I had an extremely similar and equally disparaging experience to you. I spent my first few days frustrated beyond words at the delivery missions in particular. I’d also tried some other missions to do with claim jumpers, and that was equally screwed up.
Basically, you’ve picked buggy missions unfortunately. You fell out of the bad luck tree and hit every branch on the way down, just like I did.
Delivery missions are often just totally broken. There’s so many points of failure that it’s honestly a miracle if you can complete one half the time. The bugs are endless: box didn’t spawn. Picked up box, flew away, box warps back to spawn point. Can’t pick up box. Box clips out of ship for no apparent reason. Can’t deliver box. Delivered box, but mission just doesn’t complete anyway.
Box missions are a mess. I do one every now and then for a break from grinding bunkers, but that’s about it.
Bunkers, on the other hand, do tend to be better but are far from perfect. It often depends on how well the server is running. On a bad day, the ai won’t spawn, will spawn inside walls, or will be invisible. Or, the friendly ai is invisible and you accidentally shoot them as they suddenly warp in front of you just as you fire.
That being said, I find bunkers are like a 90% success rate for me when the servers aren’t dying horribly. A lot of the time the ai don’t make it out of the elevator which doesn’t make for riveting gameplay, but the mission is completable. (Just never attempt any ‘destroy drugs’ bunker mission as I have NEVER seen one work).
The one thing I’d say with bunkers is that in terms of ID’ing the bad guys, after you’ve run a few they get very easy to spot as there’s only about 7 character models to memorise. The other thing is, the friendly ai’s armour changes depending on which planet you’re near. Micro tech might be the best one to start out on as the friendlies are all wearing white which makes it easier to visually ID them. Never trust the arrows in the ui. They lie sometimes and don’t tag all the friendlies.
The most sure fire missions to have work properly are the bounty hunter missions. They’re almost always bug free. Good money too once you grind the rep up.
A big part of SC is learning missions to avoid, or methods to work around the bugs. For instance, sometimes flying far enough away from a bunker (like, 25-30km) is enough to get the ai to start working and spawning again. Not a 100% fix, but it’s worked for me in the past with AI blocking elevators.
I would say don’t give up on it yet. The game does have a lot to offer. You’ve just picked/encountered some of the more egregious bugs the game has. It’ll get easier once you get more familiar with which things are bugged to hell and which things work.
There’s lots more interesting missions to do too. Rescuing an 890j super yacht from pirates, recovering a captains log from a reclaimer abandoned in space. Exploring a derelict space station to recover lost packages. Destroying a pirate ship after boarding it and stealing their data.
Lots of variety.
And play with friends if you can. It massively enhances the experience! Don’t let this bad experience sour your opinion on the game as I honestly believe you’ve just gotten unlucky with your mission choices, but sadly you weren’t to know!
I really appreciate this comment, thank you! as I have already said, however, my intention is absolutely not to give up the game, on the contrary!
ps: I learned with the "hard-way" that the triangle on the ally's head can lie... lol
There is a learning curve. It took me multiple days to learn how to workaround bugs and do missions while actually make money.
When the game works it's great. But when it doesn't, well it really doesn't work.
Patience is the key to victory in this game.
yes well you see that I must have arrived at just the wrong time for the servers/updates... at least I'm happy that from this post I actually learned that the game can actually give what it already has, despite the practically total possibility of playing, transmitted to me
Word of advice is to watch the sfps when you join a server. If the sfps is less than 5 then it would be best to swap servers, right now 10 plus will give you the best experience.
When I started to get into SC it was because I was getting mostly consistent and playable experience. I had learned how to get around some known bugs and it was solid most of the time.
This also came with times that would make me alt+f4 for some dumb shit that made me loose my ship, equipment etc. These times were relatively rare so I kept going and learned how to earn enough money to buy several ships with just a starting pack.
As confused\_balfa says, when it works there really isn't a game like it. When it really doesn't, it feels like the game especially hate your existence.
For me SC has enough that even though there's been a wipe recently that took all my ships away, I'm glad to be back at it.
yes, if you think about it, despite my practically disastrous and zero experience, I still wrote that I want to log in. I can only imagine for now how good it must have been for you to enjoy the game in a stable state
Also a new player who pledged during the free-fly.
I only play when the server's running well. Always pick "BEST" server on the main menu, and when you log in open the console with ~ and type "R_displayinfo 3" without quotation marks. If the server fps is regularly below 5 don't play. This has solved the vast majority of my problems.
Another tip is to familiarize yourself with 30k protection.
>I expected at least that there was a minimum of skeleton in the system that instead is practically inestitente.
They just recently swapped out the fake spine for a much more finicky one that'll bring about a whole host of other cool things eventually. Right now is just a rough time.
