Mystic Worlds

START OF ALPHA 3.18 FALLS FLAT

Star Citizen 3.18 got off to a rocky start. Many players, including myself, were unable to access the game for several days due to log-in server defects, account authentication issues, and infinite loading screens. It took seven days for me to finally beat these problems and get into the game. During the first few sessions, I focused on PVE Bounty Hunting to avoid bugs that caused pilots to get stuck in their seats. I avoided doing activities that required me to frequently get in and out of my ship. Once I had enough time without issues, I turned my attention to salvage.

Similar to mining, I find salvage to be a Zen-like relaxing mechanic that I've equated to fishing in other MMOs. Floating alone in the deep black of space while casually reading in-game chat or watching a stream is peaceful and financially rewarding. I don't mind having to get up every other crate to arrange the salvage in the cargo bay. In the same way that I chose to avoid the explosive but lucrative quantanium mining, I avoid potential pirates by salvaging in the Aaron Halo asteroid belt.

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Star Citizen - Salvage Tier 0 Arrives

2022 has been an extremely stressful year. From my daughter's unfortunate medical condition that resulted in blindness in her left eye and the ongoing battle to contain the disease to aggressive schedules at work while we continue losing bodies to COVID, I needed this winter break to decompress and recalibrate. The family came into town to celebrate the holiday since Jenn being too far from doctors who are familiar with her condition is risky. We had a great time together, and I reveled in having downtime.

I've been popping on to New World while cooling my heels for the next Star Citizen 3.18 patch. At level 60, there's enough variety in New World for the game to be fun despite the repetitive nature of the content. There's a lot you can mix and match to create a gaming session. Do open-world PVE, instanced dungeons, instanced PVP, gathering, or work on one of the many crafting professions. As a gimp Paladin, I like the freedom of completing PVE content on my own, and people throw me invites for quests that require multiples because I can heal. No one will complain about my heavy armor in PVP because they're just glad that someone is healing. And it takes multiple attackers to take me down when they target the healer freeing up the others to kill the aggressors or complete objectives.

The first wave of players activated for Star Citizen's 3.18 patch came just before the holiday. They hoped to leave for their end-of-year vacation with all backers having access, but the build is too unstable for that volume. 3.18 is a milestone event for Star Citizen, containing Persistent Entity Streaming, Gen 12 graphics, and the long-awaited T0 of salvaging, among other things.

Head to Alysianah's World of Star Citizen to See Salvage in Action

Salvage is one of the professions I backed by purchasing the multicrew Aegis Reclaimer and the solo-capable Drake Vulture. The patch is rough-n-ready with crashes and character physic desync that requires resetting your character repeatedly. However, when things work, it's pretty damn fabulous. Salvage is the engaging but zen experience I was hoping for; this is only a fraction of what the mechanics will provide. Like mining, they've introduced just the laser capabilities as the start. You salvage the material from ship hulls into 1 SCU-sized cargo box, manage the boxes off the conveyer belt in the cargo bay and transport them for sale when you're done.

It seems straightforward, but it contains lots of interactions and player agency. Do you fill up your ship and fly that to sell the cargo directly? Perhaps you have a friend with an actual cargo hauler willing to manage the boxes off the conveyer belt and place them into their ship. The salvaged can keep working in deep space while their partner handles transportation and sales, then they split the profit. Or do you introduce a third person who's the box mover? The Cargo hauler helps to fill his ship and then is off. Box mover continues managing the conveyer belt, so there's a dedicated hauler and salvage. It's great to see multiple roles and choices, even at T0. I've felt this for a while, and this only reinforces my thinking that long development time or not, Star Citizen's player professions development is in good hands at CIG.

If you want to see some Salvaging in action, head to Alysianah's world for an article that discusses the mechanics and has a video of it in action.

 

 

 

Aly's Star Citizen Events Coming Soon

I've been working on having my site updated to host in-game events in Star Citizen. Social gatherings that use game assets, mechanics, and lore to create competitive games. Formal registration, participation sheets, and winners round out the events. Am in the final testing and have a few organization members lined up to run a small scenario as additional testing. I'm very excited to get these going. You can find out more here, on Aly's World of Star Citizen.

Star Citizen - Drake Mule

At the end of Invictus 2022, Star Citizen unveiled the game's first cargo loader. It's not fully functional yet, but the intent and value are clearly obvious. From starter delivery missions to those managing bases or large ships, the ability to move supplies in multiples will be a fundamental need. I purchased one since the price is low and took it for a spin. It handles very well, has nice animations, and cleanly designed HUD.

Visit Aly's World to read more.

