I Changed My Mind About Star Citizen... 

Click this link sponsr.is/SaltEMike and use my code SALTEMIKE to get 25% off your first payment for boot.dev. That’s 25% your first month or your first year, depending on the subscription you choose.

Mike, blink 3 times if there is someone pointing a gun at you?

RSI marketing department - lets paywall the PTU! RSI Developers - Why is no one playing the PTU?

The problem CIG creates for itself is that it markets the game like a finished product with fancy hyped up trailers etc and then tells us to not expect too much and treat the game like the development platform it actually is. Those two conflicting messages both coming from the same company (albeit different departments) is what pisses people off and creates disappointments…

Been following development since 2014 and pledged my for Aurora LN and SQ42 package. No idea how many hours I've put into the game at all it's various stages. The promise of SC got me into PC gaming. The promise of SC got me into HOTAS, HOSAS, Tobii Eye tracking and various other devices. I would never consider myself a great gamer in SC. My PvP and dog-fighting skills are embarrassing but I don't really care. I want to fly space ships and everything that goes along with that. But after a decade of waiting and way too much money spent on the game and the hardware to play it, I'm tired. I'm not giving CIG anymore money aside from a select few paints, cause let's face it, we're never getting paint hex codes cause the paints on the store are too profitable. Waiting for SC to be finished, or even just stable, Chris and CIG have taught me one thing over the years. To believe it when I see it. I don't get hyped anymore. I'm kinda interested in 3.23, but only just. I do appreciate what they have done and what they are trying to do, but until they get server meshing (or whatever they are calling it this year, or next year) working, then they don't have a game. It's SOMEthing, but it's not a game. And if the Alpha is taking this long how long will it be in beta? Hopefully not another 10+ years.

I've been playing less hours because honestly there isn't a reason to play. No sense of real progression. No goals to strive for. Nothing to explore, the system is stale and static. Outpost are only good for one time sight seeing. Missions are shallow and repetitive. The only reason to play is to get aUEC and buy/upgrade ships you want to fly. Then comes a wipe, rinse and repeat. It gets old. No drive to pay anymore. Earn credits to fly ships I've already flown for hundreds of hours only for the sake of flying them again?

They can't let this go on another 5-10 years, people aren't going to stick around. I really hope this year really brings the GAME forward.

CIG are indeed lucky in the community of players and backers they have. BUT THEY SHOULD NOT ALWAYS BANK ON IT!! And they are in danger of becoming complacent about taking responsibility for some of the decisions they make.

My story with Star Citizen is a bumpy ride, i discovered it just a few years ago and started playing around 2 or 3 years ago on and off. After playing a lot of space and flight sim related games i started watching videos about Star Citizen to see what else was there on the gaming market, and the schere scale and possibilities of this game caught my attention... Then I slowly started discovering about the game's past (mainly with yours and Ollie's videos) and all the insights of the development and the one thing that resonated for me from the already established community for this game was hope. I love to think what this can become, I love to listen to Mike's videos and his brainstorming. It's been more than 2 years in this community but I still feel new, I feel like I can't argue much with all the stuff that you guys say about the game and upcoming updates for it. I can say one thing: the only thing holding me back from regularly playing the game was server performance, the only thing that was in any way annoying me was getting desync doring fights and stuff not responding (inventories, elevators, bots...). I was incredibly excited when I saw the Citizencon on server meshing and the story behind it. Everything else for me is just an evolution of the game. I don't mind a bad update, or a half baked one. Yes, we won't be able to fully experience the new things for a bit, but at least we are getting some actually interesting and in my opinion relevant stuff for the game to finally become complete at some point. We all know that a rush in gaming development is a bad idea, and I haven't experienced like most of you guys the years of waiting before all of this, but i hope. I feel like we are going somewhere and I can't wait to see the gradual improvements and growth of this game. I am excited for the next update, and the ones after it. This game is unique, and that's why I love it. Thanks everyone for keeping this game alive, and thanks Mike, Ollie and all the other Star Citizen creators for letting new players such as myself to get involved in this community and help understanding the game

It's so obvious how badly the devs want what we want. Show me a more passionate and driven crew. That's all I need to see to stay on board and believe in the projects (well...and progress ofc). They're candid about their setbacks, excited about their milestones, and confident they can achieve their goals as long as many of us help with testing and feedback. It's a symbiotic relationship, and there's no way around it.

I don't give a shit about the game being a buggy mess in an alpha, as long as they are constantly AND RAPIDLY shoving out updates to actually turn this into a MMO game. And it is many years from that, as long as they keep being so damn slow to get content out.

Rough patch and open developers: Okay. Rough patch but sugarcoating: nay. So yeah, happy to hear that CIG is trying to stand into the difficult moments openly.

Chris said something during CitizenCon last year that has really stuck with me. He mentioned that the new database they bought for 3.18.0 & PES did not integrate with the PU the way they had anticipated & were 'sold' by the DB vendor. And he at least implied that all of the massive headache we suffered with 3.18.0 was because of that problem with the new db vendor. He also mentioned that they were still considering switching to a new DB vendor, one that works better out-of-the-box vs continuing to crowbar this one with help from the vendor. I don't know why they didn't make more of this than they did. If i'm right, this takes a lot of heat off CIG for how 3.18.0 went and the game becoming literally unplayable. I'd also like to know where they are with this situation. I would rather wait another year & have them completely switch to a new database from a different vendor that works FAR better out-of-the-box with the PU than keep trying to crowbar/bend this one to work the way they need it to. The new DB has been a disaster from day one. Inventory (even after a full wipe) takes forever to load properly & match pictures to the items. And this is with a new inventory & not that many items. When we have base building/crafting in the game & we have exponentially larger inventories, how is this current DB going to handle that? I'm very concerned.

