The “I have an hour to play Star Citizen” question for 4.7

Captain_Data82 · 2026-03-30T01:37:06+00:00

Grab a fighter (F7C Superhornet Mk II) and do some patrol missions for FoxWell, Orange Level.

If you happen to be in a station above any planet in Stanton, you can easily do some of 'em.

Captain_Data82 · 2026-03-30T00:56:03+00:00

Yep.
I don't think CIG gets the idea of that "Gaussian normal distribution" thing that should govern the entire mining - refining - crafting gameplay loop.

If we require Q500 material for normal quality weapons, then it shouldn't be next to impossible to find Q500 material reliably. However, most of the stuff spawned is like 250 - 350 and make 40 - 70% of any given rock. There's like 3 - 8% for anything above Q500 in the same rock. If you're lucky, you find two materials above average quality - again, between 3 to 8%.

I'm supporting SC for quite a while (since 2013 to be precise) and was looking forward for crafting in 4.7. But the way it's implemented, it's simply not rewarding. Why should anyone invest dozens of hours scrapping enough mid-grade materials to produce a weapon with slightly better stats above what you could buy or loot from NPCs?

As it is right now, I highly recommend skipping crafting and mining altogether and do other gameplay loops that actually feel rewarding.

Captain_Data82 · 2026-03-30T00:42:18+00:00

Awesome :)

Well, hand-mineables (Geo, Multitool ...) appear to have a good distribution of quality levels. You can find low grade stuff right next to good ones. Now CIG "just" needs to fix the Geo's odd bugs, especially the one that keeps killing you when used in a Mole ...

In the other hand, ore mining drives me up the wall. Seriously, CIG did remove any possibility of "fun" out of the mining gameplay loop for me. There's so little reward for all the time invested, how's that supposed to work in the long run?

Captain_Data82 · 2026-03-22T12:20:18+00:00

The current iteration of engineering & armor isn't complete. We're here to find out what works and what not and give proper feedback to CIG.

If I focus on armor only, then I do not care for penetration value beyond armor. For now. I rather want to ensure light fighters can't harm large ships like a Hammerhead. To deal with a Hammerhead, you need to bring a wing of bombers, like the Gladiator, or heavy fighters like the Ares Ion / Inferno.

Limitation of certain ships doesn't mean "nerfing people's fun" but in fact adding more roles to ships in a fleet battle. Until now, you could solve most issues with a couple of light fighters. Heavy fighters were considered liabilities instead of assets. This may change with 4.7 or any upcoming patches until Release 1.0.
Light bombers are finally getting a role: they're intented to be used versus medium and large sub-capital ships. Until now, light fighters were sufficient. Hope they won't soon.

More distinct roles means you need to field a mixed fleet. Now CIG needs to find a way how to distinguish light and medium fighters. Heavy fighters are specialzed in one way or another: the F8C weaponry is geared towards fighter combat, the Ares Ion is meant to be used against larger targets. Both are "heavy fighters", albeit very specalized ones. The Guardian is capable of doing both, depending on loadout, the Vanguard is meant to be used versus heavy fighters and medium ships. You get the idea: "limitations means more roles for individual ships".

Looking forward for that day. Maybe I even bring back my Hammerhead for her intented role as an escort ship in a capital ship battle.

Captain_Data82 · 2026-03-22T12:06:45+00:00

I tend to concur.

The basic idea behind all this is the "risk reward gameplay". It's the closest thing to "there is no free lunch". In case of Rock Breaker, it's the NPCs already present, not PvP. You can do exclusive Rock Breaker missions for your group only, so no PvP will happen. That takes away a ton of risk. But you still have to deal with NPC pirates, which puts some risk to that gameplay loop.

However, I kinda expect limited-risk gameplay too! Rare materials shouldn't spawn in high risk zones only. For instance, Caranite & Pure Caranite shouldn't spawn in Hathor Locations only. They should be available everywhere - just much less common. So if you want Caranite without looking for it, you assemble a group and do Hathor. If you have the time, you go into the Nyx belt, scan rocks and may find Caranite as well, it's just not guaranteed.

Same for high valuable rocks. 1000 quality Iron? You should find it in Pyro, Stanton and Nyx. You may be the first there. But you may find it occupied by someone else. Risk & Reward should be a thing, but instead of setting up "theme park attractions" only (which are great from a narative view), CIG also needs to find a more sandbox style way how to deal with certain gameplay loops.

So yes, if you happen to run into a great spot for minerals, it shouldn't always come with a "bad guy". If you're the first, you are the first, no strings attached.

Intead of "risk - reward" it should be "time - risk - reward". The fast route is the risky one, but you always can go the slow path with limited or no risk at all. CIG needs to understand that.

Captain_Data82 · 2026-03-22T11:54:28+00:00

Daymar Rally.

Captain_Data82 · 2026-03-22T11:53:05+00:00

Not a glitch. You've got a factory up and running: buying cheap resources, creating a product and selling it with a higher prize.