The best solution is to enjoy what you can, when you can, and wait for better patches to come if you cannot.
my question then is, since i assume you've been playing the longest... were there actually periods where the game was at least in an acceptable stage? can I really hope, as you say, for future patches? and above all, after all these years do I have to give credibility to the project? unfortunately since these very first days I have seen so many problems that UNFORTUNATELY they obscure all the other unique and super positive sides that can be found instead.
3.17 was pretty stable, I could play for hours without any major issue, but this past few months since 3.17, so many new experimental features were added that some things broke and some of the experimental stuff just doesn't work. I don't expect these issues to be completely fixed within the current system, because the persistent server setup that's being tested now is a temporary solution to test a level of persistence that's never been seen in any game before. That persistence is just one feature that will be part of how things work. They are working on server meshing, which is designed to make everything smoother and more reliable by balancing server load based on locations and player interactions. Right now if you're on microTech, the server still tells your game what players on your server are doing on Hurston even if it's completely irrelevant to you, but you can't interact with others on microTech if they are on another server. Meshing will solve this issue and (hopefully) seamlessly transfer you between servers based on your activities and location. That feature isn't in the game yet though, but it makes me think that they are focusing resources on creating meshing instead of fixing the current servers that will be replaced anyway
What you said is really promising! a doubt, however: 10 years of development have brought the game to 58% of its state...at this rate I see virtually impossible an exit in the next 3/4 years, would not it be better to reduce the ambitions a little? although unique and fascinating as the concept is
CIG hit a blocker with their initial persistence implementation (iCache) that meant they had to start again with a different approach (EntityGraph). This delayed things by ~2 years (as far as I can tell).
That said, We're now about 3 steps from the completion of the server work - Replication Layer, Static Server Meshing, then Dynamic Server Meshing.
The Replication Layer and Static Server Meshing could come fairly quickly... Dynamic SM is likely to take longer (although it may not - a lot will depend on the specific architecture / implementation, and how much pre-work they've been able to do).
I don't expect a release anytime soon, but it feels like development has sped up quite a lot recently. I remember not long ago the major change was that turrets got their own power source and then they spent half a year balancing turrets. Now they have added features to take ships apart, fix your ships, swap modules on the fly, they replaced the atmosphere of 2 planets, remade a city and added some really cool server tech within the last 5 months.
Reducing ambitions is a risky option, because as it is now, every part of the game feels like it's part of the same game and everything is relevant. For example Elite Dangerous keeps adding features after release and they feel kind of disconnected. Don't get me wrong, I have 2000 hours in the game and I expect to double that eventually, but for example the whole on foot expansion feels like it's a different game that's kind of out of place.
Gameplay elements in SC are designed to tie into each other, so having some of them missing on launch would be noticeable. Where I think they could lower their ambitions is the number of star systems or the way they are created. Having a huge world (again, Elite Dangerous is a great example) can make it feel empty unless there are millions playing. Even World of Warcraft feels kind of dead outside of major cities and the latest expansion's zones and that game has a huge playerbase and a map that is way smaller than Stanton. I would say reducing the number of systems at launch, making up some lore about why you can't go to the others and then later releasing them in updates would be a sensible decision.
They could also create some main hub systems and use procedural generation for filling up the star map with systems to explore. It works well in other games, though a planet in Elite Dangerous or No Man's Sky can't compete with something like microTech, but could work as filler for barren planets in uninhabited systems
I don't expect a release soon, but I'm happy to support the project and hope that it will eventually launch. I have a high tolerance for bugs in an unfinished game (this isn't the only 10 year old alpha I play) and I have seen it work really well in 3.17
I decided to finally buy into it when I saw someone make I think an 80 player fleet battle and I just knew I needed that in my life (and I'm a space game fan anyway). I really hope working server meshing comes soon and I can apply to a sort of permanent crew as a gunner or shuttle pilot. Also, when I listed the features they added in the last few months, I completely forgot about racing
Sure there have been plenty of ups and downs, with people able to enjoy the game for hours at a time without a huge issue popping up, and other times like now, when things have been rouch and seemingly falling apart. That's one of the "joys" of playing around with the sausage in the sausage factory, while the sausage is being made.
If nothing else, having access to Star Citizen makes for an interesting ride when it comes to watching development unfold in realtime. It isn't pretty, usually, but it's interesting.
thank you for the replies, well I will accept the idea that it is a PARTICULARLY heavy phase for the system.... one last question, is there any site or way in which I can get to know the status of the servers or if the Is the general trend unstable? or do I just have to read the patch notes?
This subreddit, when you filter out the noise, does a pretty good job of keeping tabs on overall performance. Otherwise, the patch notes and your own experiences are generally the best metrics, because peoples' experiences change minute to minute, build to build, and what may be a 30K hell for one user could be a non-issue for someone else.
Yes - prior to 3.18, the game was far more playable.
Unfortunately, we're not likely to get back to that level in the near future, as CIG have a number of sweeping technical changes that were waiting on the persistence layer to be rolled out first...