I was VP for a SaaS development team and PO for our flagship offering. Our DEV team was super passionate. I mean these guys and gals put their heart into the product. Our executive stakeholders buried us.

It's crazy to me that after they restructured the PTU waves they're still not getting the desired player count and testing done. I was in Evocati since the beginning, but lost access due to inactivity over the last couple years. I'm also a concierge member... But I still didn't get access to PTU till maybe a week ago. With 3.23, I would have been in on day one testing, but since the patch is so close to live at this point, I don't really feel the need to download the PTU now. I'm sure I'm not the only one in this boat.

My approach to SC lately has been to simply not play it when I’m not having fun. I’ll come back to it occasionally and I hope they pull it off. But the development roller coaster ride isn’t worth it to me. Too many great games out right now.

I was in for the ride. I held the line, but now... I just stopped playing altogether. I'll comeback when something worth it will be added, or when the game starts feeling worth playing. Right now, 2.23 offers nothing interesting. 4.0 offers only one new system, I'll see what is supposed to come with 1.0, then what gets gutted from it and what remains in the patch, maybe then the game will be ok-ish. I've just had my fill of alpha experience, and don't see why I should play anymore when most of the time, I log in, spawn my ship, choose a mission, fly to it and just log out because there is no point in doing anything right now.

SC is a Live Service Alpha. Making the game IS the game. Always been that way.

watching from the beginning. when CIG was just 3 people and a demo video. to them having a huge dev team. and truly being one of if not the most open game development studios in the world. despite SC not being a game at all, the universe theyve built with stanton is still (albeit super buggy) insanely fun to explore and test. we, if cig stays true to vision, have the potential to co-create a game that could be the best ever made. The raw potential of this project has always excited me. Believe me i understand the anxiety, i too want a game that i can sink my days into, immersing myself in the space fantasy we all want. as for people like Mike and myself who have invested loads of time and energy into following this game and giving feedback, i wholeheartedly understand the frustration in seeing the amount of potential with this game, but ultimately all we have are our words and patience, remember to be kind, and to hold CIG to account without getting too worked up. in the end i want to sit back, and play the game we all worked hard for :) Mike thanks for the content

I find amazing how, after all this time, CIG can't figure out a way to make NPCs to at least stand on the floor, let alone walk naturally in the environments.

There was so much hype last year at Citizencon. Made it seem like Pyro and S42 were only a few months away. So much of CIG in the last decade has been stringing players along implying stuff is 'almost done'

14 years and still in alpha with very little actual gameplay. Bought a Merchantman 4 years ago and they still have yet to introduce a game market system that could make the thing actually function. I'm 63 and am having serious doubts as to whether I'll see this game release in a good way before I pass away.

My opinion may be biased because I only joined recently and haven't experienced 10 years as a backer, but I'm not a stranger to SC either and have been following the game's development for years. I think there a two things that are super important when it comes being able to enjoy Star Citizen and the journey towards 1.0. - First, you need to consider SC as an experience rather than just a promise. From the very beginning I started to follow this game's development, I knew that If I ever was to become a backer, I wouldn't buy the promise, but rather the experience, and that if the promise was all I was interested about, then It wouldn't be worth my time and money. That's why I didn't become a backer earlier and only joined in 2023, because I wanted to wait for the alpha to become a playable and enjoyable experience on its own. In other word, enjoy the alpha as if it was a live-service. Still, that does not mean building expectations for the alpha similar to the ones you would get for a fully-fledged live-service game. - That's my second point. You need to enjoy the experience as an "alpha live-service". This experience that we enjoy right now cannot be reduced to playing the alpha as a finished game and having fun in the verse. Part of this entire experience is also testing features and reporting issues, providing feedback and be part of that community, following the game's development and laughing at Jared's jokes and ultimately, experiencing the ups and downs of hype with the community. Each step towards 1.0 is part of that experience, and sometimes it can be a bit less fun, because the live environment is broken and unplayable, but those steps are necessary and in the broader picture, the alpha remains fun and engaging most of the time. All of this may probably seem evident or common sense for many of you reading this, but I feel that too many people don't seem to understand this as they become backers and get involved in Star Citizen. From the very moment you buy a pledge, you shouldn't be looking for a game to play, but rather for an experience to enjoy as you go along the game's development and make it evolve. 1.0 will be the true live-service and we shall look forward to it, but enjoy the present experience just as much, with all its ups and down, because ultimately, It's not the end that matters, but the journey !

My biggeat issue with CIG is that they themselves don't know what we, the customers/supporters/testers? are even supposed to be. The only thing they are sure of is that we need to be milked to pay their salaries.