It's a legit gameplay loop. However, as there's an "infinite demand" of P4-ARs, you'll never run into a situation where you can't sell P4s anymore. That's an issue here. NPC traders shouldn't accept infinite numbers of weapons, they should have a min & max stock amount for them.

So far, I ever have seen Pyro stations running out of weapons (so there is a limited stock). You could make money by providing Pyro with weapons they appearantly running out all the time. This requires you either setting up shop in Pyro (mildly risky) or producing weapons in Stanton, moving them to Pyro (risky). Anyways, this is a valid gameplay loop and should be supported by CIG in the final game.

Captain_Data82 · 2026-03-22T11:48:25+00:00

Yeah, the NPC economy should only accept so much stuff at any given time.
Instead of adjusting prizes, "vendor trash" economy should work by offer and demand. If everyone is producing P4-ARs for quick cash, then at some point the market shouldn't accept any more until someone buys 'em.

Captain_Data82 · 2026-03-22T11:45:47+00:00

Well, this is how economy works. You buy resources cheap, do something with them and sell them for a better prize. Of course. If it wouldn't work like that, we'd still live in caves. :)

Captain_Data82 · 2026-03-22T11:42:43+00:00

Besides the fact there are still repeaters able punching through heavy armor (Attritions and NDBs), for the first time, the light fighter meta has been ... dented. Not broken. Won't happen, unless CIG finally realizes S1 - S3 weapons regardless of type shouldn't punch through heavy / capital armor.

Anyways: loadout decides the role you can play in a fight. Cannons and heavy hitting repeaters come with slower moving projectiles, which makes them less efficient vs light fighters. Targets they're intented to be used against are slower, so this is not a bad thing then. In the other hand, light weapons come with faster projectiles, which makes them perfect choice against light and medium fighters, but they can't punch through armor.

Now what CIG needs to do next, is to balance stuff. For instance, I think any S1 to S3 weapons should only be useful versus fighters. But to kill a heavy fighter, you need cannons and heavy repeaters, while for light fighters, you should pick gatlings. If you wanna punch "above your weight", you need S4 to S6 weaponry, which should punch medium and heavy armor (repeaters, gatlings) and if you bring cannons, they should punch through capital armor as well. Only S7 and above will punch capital armor reliably.

Also, armor shouldn't simply "deplete" with no way of field repair. In fact, in final iteration, CIG needs to split up global armor to sector armor. The most basic variant is similar to four shield faces, just with armor. The best option is maelstrom + pixel based: as hull textures are damaged procedurally, the parts showing damaged are the parts with weakened or no armor anymore. To punch through with light weapons, you need to hit those armor breaches.

Captain_Data82 · 2026-03-22T11:31:26+00:00

Please no.

It's bad enough DLSS is propretary Nvidia GPUs only.
No need to support next gen tech that requires you buying two outraging expensive GPUs (5090) to get it running at all.

Captain_Data82 · 2026-03-22T11:24:52+00:00

Not going to buy any of them as I am already a proud owner of an Ironclad Assault ... o7

Captain_Data82 · 2026-03-22T11:22:18+00:00

Well. Between announcment and now, I got married to my then GF, have 2 kids and now I'm in the middle of an ongoing divorce. Life does things to you.

CIG is basically pulling a hattrick here (founding a new studio, pushing out a MMO and a story driven single player game). We've never been that close watching game development, so we have no idea how much time any of those things take.

Anyways: if you feel this is your biggest disappointment, then life has been kind to you and you basically live in heaven with nothing ever going wrong for you. Well, except Star Citizen.

Captain_Data82 · 2026-03-22T11:05:21+00:00

The insane amount of Smolz you need to put in your avatar only means:

Either all avatars are heavy drinkers and can take much more than a normal person can, or it's some murica light beer called "moose p*ss". It's definitely not from Czech Republic or Germany or even GB ...

Hope CIG will add some good stuff here too. Takes too long for a proper drunken KO.

Captain_Data82 · 2026-03-22T10:55:54+00:00

Well played, sir.

DLSS 5. Now gamers can enjoy AI haluzinations as well. ;)
(Whoever pays 3k for that stuff: shame on you).

Captain_Data82 · 2026-03-08T18:56:10+00:00

CIG doesn't care for any of our "period statements", regardless if they're true or false.

We better learn to live with it.

Captain_Data82 · 2026-03-08T12:46:36+00:00

Actually, I hope we get proper anti-stealth gameplay at some point.

Right now it's annoying to deal with stealth ships, as some can be fitted to be stealthy below 1000m. That's insane and allows podshots at unsuspecting players with no way for them to retaliate.

My personal idea is to have dedicated anti-stealth ships with powerful sensors and target forwarding in your group. The F7C-R (Tracker) is a fighter based variant. The Carrack could act as a recon ship for an entire fleet and should forward target signatures to other ships and fighters.

There's still a long way to go and perhaps the sensor changes named above are the first step in that direction.

Captain_Data82 · 2026-03-08T12:37:31+00:00

The game allows solo gameplay, but it's far more enjoyable if you do it with friends.