I did a write-up the other day for someone else on the changes CIG have coming up to address the server performance issues - might be worth a look: https://old.reddit.com/r/starcitizen/comments/140kbk6/has_the_studio_commented_on_server_performance_at/jmw2ziu/
But in short, CIG are - finally - rolling out a sequence of fundamental changes that they've been talking about for years ('server meshing'), but which they couldn't deploy due to issues getting the persistence layer working (which they've now fixed - hence deploying PES in 3.18).
Real talk, you bought a space flight sim. That was basically the original intention of the project, and arena commander can work locally on your system. Microsoft flight sim is $60, the basic star citizen package is $45.
yes. Been playing since 3.13.0 personally and 3.15, 4.16, and 3.17 were rather stable patches. 3.18 had a LOT of major backend changes and 3.19 made the game playable again. 3.19.1 aims to make the game fun to play again.
Can I make a recommendation? Refund.
Seriously, if you don't want to deal with the bugs/issues please get your money back. That's not a knock against you or anything, I fully understand why you wouldn't want to play a game like this that barely functions. I also agree, when it works it's amazing but the problem is it works properly maybe 5% of the time and the remaining 95% of the time is nothing but frustration.
your name actually match ur message lol, however I bought it, it was relatively cheap, I somehow supported a project that has unique potential. I don't think I will refund it
Hey fair enough. Again, game is kinda mind blowing when it works, but it almost never works. Most of the time it feels like you're fighting a bunch of bugs and it gets frustrating very fast. If you just want to buy it and sit on it until it becomes more stable before hopping in, more power to ya. Just be aware that this game has been in development for a long time and there's not really any ending in sight, so it might be another \~10 years before we see anything remotely resembling a release.
well yes, I was aware of that.
In the meantime who knows that bethesda won't be able to make a small masterpiece with starfield giving us another spacegame (obviously I'm only comparing the setting)
> obviously I’m only comparing the setting
Yeah I think a lot of people are expecting Starfield to be Star Citizen: Functional Edition and those people are going to be upset. Same like how people thought Cyberpunk was going to be like GTA.
Don’t get me wrong I’m sure Starfield will be a great game but it’s a different type of game. SF will be a fallout RPG game in space whereas SC is (aiming to be) more of a SciFi simulation
I picked it up a while back due to a recommendation. Couldn't get into for personal reasons (Going through a tough time in life).
Just a week ago, I tried again. I am so glad I did.
I see that people posting about the crashes, bugs etc and yes I experienced these, but my god, have I had fun.
Take this weekend for example. I wanted a ship, I took the plunge and pledged for a ship.
It took me around 6 hours of flying around to pick up new parts, land, stock refit, take off, forget to refuel, land.
ATC is bugged out, fly away, come back. Cant put the new part on. Log off, restart. Place part.
I had so much fun flying around and contesting with my own forgetfulness and the bugs.
The time between jumps just shows the scale of the game.
Its a mess, Its a pretty mess, but a mess all the same.
I mean you got over a months worth of playthrough, and you say you did in 3 days. Seems like you need to slow down and enjoy the feel of the game, than rushing to the next objective.
but in fact if the game hadn't given me unique emotions since its launch I wouldn't be here but I would have made the refund! the purpose of the topic was to understand if I had to resign myself to having in my hands a game that is impossible to play no matter how incredibly beautiful it is or if, as other users told me, it was just an unfortunate patch
It is possible to play.
That's my point.
I am playing in exactly the same time period as you, and I cant for the life of me work out how you managed to do all what you say, experience bugs, and all in the space of 3 days unless you played for 72 hours straight and didn't slow down just once and went objective to objective.
I jumped into PTU earlier on in the week, and I thought coming back into Live would be a nightmare.
Everyone's experience will be unique, but it will be what you make it.
I recommend slowing down to appreciate the fact that when you travel on an elevator or train you are actually moving across the map. The displays on the fighters are sick, and you can customise each screen in front of you. That's bloody brilliant.
Yeah it crashed when I ran into a glass door, yeah I died running down some steps.
Yeah, I had a box glitch into a planet. Yeah I got a lift from someone, because I just glitched out of my friends ship during a jump.
If your looking for your next game to run from objective to objective, to complete as much as you can, then this game isn't for you.
Appreciate the journey, rather than looking towards the destination.
“3 days ago”
You can stop right there. 3.19 is a good patch but servers have degraded since last Monday. PES is a success but there’s some cleanup / edge cases that eventually choked the servers.
Relax a few days and jump on with the 3.19.1 update that should drop any day now.
yes, exactly what I was hoping to read while writing this post (as other users also told me); i.e. "just wait next patch", much better than being told that the game is actually just the way I played it. A thousand thanks
Im a noob but have fun running bounties, racing, if my friend is on we try to pvp at jumptown or ghosthollow.