Killed it. My buddy always says this is a "Game" vs it actually being a game, because of the lack of care taken to the longstanding issues while they add in things which make the experience more challenging. He's of the mind that losing your sheilds just to go fast is a bad idea. I can't agree with them entirely, but I get their frustration. They're not a PTU tester, they play the LIVE experience, and nothing more, and don't want to hear about "Whats coming" or what the devs are working on. He's just concerned with what we have NOW, and that's simply not enough. So... In the end, you're right, the experience suffers due to the tech. How many Delivery Missions have you completed recently without failure? The same issues that have been in the game since the introduction of systems keep failing left and right, and it's a matter of time before they add some "Major tech" into the game that breaks something like mining, or salvage, an important chain of missions, or markers you need to complete them. QoL is great... But where is the focus on improving the foundations of the game? New missions are cool, but what happens when they are no longer playable due to a laundry list of issues swept under the rug? We want a functioning experience, and a lot of people don't think that Meshing is going to fix everything. The AI, maybe ~ but I have my own doubts. They be back to the drawing board *once again* to rework AI from the ground up, throwing their current tech into SQ42, and the bits that actually work at scale into the PU, all to work on the parts that don't for another 5-10 years. I don't think they're communicating quite enough with confidence that their hunches that the game will function is the game actually functioning. I know it'll take time, and it won't happen overnight ~ but this has been a really, really long overnight. Edit: Morph JUST released a video, and basically... Yeah, that.

I understand your responsibility to your audience, but I don’t think you should hold back on sharing negative views because people don’t like hearing them. come to you and watch your videos because I respect your experience, involvement, and your opinions on this game.

when i take a shit and come back i get kicked for inactivity so i log back in other server al my 10 hours work in game is gone.... why i cant spawn back in the same server with my ships...??? why i cant Quantum jump to my DEAD BODY.... Why they give u a dead body a marker if u are not allowed to get ur body back from the water... is SC digging there own grave deeper and deeper?

I want to see progress! I want to play - in the end thats what we all want is it not? We want to play a game that has been hipped for so so long. give us something to play and well that is what they are doing but ya so far it is just NOT enough but do we see hope on the horizon? We will have to see as this year is the year of Show us DON'T tell us!!!

More frustrating to me than the bugs are the features and tech that they tease as “almost done!” only to reveal that they haven’t even really started working on them yet.

Being a part of the experience during the highs and lows is ultimately what keeps bringing me back to SC. We are literally involved in the development of the game. in 10-15 years time whenever the game is somewhat complete we'll look back on these moments and be like, yeah... I was there. Look where we are now? And that in itself is a pretty cool experience.

Every sacrifice needed to get Server Meshing working was certainly worth it, but past 4.0 we need a "stable" branch of Star Citizen. From here on I don't care how much redundant work needs to be done, we need a version of the PTU that people can actually jump in and "play". If that means the first six months of any given year is spent polishing something that will only be overwritten the next year then so be it. In my mind we've reached the point where dev time may as well be 50/50 split between polishing the existing game and adding features.

Honestly, the primary reason I continue to enthusiastically support development is that CIG has given me the ability to live/engage with an environment that no one else has been able to effectively give me. I am almost 60 years old, and the last time I personally felt this much excitement about the possibilities of space travel/exploration was during the Apollo and Voyager mission time periods. Most people want the finished "game" or at least a leap into a decently running beta, and I can understand that. I see this as more of a...different way to be or exist. A glimpse of a possible future that I will never see. Many of you younger folks will potentially be able to experience space travel as technology progresses ever faster, but for many enthusiasts such as myself, this is probably as close as we'll be able to get. I'm pretty happy with what I have now, and I'm sure it'll only get better and I am content with that.

I do understand they need to put the patch on live servers to test it, but also i read original post on which Zyloh was reacting and according to that post its completely broken and even now this old map is working better than the new one, but what I liked before some CIG removed it was answer from some guy who just wrote down that this patch is happening just because Invictus and sales are coming and other decent company would postpone that patch by month to get it into atleast little bit playable game

I do understand the need for a STABLE...at least as stable as it could be specifically for the player that want to treat it like a game, sort of. So, I propose: 1. PU - Stable : This would be the server that all new player would be directed to, Techdemo be damned, even looking at the sky is a gameloop...for the first 10 hours, at least don't make people get 30K when they are comfortably looking at the sky. The build would be a balance between the latest and the most stable, with heavy leaning on stability, just let them have 50 player cap, make the server degrade slower. This will get them new players boots wet. Once they have exhausted everything worth their $45 package, now they would be a dreamer (or copium huffer, depends on who you ask) they would then, voluntarily dive to the PTU 2. PTU - This would be what the current Live Service is, except there would be nothing before this. No need for Evo, ePTU, PTU, etc. If what the devs need ultimately is the Live Service population to ensure stability, then this would be best. Each patch cycle, reach stability within that patch number, and port it to Live Service/PU when it is deemed stable enough. Now, the question would be, would most of the player other than the newbie plays on the Test server/PTU? Would a Stable server entice the player more than experiencing/playing the bleeding edge, testing the new patch, experiencing pretty much 3.18 over and over again every patch cycle? Would even the veteran player prefer playing the stable techdemo rather than testing the buggy techdemo? This, I don't have the answer still.

I remember that date 10-10-10, that beautiful rendered demo and signed up. Backed it when it went on KS. 14 years later, it still feels like a playable fancy tech demo.

CIG is repeating the same mixed messages and excuses from 3.18. They stripped wave 1 PTU access from Concierge stating to many were rushing in to check out new features so they wanted to tier access differently. But then turned around and allowed subs to buy access to Wave 1 while thumbing their nose at the big backers. Then when 3.18 was a failure, they stated it was because they didn’t have enough testers in PTU…. After they restricted it because there were to many people… At this point I think 3.23 will be the sign for myself to take another break from SC.

