same hull HP which makes no sense.

Again, as I said, there is no actual armor, its just a percentage reduction placed across the parts of the hull. Its not armor, its a stat reduction for physical damage. No matter where you hit on that part, it has the same percentage reduction. Right into the exhaust nozzle of the main engine? Same as if you shoot directly into the thickest part of the ship that is solid metal all the way through, both shots have the same damage and damage reduction applied as the entire ship still operates on a health pool.

CIG are not all that interested in working out the armor resistance in current form, as you can tell with multiple ships not having the correct values. Same reason weapons were mostly homogenized - they have no reason to tweak them when everything they do now will need to be completely redone when armor is actually introduced, and shields are updated again, resulting in a nice circular route of re-doing the weapons for every major system that is finally implemented as dev goes along.
Most ships have *had* a 5-40% damage reduction all along, this isnt a new thing, its just been boosted finally for some ships as they are starting to implement ballistic properly ignoring shields when they are up. They also have the same reduction stat ability for explosive, EMP and energy weapons as well, and have all along.
 
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Again, as I said, there is no actual armor, its just a percentage reduction placed across the parts of the hull. Its not armor, its a stat reduction for physical damage. No matter where you hit on that part, it has the same percentage reduction. Right into the exhaust nozzle of the main engine? Same as if you shoot directly into the thickest part of the ship that is solid metal all the way through, both shots have the same damage and damage reduction applied as the entire ship still operates on a health pool.

CIG are not all that interested in working out the armor resistance in current form, as you can tell with multiple ships not having the correct values. Same reason weapons were mostly homogenized - they have no reason to tweak them when everything they do now will need to be completely redone when armor is actually introduced, and shields are updated again, resulting in a nice circular route of re-doing the weapons for every major system that is finally implemented as dev goes along.
Most ships have *had* a 5-40% damage reduction all along, this isnt a new thing, its just been boosted finally for some ships as they are starting to implement ballistic properly ignoring shields when they are up. They also have the same reduction stat ability for explosive, EMP and energy weapons as well, and have all along.
I understood what you were saying, I just think it’s silly to have military ships with lower values than civilian ones. All it takes is for them to make the value equal or greater compared to the civilian one and then fine tune it when they implement actual armor.

On another note to those who solo Mole mine how bad is the desync in the turret? I tried it this weekend and it gave me a headache with how bad the view was bouncing around. I’m not sure if this is normal or due to the servers struggling with Siege of Orison as they have been bad all weekend.
 
I understood what you were saying, I just think it’s silly to have military ships with lower values than civilian ones. All it takes is for them to make the value equal or greater compared to the civilian one and then fine tune it when they implement actual armor.

On another note to those who solo Mole mine how bad is the desync in the turret? I tried it this weekend and it gave me a headache with how bad the view was bouncing around. I’m not sure if this is normal or due to the servers struggling with Siege of Orison as they have been bad all weekend.
Normally not bad at all. I've had it happen a couple of times, but I'm on rural internet and that was on my end. Normally its great.
But I have a rule - no mining during XT/SoO/9 Tales, because the servers get hammered (same for free fly).
 
I've been watching some videos of this game play lately and I have to say it looks really fun even if it is janky



I think the term is emergent game play, looks like you can just do a lot of improvisational stuff







I'd never buy this thing until it finally comes out have when I have a system that could actually run it
 
I'm excited! The first week might be rough since they already have a 3.18.1 planned for next week to fix a lot of the issues from the PTU, but it will be fun to start grinding again.
Yeah I think I'll wait the extra week.
 
So it looks like they slapped a couple weeks worth of work together and released it as 3.18 for the upcoming ship sale... lol.

A year for a couple drips of broken content and supporters are going wild.
 
Ugh, yeah it is super rough lol
I can't get to my ships anymore. black screen on the ASOP terminal
everything is super freaking laggy
 
It was much better in 3.17, but 3.18.1 next week
Ya I played a lot during 3.17.4 and .5. Other than SoO it was fine, and PTU for the last few weeks was ok as well but those servers were wiped almost daily. I expected some growing pains with PES and it looks like we are getting them right off the bat. Hopefully they can sort it out with the next patch or two.

Honestly I am expecting at least one catastrophic failure of the new back end at some point in the next couple months though, but maybe I am being pessimistic.
 
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