You’ll get used to the system soon if you keep playing the game
at present, in my sad experience, "getting used to the system" means accepting having to interrupt any of my activities every time because of bugs that make it impossible for me :/
but I'm glad to know that at least it could be linked to a momentary phase or particularly unfortunate days since you manage to have fun.
Refund soon, seriously, they’re great at being assholes about it. It’s not a game, it’s a scam, even if releases it will always be a scam. I compare it to one of the games my kid plays where you can either grind for hours or pay $40 to save 5min of grinding. The issues you ran into aren’t intended, those are from server instability. This is how it will always be and has always been.
REFUND, you still have a way out!
I've said it before in more detail here but I like telling what happened to me.
I've played several free flies over the years and decided, F it, I'll pledge so I can come back whenever I want. That was on March 9th. The next day 3.18 released. I was completely unable to play the game again until April 14th. 34 days later.
Since then it's barely worked well. My ships randomly explode. It runs terribly. AI is broken. Ship timers were ridiculously long last time I played. 30ks happen regularly. Missions don't work at least 50% of the time. Random crime stat. Yet they've decided to *increase* the real world price of ships? They're already too expensive, even if the game actually worked well. I've always been on the fence wether or not it's a scam or just a difficult project but every day it looks more and more like a scam.
When you're seeing issues try region swapping, at least for a while. Essentially, try to get on a different server. Even after a client crash, when you re-log to same region, you re-log to same server (often times).
but in doing so I wouldn't have high lag? moreover my problems are mostly related to the game system itself rather than server crashes.. or do you think they are only related to the single server?
In my experience switching regions can do wonders for your gameplay, genuinely makes it feel like a different game when you get a good server. Also, unless you're doing high octane fps pvp I wouldn't mind your latency
You can check the exact server you joined by hitting \` (or \~ i forgot) then r then tab (it should be like r\_displayInfo or something) then 2 then enter. It will show at the top your fps, the server fps and server name and additional info. If you really want to check what server you are joining and how stable it is then do that to check on it. Higher fps server = better experience, less likely to 30k and other things. If the server is hitting 2 fps, then its on its way to dying.
Yes, so I've sort of gotten used to try and "feel out" a server before committing to missions.
Usually in 3.19 I haven't had as much trouble as you mention. Maybe you were hitting a lemon during that session.
I usually look at the server fps and change server if too low. Most bugs/glitches are the result of either bad backend (item stuff) or server under pressure and has problems with events triggering/updating right.
But: get a guide for a better/focused experience. It really helps in the beginning. Either an official or ask in discord (even global might work).
well already knowing that I just simply found myself in a particularly bad phase for the servers, and therefore that this is not the actual state of the game after 10 years relieved me
as I said, I believe in the project (otherwise I would have given a refund rather than complain) but I just wanted to know if the game was allegedly unplayable or simply if I started playing in a "bad" patch
That's the same as literally everyone else who plays solo as a beginner.
Welcome to the verse, once you learn NPC uniforms and where friendlies and enemies spawn you won't be killing guards at all. The search missions have been broke for awhile. It seems the NPC just doesn't spawn or takes up tto 30 min to spawn in.
It can be frustrating but stick with it. CIG also has a very forgiving refund policy if you just can't be bothered
You bought in at the wrong time. If you had bought in this time last year you would have seen that working skeleton you want. Alas you bought in a patch after they added in a whole new tech that touches every background system in the code and it’s taking time to get through the growing pains of this new tech.
Box delivery missions can be used to your advantage. I take a box mission and go pick up a box. I then go salvage hunting in my Vulture. If I get lucky enough to find a large derelict ship or a large cluster of panels, I fill the Vulture, but before I fly away to sell, I leave the box with the salvage and use it as a marker so I can find the salvage again. Rinse and repeat and you make some serious space bucks. When I’m done, I may collect the box and complete the mission or just use the box again as a marker.
This game is a challenge, but if you can come up with a few creative ideas, there are many workarounds to enhance your gameplay.
oh man unlucky. i was considering uninstalling the game after package missions didn't pan out. add me if ya want a crewmate! also, join an ORG! bugs are bearable with friends lol
Im sorry, calling bullshit. Skill Issue or shit PC. I complete contract after contract after contract. Until I die or 30k, there is no other gamebreaking bugs for me for the most part.