Rich Tyrer is just slowly becoming the new Chris so Chris can eventually leave/become entirely silent. I don't believe the great things Rich said on the live last night will come to fruition at any sort of pace that most backers would consider to be reasonable. The company has too many systemic flaws and operational inefficiencies as is demonstrated time, and time, and time, and time again with poor project management, missed deadlines, stability that is absolutely in the toilet even for things like Quantum Jumping which has been in the game for 6, 7 years? Truly few things 'just work' and we are still trying to cram new, fundamentally altering technologies in there. The leadership teams at CIG have always said all the right things. Last night's SCL is no different- it's the top brass saying all the shit we want to hear just like CR did circa 2012. Doesn't change the fact that every new update is either: 1. months late; 2. woefully unstable; 3. missing previously promised features; or, most likely, 4. All of the above. The problems at CIG go much deeper than upper management telling us what we want to hear. If anything we need *_less_* of what we saw last night.

Next Step could be faster paced releases, ' if it's hard do it often' Once a feature is done get it to live. It's not always that simple but for every hurdle there is a solution. And after a while you got things in place so it gets easier. For the record. I'm a software developer. We do multiple releases each day of enterprise grade applications. I'm not saying it's easy. But it is possible.

I am many dollars deep into supporting the project, but what keeps the hopium flowing in my veins really is the citcon demo of server meshing, and now seeing the replication layer in PTU. Prior to today, I don’t think we have had any solid evidence that what they are trying to do was even technologically feasible. We still aren’t all the way there yet- but we are way closer than I ever thought possible. Replication layer is the last major piece of core tech that literally defines existence for our characters in the verse. Finally removing all of the legacy Flash code (and that was dead tech even back in 2012) is the last (that we know of?) lingering bit of tech debt that makes the cost of adding new features prohibitive. I have only been around since 3.11, but this feels… better.

So long as they can keep the rate of hotfixing pretty high in live when 3.23 comes out, I think itll be alright, definitely gonna feel some growing pains but I dont think itll be as bad as 3.18 was. 4.0 will be a bitch tho, theres almost no avoiding it.

To be honest, cig needs to jock eve onlines cosmic anomaly. Little pockets of deadspace requiring a scan to locate. Some could be very small, like a series of habitation modules connected to agricultural pods like hyperbaric greenhouse domes. (Places to stock up on food or possibly manufacture medical supplies, and even drugs) Some could be larger like heavily fortified asteroid bases gaurded by 10-20 heavy turrets protecting bounty targets, or research facilities with ancient alien artifacts. They need to do something with the empty space and create emergent gameplay loops appealing to both solo players and large groups. Honestly in my opinion the biggest change they need to make right now is how quantum travel is essentially downtime, not gameplay. They are getting really close to introducing awesome content but unfortunately for me i still only see the potential of the games future not a game quite yet worth playing. I appreciate everyone that is working to refine this experience but im waiting for the day it goes beta.

I agree with you Mike. I will say it is hard to keep up with the motivation after seeing the release of other games. Star Citizen has the potential to be the next Star Wars Galaxies. The best mmo for years to come. It is almost as if the Devs move at the pace of a snail. For me I want content and pyro. Hair is cool and all that but give us content. Server meshing, cargo, base building, refining, crafting. We need those things. I feel like at times they put their efforts into the wrong categories almost as if they are focusing on too many tasks all at once which leads to incomplete features.

EPTU - This is very unstable, but we need systems feedback PTU Wave 1 - This is fairly unstable for some, but we need broader impact and systems feedback PTU Wave 2 - We've knocked out a lot of the instability, and want to push the envelope some PTU Wave 3 - Ok, we think we're close, lets try and break it LIVE needs to be the latest and greatest Alpha, in its broadest form with persistence. "STABLE - Legacy" needs to be introduced and treated like an additional build that just exists for people who truly don't want to do with instability in exchange for new content and features. It can run 1-2 patches behind.

Love your videos Mike. I have backed the game via CIG's website even before the kickstarter. And for the first few years I got what I wanded, a relatively unfiltered look at game development. But recently I rarely log into the PU. There is still no game there. I believe the devs want to deliver but are constantly roadblocked by the marketing development, which needs to milk more people for money. I can't fathom that after so many years we still don't have any working concept of armor. SC is doing the same error over and over again. They try to balance ships and combat, without all the systems which can only fail. There have been many changes to gameplay that I did't like back then and still don't like today. I still think, that arbitrary ammo limits for energy weapons (capacitors) are stupid. Those things should overheat quickly to prevent me from firering too long. I also don't like master modes and the arbitrary energy limits that go along with it. If you look at erkul's db, it is obvious that pretty much all generators are overpowered as hell and could easily drive double the components. Makes no sense at all. It doesn't seem like there is a cohesive concept between all of this. And yes, I get that they need to test and iterate on things, but I feel they are iterating on fine details, when they should try to get the big picture into the game. Honestly, with all the letters from the chairmen, which were obviously a lot of bs and the PTU wave changes, I am loosing hope fast. I am not sure anymore that it's ever becoming a game, and even if the pull it of, I doubt it's going to be a game for me. I also don't have much faith for SQ42, given the fact that many essential systems like the flight model are still not nailed down. It's an alpha, I know, but still I feel they have completely lost sight of what the game should be.