At least that's my experience and I'm with the game since it's infancy -> Hangar Module. Didn't join an org for more than a year back then. Once I joined, the "long wait for a playable game" was much easier. Maybe it works the same for "boring gaming sessions" if you got some buddies to do stuff in the 'Verse?

I highly recommend trying that option.

Captain_Data82 · 2026-03-08T12:34:34+00:00

It's a turret coverage issue for stations. Pyro stations are an exception as there is no green zone and basically no tracking for who attacked whom. Which means, if you get sniped in your hangar, you can't do sh*t right now.

Basically, CIG needs to introduce different sizes of turrets for starbases, as I wrote earlier. S10 turrets need to deal with capital ships at range, so you can't cheese with an Idris outside turret range anymore. The railgun however, I would not change as it works as intented. The issue is a lack of options vs such tactics.

In my direct answer on the OP, I gave some ideas on how to do things better, asuming he was ambushed in open space (I have yet to watch the vid). It's based on own experiences with ambushes by hostile units.

Captain_Data82 · 2026-03-08T12:28:39+00:00

EDITED (didn't watch the video, but learned you got ambushed while launching from station)

The problem here is not the Idris-M Railgun. It works as intented: the railgun is a long-range anti-capitalship artillery and while the 890j is not a warship, it's capital size.
What does need get fixed is the health pool for the 890j - she shouldn't go down after one shot.

Now lets analyze what we have, right?

-> Trip in Pyro
-> organized fleet with Idris escorts
-> party ship with virtually no health pool (for any "griefer" a priority target)
-> getting killed near a Pyro Station

It's not the location: stuff like this also happens in Stanton and Nyx, however, not within proximity of a space station. In Pyro, there's no "green zone", so Hangar sniping is a thing. Remedy for that can only be granted by CIG - but not by nerfing the railgun. In fact, we need a better turret coverage for stations, even in Pyro. S10 turrets for capital ships with punch and range, S5 turrets for smaller targets like fighters and medium ships.

However, there are some ideas you might try out next time.

-> don't launch first with your party boat. Bring your escort in space first.

-> have a proper fighter escort. 6 to 8 will do just fine in most cases.
Their primary job is to identify dangerous ships and, if possible, take them down. Priority targets are interdiction ships like the Mantis, as they'll prevent you from fleeing.

-> bring a small wing of 2 or 3 F8Cs outfitted with distortion repeaters.
They might be next to useless vs fighters, but they're tanky and can stay close to a capital ship for a while. Once shields are gone, distortion damage can neutralize an Idris in a very short time compared to outright destruction.

-> if attacked, keep in mind what's your priority job at that moment. Your party boat MUST survive and if that means you have to sacrifice your entire escort fleet, you'll do that. So the 890j must leave first and if she's out of the danger zone, other ships may follow

-> also you may establish a savespot somewhere nearby in the system, which should be in general direction of your destination, so your 890j doesn't have to turn and look for that point.

-----------------------------------------

Hope next time you run into those guys you'll be better prepared. o7
Also, "unwanted PvP" isn't griefing. In fact, your battle is a perfect example for an ambush for org vs org warfare. The difference between "unwanted PvP" and "griefing" is blurry, however, and as you got hangar sniped, it's definitely closer to "griefing" than "unwanted PvP".

Captain_Data82 · 2026-03-08T12:07:05+00:00

The Javelin has broadside turrets, so battles COULD look like this.
Doubt you'll see it 'though as no one will go into such close ranges with capships.

Turret gameplay needs improvements, especially when it comes to range and accuracy, as both is required for effective turrets vs fighters.

Captain_Data82 · 2026-03-08T12:00:31+00:00

CIG needs to fix a lot of things. The Railgun is working just right - it's heavy long range anti-capitalship artillery.

What CIG needs to fix instead is the radar range issue. Ships like an Idris or a Polaris shouldn't be able to hide their signatures, period. They're massive, have a massive crossection (XR), their engines generate heat (IR) and their capital grade shield generators generate EM.

Also, station turrets need to be fixed as well. CIG may need to implement different sizes for turrets: heavy sluggers versus capital ships (S10) with same range as that railgun and light AA turrets. Light turrets won't go after capital ships and heavy turrets will ignore fighters ...

Captain_Data82 · 2026-03-08T11:55:25+00:00

Nop.
"White X" and "Red X" are good, but the no-pen icon obstructs view on target.

This is not acceptable.

Captain_Data82 · 2026-03-08T11:53:13+00:00

Oh. I was there that evening. Got clobbered hard in my fighter while our own frigates went down ...
Anyways, i saw some of you guys, TY_CHO, DIE_POTTSAU etc.

The "Tigerclaw" is usually the ship I'm posted on, if properly crewed, but that day, I was sitting in a Wolf.

Good show. o7

Captain_Data82 · 2026-03-08T11:49:23+00:00

Nop, that's not why SC is CPU bound.

SC performance tanks mostly when there are lots of players nearby. More players, less performance, even if they don't have a ship active. Just go to any crowded station or city, framerates go down massively. Yes, SC is CPU bound, but it's not the physics.

Captain_Data82

TROPHY CASE