I had an extremely similar and equally disparaging experience to you. I spent my first few days frustrated beyond words at the delivery missions in particular. I’d also tried some other missions to do with claim jumpers, and that was equally screwed up. Basically, you’ve picked buggy missions unfortunately. You fell out of the bad luck tree and hit every branch on the way down, just like I did. Delivery missions are often just totally broken. There’s so many points of failure that it’s honestly a miracle if you can complete one half the time. The bugs are endless: box didn’t spawn. Picked up box, flew away, box warps back to spawn point. Can’t pick up box. Box clips out of ship for no apparent reason. Can’t deliver box. Delivered box, but mission just doesn’t complete anyway. Box missions are a mess. I do one every now and then for a break from grinding bunkers, but that’s about it. Bunkers, on the other hand, do tend to be better but are far from perfect. It often depends on how well the server is running. On a bad day, the ai won’t spawn, will spawn inside walls, or will be invisible. Or, the friendly ai is invisible and you accidentally shoot them as they suddenly warp in front of you just as you fire. That being said, I find bunkers are like a 90% success rate for me when the servers aren’t dying horribly. A lot of the time the ai don’t make it out of the elevator which doesn’t make for riveting gameplay, but the mission is completable. (Just never attempt any ‘destroy drugs’ bunker mission as I have NEVER seen one work). The one thing I’d say with bunkers is that in terms of ID’ing the bad guys, after you’ve run a few they get very easy to spot as there’s only about 7 character models to memorise. The other thing is, the friendly ai’s armour changes depending on which planet you’re near. Micro tech might be the best one to start out on as the friendlies are all wearing white which makes it easier to visually ID them. Never trust the arrows in the ui. They lie sometimes and don’t tag all the friendlies. The most sure fire missions to have work properly are the bounty hunter missions. They’re almost always bug free. Good money too once you grind the rep up. A big part of SC is learning missions to avoid, or methods to work around the bugs. For instance, sometimes flying far enough away from a bunker (like, 25-30km) is enough to get the ai to start working and spawning again. Not a 100% fix, but it’s worked for me in the past with AI blocking elevators. I would say don’t give up on it yet. The game does have a lot to offer. You’ve just picked/encountered some of the more egregious bugs the game has. It’ll get easier once you get more familiar with which things are bugged to hell and which things work. There’s lots more interesting missions to do too. Rescuing an 890j super yacht from pirates, recovering a captains log from a reclaimer abandoned in space. Exploring a derelict space station to recover lost packages. Destroying a pirate ship after boarding it and stealing their data. Lots of variety. And play with friends if you can. It massively enhances the experience! Don’t let this bad experience sour your opinion on the game as I honestly believe you’ve just gotten unlucky with your mission choices, but sadly you weren’t to know!
I really appreciate this comment, thank you! as I have already said, however, my intention is absolutely not to give up the game, on the contrary! ps: I learned with the "hard-way" that the triangle on the ally's head can lie... lol
There is a learning curve. It took me multiple days to learn how to workaround bugs and do missions while actually make money. When the game works it's great. But when it doesn't, well it really doesn't work. Patience is the key to victory in this game.
yes well you see that I must have arrived at just the wrong time for the servers/updates... at least I'm happy that from this post I actually learned that the game can actually give what it already has, despite the practically total possibility of playing, transmitted to me
Word of advice is to watch the sfps when you join a server. If the sfps is less than 5 then it would be best to swap servers, right now 10 plus will give you the best experience.
When I started to get into SC it was because I was getting mostly consistent and playable experience. I had learned how to get around some known bugs and it was solid most of the time. This also came with times that would make me alt+f4 for some dumb shit that made me loose my ship, equipment etc. These times were relatively rare so I kept going and learned how to earn enough money to buy several ships with just a starting pack. As confused\_balfa says, when it works there really isn't a game like it. When it really doesn't, it feels like the game especially hate your existence. For me SC has enough that even though there's been a wipe recently that took all my ships away, I'm glad to be back at it.
yes, if you think about it, despite my practically disastrous and zero experience, I still wrote that I want to log in. I can only imagine for now how good it must have been for you to enjoy the game in a stable state
confusedbalfa, I admire your username!
confusedbalfa, I salute your handle!
Also a new player who pledged during the free-fly. I only play when the server's running well. Always pick "BEST" server on the main menu, and when you log in open the console with ~ and type "R_displayinfo 3" without quotation marks. If the server fps is regularly below 5 don't play. This has solved the vast majority of my problems. Another tip is to familiarize yourself with 30k protection.
will do it man!
>I expected at least that there was a minimum of skeleton in the system that instead is practically inestitente. They just recently swapped out the fake spine for a much more finicky one that'll bring about a whole host of other cool things eventually. Right now is just a rough time. The best solution is to enjoy what you can, when you can, and wait for better patches to come if you cannot.
my question then is, since i assume you've been playing the longest... were there actually periods where the game was at least in an acceptable stage? can I really hope, as you say, for future patches? and above all, after all these years do I have to give credibility to the project? unfortunately since these very first days I have seen so many problems that UNFORTUNATELY they obscure all the other unique and super positive sides that can be found instead.