I have an issue; they have an official Star Citizen store that sells the models that you can see behind Jared. But they're sold out, and they've said they are not making any more. And they've issued legal take down notices to anyone distrubuting 3D Print files. I want them to either renew the licence to make more, or let private 3D printers make ships.

So what I need to see is levels of polish coming to features they put in the game - theoretically this new 3.23 tech is no longer "placeholders" and should be refined over time into a "finished" product. (or as finished as you can get in ongoing game design) So far this really does not exist in the game.

I'm glad you're being a tad more hopeful at the moment. I hope it lasts through the inevitable rough patches this year. There was an MMO that, according to some accounts, was started 10 years before it launched. A year before live release, they had a closed Alpha for selected people. It was buggy. It was prone to crashing. It was unfinished and had a lot of problems. In that last year, they changed race abilities, class abilities, replaced an entire talent system, changed all the character models, added new zones, revised most of them, and scrapped others. It was almost unrecognizable from the game it was a year before. That game was World of Warcraft. I'm not suggesting that SC is the new WoW. Rather, I like to use this example to show how much of a game becoming a game really happens in the last year. I know that can suck to hear. It can be hard to believe. And the toughest part of it all is that we won't know when the last year is until we're on the other side of it.

Respectfully, you sound just like the old Salty Mike but with a slight vocal inflection of gentleness .Your outlook on the game still conveys your salty outlook . All that being said , think you for at least an attempt at sobriety . But most will fall off the wagon at the first sniff of trouble .

Who thought it wasn't another letter of bullsh*t is lunatic. We are all paying for "Cloud Imperium Games" so we pay for the imperium to be established. We hoped for a the messiah, but got another greedy company. We hoped for an open development, but now the best we can hope for is that they hold back a lot of content. But we all know they have everything out there they have. For me they have already proven prefinancing a big game idea is a nightmare for the players, its just for some people to get rich af.

So they subdivide the PTU so they can make some more money, and then don't get a critical mass of people on at one time... Sounds like a problem they made themselves.

One thing that's an issue for their concurrency problem is their own system of waves. By the time I could finally play as wave 4 peasant (you know, the people you really need to create concurrency on a large scale), I had already seen everything that's new in the game 20 times on RU-vid. On top of that, the rumors that the game would go to live just days after. Mmmm, wonder why people aren't motivated to download 100GB for that?

At the same time this is a classical alpha (building up tech that later you'll build content, gameplay and QoL on) but at the same time every month Jared proudly exclaims how it's a "Live environment in the middle of game development", and in live environment you DO care about content, QoL and gameplay... So even for CIG this is both an alpha and a live service. Now, I don't think they should lean into live service too much, because any new big tech they bring in can force them to rework current content and game loops and QoL...and that is wasted dev time, that is the thing I hate the most, because i treat wasted dev time as wasted backer money. As long as they keep proving they can spend our money well I'll be happy, no matter how long it'll take them.

Its a console compatibiltiy patch. Ive been in Eptu since wave 1 and noticed a very specific thing...this patch is to integrete controllers to get it ready for a console market. Great, more people but being at Citcon last year Ive not seen the progress they boosted about when I was there.

SC has always been game development as a service, & pretty masterfully at that. As lucrative as that has proven to be for CIG, there's always needed to be a literal End Game, & it's coming into focus. The coming pains with a more fully implemented replication layer, and integration of the same with a properly scaled server meshing is the very foundation of that end product, and anyone who understands this project should be well aware of the necessity of playing / living through it for the sake of getting past this moment to another where devs can be more focused on breathing life and gameplay into this breathtaking sand box.

I totally get the frustration. However there a couple of things I disagree: 1) 3.23 with the latest patches is not either unstable or unresponsive. Actually I found it more stable, less buggy, and overall better perfomance in almost every aspect than 3.22. Even the NPC AI, both ships and fps react better with lower server fps. I understand that some previous patches were very, very rough but the latest ones seem pretty good in almost every aspect, not perfect, but definitely playable. 2) I understand that after so many years everybody are always less and less patient, at the end of the day we don't wanna be 90 years old when play the full game. However, in all the years that we may have been impatient or mad about the development, this is the one that seems harder for me to feel that way. 3.23 is a massive step forward, if you take your time to check all the mission you'll see that it's the first time we're seeing even older missions now working (research one, for example). NPCs AI on derelicts and planetside. NPCs AI in caves as well as fauna. They're literally trying to bring all the new and older content alike to a "minimum standard level" where every mission is relatevely playable and they even expandend on some old missions like bounties that now have NPC AIs not only in bunkers but also on other POI planet locations. Also, replication layer.. It's the first time a major tech is working relatevely well already. Server crashes (while quite rare already in 3.23, I only had ONE in 3 days of gameplay), works very well and it's solving a major issue. The next patch is most likely 4.0 with server meshing.. we're almost there. After server meshing, they'll don't have any major tech to add so if many months after 4.0 we'll still have slow content and buggy stuff all over the place then I'd agree with you. But let's just wait for this last tech.. now that we've arrived so far, let's wait just a little bit more and let's see how the game shapes after server meshing. We can't be mad right before the end, right before the latest tech that will finally bring server fps beyond 15-20 and that it should finally make Star Citizen works as it always should have been. I know, every year seems like "THE year" of Star Citizen. But I think that everybody knows here that this year is different for real. SQ42 is almost here, with a release date announced at Citizencon almost likely. Server Meshing is almost here, and I bet we'll have it already by Citizencon as well. This is not the time to be pessimistic, on the contrary I feel like there's never been a better time to jump in, play more (thanks to 3.23 improvements), and feel excited about 4.0 and what's coming next. I hope it make sense..