Star Citizen - FPS Bounty Hunter Guide

Star Citizen is experiencing a surge of new players and with that comes the pains of playing a game in Alpha. There are several rewarding game loops available. Unfortunately, stumbling your way into them can be painful. I've created a small starter guide for the very popular FPS Bounty Hunting loop.

Excerpt from the full article...

PVE ship combat bounties are a very popular activity because they don't require specialized ships. You can successfully jump into the game with a starter ship and complete flight combat bounties. Unfortunately, the same can't be said for FPS bounties, which are equally popular. For the FPS bounties, you need basic gear that is purchasable in-game. You also need a

 

Star Citizen Survival Mechanics - Food Consumption

It's not a popular opinion, but I like the updates to the food consumption side of Star Citizen's survival mechanics. If the game doesn't require that we eat and drink at a noticeable frequency, what's the point? Unlike the more traditional MMO experience of eating and drinking for buffs or to replace health and energy consumed, you must consume food to survive in Star Citizen. In typical CIG fashion, the variety and visual detail are stellar. 

You can read more about the updated mechanic on Aly's World that now includes A.I. narrated versions of my posts.

READ/LISTEN HERE.

Star Citizen - The Men in White

A byproduct of players dropping all gear as loot upon death is that many of us are now choosing to run around in the default scrub-looking white suit. Getting a marker to retrieve your corpse or the game persisting it through a full death isn't 100% reliable. Plus the inconvenience of flying back to the scene of the crime, only to find nothing remains, wastes time. Unless you're doing FPS combat, armor provides no benefits besides storage and protection from the weather, neither of which come into play if your activity is mostly aboard a spaceship. No one wants to lose armor they've purchased for no reason. Hence, there are many men in white suits roaming the Star Citizen verse.

A couple of weekends ago, a group of us were doing Bounty Hunting missions together. And as you'll see, we've elected to be in the default replacement flight suits. While waiting for other members to join us at the orbital station above Hurston, comedic events ensued.

THE MEN IN WHITE SUITS

 

Star Citizen Players Become Loot Goblins

Star Citizen Alpha 3.17 is turning most of us into Loot Goblins. Now that looting has been joined by selling items, chasing boxes has become a favorite pastime of many players. Bunker missions, Box Delivery, and old fashion exploration are yielding opportunities to collect rarer items or as a means to earn extra cash. It's definitely a low-skill ceiling way for new players to hop in and earn money with no special equipment or skills required. If yo u can fly, land and look around, you too can become a little Loot Goblin.

Read more on Aly's World.

Star Citizen - Aegis Eclipse Stealth Bomber Bounty Hunter

I'm still working on my Bounty Hunter reputation in Star Citizen. I recently reached the second to last mission difficulty, Very High-Risk Targets (VHRT), and needed a new strategy to continue working on them solo during the week. When I first started VHRTs I was doing them in multiple passes. First I went after the light and medium fighters, drawing them away from the heavy support. Once those were destroyed, I returned to the target area of conflict to play cat-n-mouse with the heavy fighters until I could take out the mission target, being the Aegis Hammerhead. The Hammerhead is a formidable ship when fully crewed. And not a ship I could easily stand toe-to-toe with using my Constellation. Then I overheard a conversation about size nine torpedoes one-shotting the Hammerhead and went in search of an option to use that strategy.

And so, the Aegis Eclipse, a stealth bomber, was reintroduced into my fleet. I'd owned one a couple of years ago - maybe further back. At the time, I didn't find much need for it in my gameplay but it certainly has its uses now. Not just for soloing bounties meant for small groups but for dealing with large frigate encounters we have in the new dynamic events. During the earlier phases, I can participate with the Constellation in combat or hauling crates then swap to the bomber. Even if I don't use the Eclipse for dynamic events it has become invaluable for my progression in Bounty Hunting.

I hope CIG revisits the payouts for the VHRT and ERT missions. We used to do them as a group but the payouts aren't worth it when the shipowner also has to repair and restock their ship. Splitting 10K is a joke compared to maintaining a ship, hence most of the people in our group are all running the missions solo now. You can read more about my journey to complete Very High-Risk Target missions using a Stealth Bomber here.

Star Citizen: Many New Players

New players continue to embrace Star Citizen regardless of the bad press and the number of years it's been in development. I see them introducing themselves on Reddit and Twitch wanting to know how to get started. It's refreshing to see new people excited about what's in the game. To be fair, there are enough pieces of a game to string together a fun experience. I couldn't play it solidly for the number of hours I played a broken game like New World but I am starting to hop in a couple of evenings during the week and a few hours across the weekend. Here's what I think is keeping new players entertained and how most recommend they get started in the verse.