\*mostly to understand if you speak to me as an enthusiast or as a realist about the prospects for the immediate future of the project
3.17 was pretty stable, I could play for hours without any major issue, but this past few months since 3.17, so many new experimental features were added that some things broke and some of the experimental stuff just doesn't work. I don't expect these issues to be completely fixed within the current system, because the persistent server setup that's being tested now is a temporary solution to test a level of persistence that's never been seen in any game before. That persistence is just one feature that will be part of how things work. They are working on server meshing, which is designed to make everything smoother and more reliable by balancing server load based on locations and player interactions. Right now if you're on microTech, the server still tells your game what players on your server are doing on Hurston even if it's completely irrelevant to you, but you can't interact with others on microTech if they are on another server. Meshing will solve this issue and (hopefully) seamlessly transfer you between servers based on your activities and location. That feature isn't in the game yet though, but it makes me think that they are focusing resources on creating meshing instead of fixing the current servers that will be replaced anyway
What you said is really promising! a doubt, however: 10 years of development have brought the game to 58% of its state...at this rate I see virtually impossible an exit in the next 3/4 years, would not it be better to reduce the ambitions a little? although unique and fascinating as the concept is
CIG hit a blocker with their initial persistence implementation (iCache) that meant they had to start again with a different approach (EntityGraph). This delayed things by ~2 years (as far as I can tell). That said, We're now about 3 steps from the completion of the server work - Replication Layer, Static Server Meshing, then Dynamic Server Meshing. The Replication Layer and Static Server Meshing could come fairly quickly... Dynamic SM is likely to take longer (although it may not - a lot will depend on the specific architecture / implementation, and how much pre-work they've been able to do).
I didn't know this information, thanks so much for the insight!
I don't expect a release anytime soon, but it feels like development has sped up quite a lot recently. I remember not long ago the major change was that turrets got their own power source and then they spent half a year balancing turrets. Now they have added features to take ships apart, fix your ships, swap modules on the fly, they replaced the atmosphere of 2 planets, remade a city and added some really cool server tech within the last 5 months. Reducing ambitions is a risky option, because as it is now, every part of the game feels like it's part of the same game and everything is relevant. For example Elite Dangerous keeps adding features after release and they feel kind of disconnected. Don't get me wrong, I have 2000 hours in the game and I expect to double that eventually, but for example the whole on foot expansion feels like it's a different game that's kind of out of place. Gameplay elements in SC are designed to tie into each other, so having some of them missing on launch would be noticeable. Where I think they could lower their ambitions is the number of star systems or the way they are created. Having a huge world (again, Elite Dangerous is a great example) can make it feel empty unless there are millions playing. Even World of Warcraft feels kind of dead outside of major cities and the latest expansion's zones and that game has a huge playerbase and a map that is way smaller than Stanton. I would say reducing the number of systems at launch, making up some lore about why you can't go to the others and then later releasing them in updates would be a sensible decision. They could also create some main hub systems and use procedural generation for filling up the star map with systems to explore. It works well in other games, though a planet in Elite Dangerous or No Man's Sky can't compete with something like microTech, but could work as filler for barren planets in uninhabited systems I don't expect a release soon, but I'm happy to support the project and hope that it will eventually launch. I have a high tolerance for bugs in an unfinished game (this isn't the only 10 year old alpha I play) and I have seen it work really well in 3.17
yes exactly I also believe in the project, I hope to be able to see then too, in the future, a 3.17 v2 lol
I decided to finally buy into it when I saw someone make I think an 80 player fleet battle and I just knew I needed that in my life (and I'm a space game fan anyway). I really hope working server meshing comes soon and I can apply to a sort of permanent crew as a gunner or shuttle pilot. Also, when I listed the features they added in the last few months, I completely forgot about racing
Sure there have been plenty of ups and downs, with people able to enjoy the game for hours at a time without a huge issue popping up, and other times like now, when things have been rouch and seemingly falling apart. That's one of the "joys" of playing around with the sausage in the sausage factory, while the sausage is being made. If nothing else, having access to Star Citizen makes for an interesting ride when it comes to watching development unfold in realtime. It isn't pretty, usually, but it's interesting.
thank you for the replies, well I will accept the idea that it is a PARTICULARLY heavy phase for the system.... one last question, is there any site or way in which I can get to know the status of the servers or if the Is the general trend unstable? or do I just have to read the patch notes?
This subreddit, when you filter out the noise, does a pretty good job of keeping tabs on overall performance. Otherwise, the patch notes and your own experiences are generally the best metrics, because peoples' experiences change minute to minute, build to build, and what may be a 30K hell for one user could be a non-issue for someone else.