i mean, where can they do stress test other than live server(or PU if you want)

I feel like maybe i represent the avarage players view and i dont even comment 99% of the time. I expect every partch to have nothing, for cool thigns to only be ever on the horizon. This patch, even with the instability and the fact that its lost features is still an awsome patch imo, hell i got a 4090 and about as beefy a PC as you can reasonably build and the game just doenst run even with hte more stable patches. A big outcry will happen from a few players and youtubers, but as long as the project continues in the right direction most people are just happy to be along for the ride

As 🥑 I have very little testing done in this patch. They pushed patches out when a big chunk of us is asleep, and when you can test, reports get drowned and archived because not enough contributions as everyone has their own way to describe a bug and you may not always use the right keywords, so all of the individual reports describing the same issue all get archived and it doea not get fixed until very late or in the next patch when everyone complains of an obvious issue and how evocati aren't doing their 'job'. It gets even worse with the extra waves as certain builds are NDA, but the bug still exists in wave 1-4 and none of these people know about the NDA issues etc. making even more duplicate reports. Then sone get aggressive when you flag new reports as duplicate of an older one or one they cannot see. Also, people have lives. We work, have families etc. We are not professional testers and QC engineers on their payroll doing this 8-10 hours as our full time jobs 😅

I still think what happens after 3.23 is a better indication of how people being moved over from squadron will affect PU development than 3.23 itself. Personally I'll only play when the game sees improvement and adds new content. Balancing of master modes and such discussions feels quite silly at times, because we have so many features coming that will affect flight and flight combat. And it's not like 3.23 is doomed to be an unstable mess, you said the same things about the IAE patch, but it was totally fine for me in live. I got to test all the ships I wanted and enjoyed it. So far I've played a couple of 4 hour sessions today and yesterday on the EPTU for 3.23 and I've had no client or server crashes, no noticable interaction delays or major bugs. It could still be bad on live, but let's save the complaints for then.

I have been very critical of CIG in the past too. But (excluding sleazy sales tactics) the direction and pace that CIG is going lately feels good. Their attitude is more upbeat, the devs who talk are more positive, their approach to adding features is more backer focused and they are increasingly interested in quickly iterating based on testing and feedback. All in all, the whole project feels re-energized and I think it comes down to key leadership positions and (finally) some good decisions by CR to trust his game devs. Also, as of 5/4, 3.23 is solid in open PTU with few major issues. Biggest problem is that few people, if anyone, has actually gotten through XT. That's not ready and needs more testing. Maybe during the coming week that will be the focus.

I'm mostly interested in SQ42 in the short time. As good as I envision SC can be in the end, I do not enjoy re-learning keybindings what feels like every other patch. I get that it is hard to get the flight experience right and that is why I wait patiently, come in from time to time as a tourist to see some areas, do a box or bunker mission and check out the new stuff. However until we arrived at a "this is now finalized and will mostly get small tweaks" stage I will not invest tons of hours into it. That however is an issue most early access titles have. You can easily burn out the sense of wonder on an early build, hit the parts where the bones stick out and walk away to never return. Takes some experience to let a good game rest until its ready to be realy enjoyed :)

If you made it into the "Changed my mind part" before 9 minutes, I missed it. I hope '"...going along for the ride.." reduces your cortisol levels.

This is one man's personal art project. Once its managed like a business it might be able to deliver but whilst its a personal project aint gunna happen.

I think what most of us (and I say that loosely because the original backers are a very small contingent of current players) are missing is that... and I hate to be the one brining up SQ42, but what CIG have said for years is starting to show itself. For years without news of SQ42, we have missed out on what you call "basic gameplay features" things that exist in current games and MMOs, and CIG's response was always "we are working on it." After everything between Citcon and now, with the revolutionary excess of features being added to 3.23... I believe them. I think the "basic gameplay" we were all looking for was already being created and tested in SQ42, aside from the MMO components, which are arguably the most important from an MMO perspective, but not with regards to "basic gameplay." We now have a functional and arguably great UI considering the new map and inventory changes, the ships are getting a pass on their basic movement features, which has been begged for, for years, and that's not even considering Master modes. While everyone is shitting the bed about master modes, we are getting full reworks of ship speeds, health, maneuverability, weapons, components, and more. Each of these items are finally getting unique uses aside from just *more bullet more speed more damage.* But I digress. I think what we were looking for, the basic game features, were being worked on in SQ42, and we are now seeing the fruits of that labor being translated to the PU. And when I play 3.23 and consider the actual basic level of gameplay... Like you said, if we had actual missions and goals and direction in the current universe, it would be a great game.... Take 3.23 and just imagine you had missions and goals... if SQ42 is what we have in 3.23 but with a story and goals... it's going to be a BLAST. Now they can redirect focus on making the MMO, which is repeating missions that make the universe feel alive. Which, they can do. I am glad to hear this coming from you SaltE, it reminds me of the Mike from years ago that I would watch almost daily under a completely different moniker. Its good to see.

Push Alpha PTU to live so we can stress it with more players then work again to fix it, but there also working on a single player game that will be pushed to live with nearly no testing. You think we have it rough in the PU well just imaging how Sq42 will be on the live day. Hmmm.

Thing is. If you treat this as an alpha and are not responsible about it's playability it will effect the revenue. So it has to be playable like a live service because of that. 3.18 was a massive hit to moods and their pocket. So to me, they have to be careful with this stuff and try to de risk as much as possible to not ruin the playability or moods. Because when we are pissed we spend less.

Nice monsterch chair, the blue embroidered logo looks awesome. I wish I knew I could've customized my own before I ordered it years ago.

Honestly if they want more to go play on the ptu, have it where if you play a certain amount of time you get some special item or somthing. You can make a level system so the more you play the ptu the more and better items you get for testing the patch.

They simple dont have the player count to test the ptu at the same amount as players in the live servers. I totally understand needing to send patches to the live servers. As an invested citizen, i truethfully hope cig will deliver a playable, fun, stable game.

Personally, my main reason for not jumping in the Eptu or PTU most of the time is because i have to basically install the game twice, With limited space and so many game to play, i will only keep the PTU or EPTU on my PC if i really like to test and play the next built like 3.23. I know i can change the file name from PTU to Eptu and just download some files between the two but it's still installing the Live build and the PTU build which if I'm not wrong is probably close 150g or more.

Paraphrasing Mike-“the game has to get worse to get better” LOL CiG is certainly following that strategy.

Meanwhile we have people like Avenger One trying to drive off the player base by saying we need 30 days to claim our ships and permanent loss of guns and components upon claim. Outfitting an Idris would take two weeks of grinding so a month and a half for you to fly again just so he can feel more superior to other pilots because he is elite and thinks you should just “get good”.

I love what SC can become, and im probably just waiting for the dream. I pick it up maybe once a patch and play. And i definitely understand where a lot of people are coming from. The want for it to come faster. I work in games, and i promise you from the other side we all want it to come faster as well. Its hard to not meet the expectations and wants. You have a lot of really valid points. I agree, and i really hope after the rough it will improve a lot. What i can say, as someone who doesnt play a lot and sees it only after the milestone. A lot has changed and improved, there are a lot more things for me to do, even as someone without a group to play with. And i keep being eager to see what they come up with. So my fingers are crossed, and i really appreciate your opinion. You put a lot of real thought into your approach and its very much needed.

The issue is, they have two games they are making simultaniously and the shift and focus has been bounced back so hard between the two that its hard to pinpoint what is more important to get out quicker. Once SQ42 is out, that will boost all the influence on why and what you are doing in SC and why that matters.

I have been and always will be one of those "It's Alpha software" hardliners until it isn't. That stems from actually working as QA for a game. Once you have that perspective it's hard to NOT see the Live service as anything else but a test environment.

Star citizen is definitely an interesting thing in the gaming scene and only one thing can be said about coding this complicated it is on the same level as rocket science in terms of sheer scale of the coding cig uses to make something like qt'ing around a rotating planet/moon alone and i am glad i got into star citizen because i think there is also a second benefit of this game is help give everyone a foot in the door via q&a into the gaming industry for people inspired by star citizen

If it helps the development and they need more infos on some bugs I do not understand why they don’t communicate that and we as players will get along with it!

I wonder when the game will go from an Alpha and into a Beta? There's a lot of quality of life improvements that make the game fun and thankful we're getting them. But an actual "game" or "release" is not a stage when we want to introduce hangars or new gameplay loops. I hope though this underlying tech ends up being the thing that solves future problems because without a good base, the features we want can't or won't be implemented.

It’s the year of SC Come on CIG, make my desk rise!

It’s been a long road with SC. I have uninstalled it so many times. I thought Theaters of War was going to bring us warfare on a unprecedented scale and it never happened. I spend hours in space often bored. Feeling alone, at times in a empty place, a very big open galaxy that often seems dead.

Great point and glad to see you saying this publicly Mike!! What they said in SCL makes total sense to me. If they're saying they need to put 3.23 live to figure out the rest of the bugs then I support it.

SC is a tech company designed as a game company. they're revolutionizing the gaming industry, and it's cool to see. even if they fall, they will pathe the way for inspired game developers to make games better than ever before. that was enough for me to pledge back in 2018. though I am hoping for the "game" portion of this comment to come true haha

as a person who plays the game, the problem i see with them wanting people to play ptu, there is no real incentive to do so for those who mainly play casually, so the people who only play for progression in live, there is no real reason to play ptu, hence the problem of not having concurrency in the testing builds. once they give people reasons to play the test builds, maybe they will have the numbers to test before pushing to live.

If they release SQ42 I will wait another 10 years for SC. Otherwise, they need to deliver 1.0 by 2027 at the latest. I have more faith in those in charge since Chris took a step back. Tyre, Benoit and the other leaders have been a breath of fresh air, and I think they will deliver this project in a decent way.

Sniper glint? Like if light hits the scope, it flashes like a mirror and gives away position? Sounds fine to me. Plenty of real-life snipers have had to deal with that whether to find an enemy or they find you dont have a problem with it unless, its just not working right.