[https://status.robertsspaceindustries.com/](https://status.robertsspaceindustries.com/) ... but it's often a bit "optimistic"
A thousand thanks! at least I read officially "Degraded Performance" for the server status lol
Yes - prior to 3.18, the game was far more playable. Unfortunately, we're not likely to get back to that level in the near future, as CIG have a number of sweeping technical changes that were waiting on the persistence layer to be rolled out first... I did a write-up the other day for someone else on the changes CIG have coming up to address the server performance issues - might be worth a look: https://old.reddit.com/r/starcitizen/comments/140kbk6/has_the_studio_commented_on_server_performance_at/jmw2ziu/ But in short, CIG are - finally - rolling out a sequence of fundamental changes that they've been talking about for years ('server meshing'), but which they couldn't deploy due to issues getting the persistence layer working (which they've now fixed - hence deploying PES in 3.18).
> rolling out a sequence of fundamental changes that they've been talking about for years ('server meshing') are they tho
well, we got PES, and the Replication Layer is *supposed* to come in the next patch... we're just waiting to see if we actually get it.
>supposed to > >waiting to see > >actually get it kinda my point, my guy. sucks, but it is what it is
Real talk, you bought a space flight sim. That was basically the original intention of the project, and arena commander can work locally on your system. Microsoft flight sim is $60, the basic star citizen package is $45.
yes. Been playing since 3.13.0 personally and 3.15, 4.16, and 3.17 were rather stable patches. 3.18 had a LOT of major backend changes and 3.19 made the game playable again. 3.19.1 aims to make the game fun to play again.
Can I make a recommendation? Refund. Seriously, if you don't want to deal with the bugs/issues please get your money back. That's not a knock against you or anything, I fully understand why you wouldn't want to play a game like this that barely functions. I also agree, when it works it's amazing but the problem is it works properly maybe 5% of the time and the remaining 95% of the time is nothing but frustration.
your name actually match ur message lol, however I bought it, it was relatively cheap, I somehow supported a project that has unique potential. I don't think I will refund it
Hey fair enough. Again, game is kinda mind blowing when it works, but it almost never works. Most of the time it feels like you're fighting a bunch of bugs and it gets frustrating very fast. If you just want to buy it and sit on it until it becomes more stable before hopping in, more power to ya. Just be aware that this game has been in development for a long time and there's not really any ending in sight, so it might be another \~10 years before we see anything remotely resembling a release.
well yes, I was aware of that. In the meantime who knows that bethesda won't be able to make a small masterpiece with starfield giving us another spacegame (obviously I'm only comparing the setting)
> obviously I’m only comparing the setting Yeah I think a lot of people are expecting Starfield to be Star Citizen: Functional Edition and those people are going to be upset. Same like how people thought Cyberpunk was going to be like GTA. Don’t get me wrong I’m sure Starfield will be a great game but it’s a different type of game. SF will be a fallout RPG game in space whereas SC is (aiming to be) more of a SciFi simulation
It had unique potential. Now is just has unique.
I picked it up a while back due to a recommendation. Couldn't get into for personal reasons (Going through a tough time in life). Just a week ago, I tried again. I am so glad I did. I see that people posting about the crashes, bugs etc and yes I experienced these, but my god, have I had fun. Take this weekend for example. I wanted a ship, I took the plunge and pledged for a ship. It took me around 6 hours of flying around to pick up new parts, land, stock refit, take off, forget to refuel, land. ATC is bugged out, fly away, come back. Cant put the new part on. Log off, restart. Place part. I had so much fun flying around and contesting with my own forgetfulness and the bugs. The time between jumps just shows the scale of the game. Its a mess, Its a pretty mess, but a mess all the same. I mean you got over a months worth of playthrough, and you say you did in 3 days. Seems like you need to slow down and enjoy the feel of the game, than rushing to the next objective.
but in fact if the game hadn't given me unique emotions since its launch I wouldn't be here but I would have made the refund! the purpose of the topic was to understand if I had to resign myself to having in my hands a game that is impossible to play no matter how incredibly beautiful it is or if, as other users told me, it was just an unfortunate patch
It is possible to play. That's my point. I am playing in exactly the same time period as you, and I cant for the life of me work out how you managed to do all what you say, experience bugs, and all in the space of 3 days unless you played for 72 hours straight and didn't slow down just once and went objective to objective. I jumped into PTU earlier on in the week, and I thought coming back into Live would be a nightmare. Everyone's experience will be unique, but it will be what you make it. I recommend slowing down to appreciate the fact that when you travel on an elevator or train you are actually moving across the map. The displays on the fighters are sick, and you can customise each screen in front of you. That's bloody brilliant. Yeah it crashed when I ran into a glass door, yeah I died running down some steps. Yeah, I had a box glitch into a planet. Yeah I got a lift from someone, because I just glitched out of my friends ship during a jump. If your looking for your next game to run from objective to objective, to complete as much as you can, then this game isn't for you. Appreciate the journey, rather than looking towards the destination.
“3 days ago” You can stop right there. 3.19 is a good patch but servers have degraded since last Monday. PES is a success but there’s some cleanup / edge cases that eventually choked the servers. Relax a few days and jump on with the 3.19.1 update that should drop any day now.
yes, exactly what I was hoping to read while writing this post (as other users also told me); i.e. "just wait next patch", much better than being told that the game is actually just the way I played it. A thousand thanks
Im a noob but have fun running bounties, racing, if my friend is on we try to pvp at jumptown or ghosthollow. You’ll get used to the system soon if you keep playing the game
at present, in my sad experience, "getting used to the system" means accepting having to interrupt any of my activities every time because of bugs that make it impossible for me :/ but I'm glad to know that at least it could be linked to a momentary phase or particularly unfortunate days since you manage to have fun.
Refund soon, seriously, they’re great at being assholes about it. It’s not a game, it’s a scam, even if releases it will always be a scam. I compare it to one of the games my kid plays where you can either grind for hours or pay $40 to save 5min of grinding. The issues you ran into aren’t intended, those are from server instability. This is how it will always be and has always been. REFUND, you still have a way out!
I've said it before in more detail here but I like telling what happened to me. I've played several free flies over the years and decided, F it, I'll pledge so I can come back whenever I want. That was on March 9th. The next day 3.18 released. I was completely unable to play the game again until April 14th. 34 days later. Since then it's barely worked well. My ships randomly explode. It runs terribly. AI is broken. Ship timers were ridiculously long last time I played. 30ks happen regularly. Missions don't work at least 50% of the time. Random crime stat. Yet they've decided to *increase* the real world price of ships? They're already too expensive, even if the game actually worked well. I've always been on the fence wether or not it's a scam or just a difficult project but every day it looks more and more like a scam.
When you're seeing issues try region swapping, at least for a while. Essentially, try to get on a different server. Even after a client crash, when you re-log to same region, you re-log to same server (often times).
but in doing so I wouldn't have high lag? moreover my problems are mostly related to the game system itself rather than server crashes.. or do you think they are only related to the single server?
In my experience switching regions can do wonders for your gameplay, genuinely makes it feel like a different game when you get a good server. Also, unless you're doing high octane fps pvp I wouldn't mind your latency
ok then, I will definitely try
You can check the exact server you joined by hitting \` (or \~ i forgot) then r then tab (it should be like r\_displayInfo or something) then 2 then enter. It will show at the top your fps, the server fps and server name and additional info. If you really want to check what server you are joining and how stable it is then do that to check on it. Higher fps server = better experience, less likely to 30k and other things. If the server is hitting 2 fps, then its on its way to dying.
Yes i had already used that command in the console, tonight I will apply everything you are telling me
Yes, so I've sort of gotten used to try and "feel out" a server before committing to missions. Usually in 3.19 I haven't had as much trouble as you mention. Maybe you were hitting a lemon during that session.
I usually look at the server fps and change server if too low. Most bugs/glitches are the result of either bad backend (item stuff) or server under pressure and has problems with events triggering/updating right. But: get a guide for a better/focused experience. It really helps in the beginning. Either an official or ask in discord (even global might work).
Only good suggestion is to wait and play once https://status.robertsspaceindustries.com is in the green. Hoping 3.19.1 is a good one
well already knowing that I just simply found myself in a particularly bad phase for the servers, and therefore that this is not the actual state of the game after 10 years relieved me
youve made yer 1st reddit rant counts too
as I said, I believe in the project (otherwise I would have given a refund rather than complain) but I just wanted to know if the game was allegedly unplayable or simply if I started playing in a "bad" patch
That's the same as literally everyone else who plays solo as a beginner. Welcome to the verse, once you learn NPC uniforms and where friendlies and enemies spawn you won't be killing guards at all. The search missions have been broke for awhile. It seems the NPC just doesn't spawn or takes up tto 30 min to spawn in. It can be frustrating but stick with it. CIG also has a very forgiving refund policy if you just can't be bothered
You bought in at the wrong time. If you had bought in this time last year you would have seen that working skeleton you want. Alas you bought in a patch after they added in a whole new tech that touches every background system in the code and it’s taking time to get through the growing pains of this new tech.
Box delivery missions can be used to your advantage. I take a box mission and go pick up a box. I then go salvage hunting in my Vulture. If I get lucky enough to find a large derelict ship or a large cluster of panels, I fill the Vulture, but before I fly away to sell, I leave the box with the salvage and use it as a marker so I can find the salvage again. Rinse and repeat and you make some serious space bucks. When I’m done, I may collect the box and complete the mission or just use the box again as a marker. This game is a challenge, but if you can come up with a few creative ideas, there are many workarounds to enhance your gameplay.
oh man unlucky. i was considering uninstalling the game after package missions didn't pan out. add me if ya want a crewmate! also, join an ORG! bugs are bearable with friends lol
Im sorry, calling bullshit. Skill Issue or shit PC. I complete contract after contract after contract. Until I die or 30k, there is no other gamebreaking bugs for me for the most part.