Each year that passes it's feeling more and more like CIG always intended on producing a new game engine to compete wit Unreal or CryEngine vs an actual game. I mean, financially it makes sense since they would make more money in the long run but it just feels like a kick to the stones having backed a company for more than a decade.

Been here since the start - spent lots of money and already had tons of fun. Definitely gotten my money's worth. Its been a long haul, but I am sticking with them because I see so much potential. It keeps getting better, slowly but surely.

*checks date* no April was last month. That’s wild

As a C2 Cargo Runner, Im happy with what I have , All I want is Optimization and enough of the fps and server issues

Because of your candid approaches to SC, you lend more weight to your words. Dont stop being you Mike. I enjoy your honesty. I agree with your take the game is moving forward and that is heartening. Not close being done but at least moving forward.

I was excited to see the directors come on to SCL and talk about 3.23 and the future towards 1.0. From the one hour of listening to them all, especially Rich, I feel confident about the next couple of years for the game. Rich seems like he wants to drive the game forward as you said and he seems like he wants to do so as quickly as possible. Same with Rick and JJ. They seem like they can really steer the ship where the game needs to go.

Completely agree with you on this one, especially if we are closr to reach important milestones and are able to see proper progress. You also said something that I think it's really important. This community can accept many mistakes from CIG like I never seen in another community before. If this will last forever I don't really know, but CIG should count their blessings and do their best for their community. (Just thinking about what happened to Helldivers 2).

This is basically where I've been since like a week after I backed in 2017: Focus on the direction and the intended game, not the alpha itself, and expect growing pains in development. Much less neurotic place to be in. You don't get so bothered over the minutiae of the alpha moment. 👍🏿

Honestly Mike, I am really glad to see you say all this. Like you've said it all, they need to give us these rough patches, they can't avoid this and we need to accept it, but in between these we need it to become an actual game. Really really glad I watched this video, even though it's 5:30am here. You honestly became my favourite content creator on Star Citizen (even if the first video I watched of you made me roll my eyes to the roof) and count on you to keep ranting until the game is at least decent, but this is balanced and healthy thinking that I wish the whole community showed.

Honestly, until they can get the servers to stay above a 15 tick rate, it doesn't matter how much cool stuff is in the game, if there's a 3 second delay between doing everything within an hour of a fresh server, it will always be unpleasant, hell was doing my first DC run today and the 3 second delay to make the backpack available to loot into it was painful, especially in a tense situation.

I become a backer of Star citizen in early 2013 and I kept hoping for better until 3.18 then I got burnt out. I wish the best for those that keeping playing and testing the PU. Hopefully, a truly playable game happens within the next year and all the wonder and aspirations I had for Star citizen will return.. God speed SaltEMike.

The only way to stop being frustrated, is to stop your expectations. I did. And it has done wonders. I no longer have those negative emotions about SC and leaves more room for hope. At this point, I just appreciate all of the positive stuff more. And when they make promises that they do not fulfill, i just move on until something good happens. Thanks for the video!

I payed $45 for a ship, got the game, played since 3.17, have been happy from day one. I knew going in that the is was going to be rough since I bought in (a measly $45) to a game in alpha. I am a developer, so I know the time it takes and the hurdles that persistence, traveling seamlessly from anywhere to anywhere takes, because I know I wouldn't even know how to scratch the surface with that type of stuff. The challenges are monumental (with the coming vast economy, relication layer, server meshing, base building, space animals at the quality far higher than NMS) and are at the bleeding edge of tech with complete unknowns, and they are pulling it off. To take this theme even further, I am enjoying the changes, hurdles and the slight pain because it's like watching the biggest experiment. It's tantamount to watching other experiments in sciences, or watching the Starship (will it make it this time, sort of thing). It's awesome!

night vision/thermal vision should be available in certain helmets stock and on others as an attachment. sniper glint should be only if you are facing the sun(as sniper) and makes zero sense if you are on the night side of planet.

Every aspect we see is some level of testing, that was always the intent and why some lean so hard on the emphasis of the word alpha, I think. Yes, their marketing team can sell ice to penguins in a blizzard but the marketed phrase 'early access alpha' and the litany of acknowledge statements you have to click ok on is beyond fair informed consent vs what Sony did to Helldivers 2, Stellar Blade, and Final Fantasy which are more arguably bad faith acts. I like Rich's candid take on the last SCL on why he wisely pushed cargo/inventory changes off dot 0 but is not letting his team hold it too long because they let the genie out of the bottle for the 3.23 branch and wants them to make good on it sooner than later. What he said about getting all the SQ42 stuff ported ASAP so those devs can finally move on from that and focus on the heavy lifts remaining that are holding the PU back and nuances of finding bugs and causes made sense. I also liked he gave a realistic explanation and expectation instead of corpo-speak lip service on the server tech changes and potential disruptions. They want clean deployments more than we do because it wrecks their plans more than ours if it isn't, especially for these big platform server changes the future hinges on. My company (a phone company connected to 1/8th of the planet) is in year 3 of a 5-year rework of core business systems. Years of planning. Tens of millions of dollars spent on specialists and extra programmers and tech support from platform vendors making sure we were doing it right. Months of employee testers going through Nasa-esque checklists validating everything in the new system does exactly what they were supposed to down to the colors of label text and documented for training. Launch day came and they flipped the switch..... It went so badly some people quit and the 2 governments almost fined us so I can empathize with their 3.18 debacle they want to avoid lol.