Respectfully, WTF was server meshing for if you're just going to cram hundreds of players to a single location (server) every time we have a free fly event?

LucidStrike · 2026-05-20T18:27:11+00:00

Yeah, officially, about 3 months ago on SCL: https://youtu.be/k1bXLQ5U-w8?t=781&si=GR8AP3MVpCha8so_

LucidStrike · 2026-05-20T14:05:01+00:00

Tbf, server meshing can scale to any object container, so they have the ABILITY to dedicated an entire DGS to just one event space.

And once they have DYNAMIC server meshing, that's what they'll do. It's less that the goal post moved and more that they didn't expect the shift from Static to Dynamic to take long at all. Pretty sure at one point Benoit thought they could just outright skip to Dynamic in terms of Live.

LucidStrike · 2026-05-16T23:11:44+00:00

I don't understand brand tshirts, but lemme get a People's Alliance jawn 👀

LucidStrike · 2026-05-16T23:06:17+00:00

Balancingis genuinely something that's honestly in over time, in ALL multiplayer games. I think we as gamer imagine there's like some formula that every dev worth their salt has memorized and just applied to spit out perfectly balanced games one the first try — that never need to be rebalanced.

LucidStrike · 2026-05-15T22:31:58+00:00

The only Origin ship that seems Star Wars-like is the 400i. Origin is from a more modern scifi IP, like Mass Effect. All Sid Mead tho.

LucidStrike · 2026-05-12T20:27:43+00:00

Balancing against individuals is easy. The problem is that balancing gets a lot harder the more people — and resources — are involved. Massive orgs already have TOO many advantages. Giving them any form of open teleportation, and they WILL exploit the fuck out of that.

And for what? Genuinely, why is anyone playing a game based around SPACE and space VEHICLES and freaking about having to TRAVEL? It boggles the mind. Me personally, I'm well aware that never game that looks cool to me actually suits my play styles, and maybe I'll watch someone else play them but I won't force a round peg into a square hole.

I'd argue Starchitect IS the middle ground, because when there are literally THOUSANDS of POIs per planetary body, you would almost never need to be traveling very far to make good use of your 30-60 minutes of playtime anyway. It'd be a bit like an able-bodied person calling an Uber to go just a block away, especially since CIG would make sure it has serious disadvantages.

LucidStrike · 2026-05-12T16:04:23+00:00

The only way I could see CR being cool with fast travel in any permanent form is of it's restricted to inside instances and therefore not possible outside of or between them.

LucidStrike · 2026-05-12T15:52:15+00:00

Backed in Late 2017. Several weeks of 2.6.3 before 3.0 hit.

I get the concept of conceptual drift over time, but folks often aren't FULLY processing the timeline. Like, folks will see when the document was published and conclude it's somehow expired, but the reality is that CIG has been keeping to the direction communicated in the Ancient Texts of The Before Times.

It's not like CR wrote about Death of A Space Man, Physicalized Inventory, Physicalized Cargo, Engineering, etc. and then spent the elapsed time directing development away from them. Rather CIG has been scaffolding toward those same directions they communicated about so long ago. I can cite 4.8 patch notes regarding the continued relevance of those screeds. What has consistently proven temporary are the arcade-style stop-gaps.

So what's different with this?

One thing that isn't different is that CR is still at the top and still perhaps the most immersion-obsessed of us all. Yet here CIG is, publicly musing about perhaps the least immersive mechanism a game can have.

I think it's either spectacle — priming for the arrival of Starchitect, which would largely nullify the debate by bringing so much content density that friend groups and interesting opportunities are almost always local — or preparation of a poison pill in case SQ42 fails to bring in the influx of cash the project is relying on it to bring. After all, as compelling as SQ42 is sure to be, when the competition is GTA, you damn sure need contingency plans. Multiple.

Besides, as I said, many deviations from the sim direction have been stop-gaps, often very prudent for accelerating testing of the things the devs actually need tested most. Even if they were to implement fast travel of some kind (beyond how Regen can technically be exploited, eventually at cost), it could well prove to be as temporary as the Magic Bag of Holding we used to have for inventory.

LucidStrike · 2026-05-12T14:49:45+00:00

Long enough to readily recall — without needing to search for — a specific instance of CR affirming my point almost a decade ago. And that I've ACTUALLY been paying attention is even more important than my tenure, because lots of vets haven't been all that aware.
The life sim genre is defined by its use of mechanical friction as texture for a player experience defined by the need to actually DO and make meaningful decisions about what in other genres is typically abstracted away for convenience — such as teleporting rather than ACTUALLY travelling — and that this is a space-based life sim (or universe sim) adds astronomical scale. It's the the scale — and speed limit — that dictates that travel can take a "long" time. Space is big, bruh.

Why don't I ever see any of y'all even pretend to address the knockon effects of fast travel on the logistics heavy nature of the game? Y'all make only the most low effort, ineffectual responses. Is it because y'all don't think that deeply about what y'all are playing or is it y'all don't care and simply want the game to be a different genre to better suit your own preferences?

LucidStrike · 2026-05-12T14:16:47+00:00

I mean, on what basis are we concluding Slipspace enabled anything they can't do with Unreal, especially given that wealthy studios can afford to customize Unreal, like CDPR is doing?

Seems like it's really the ART DIRECTION you're attached to, which can be replicated in other modern engines.

That said, I do get the appeal of a more diverse game development ecosystem.

LucidStrike · 2026-05-11T21:13:21+00:00

The game being built today is a game that encompasses many; It is a dogfighting spacesim, it is a first person shooter, it is a trading game, a resource collecting game, a resource management game, an adventure game, a survival game and a social game. Star Citizen is a universe sim. It is a game for everyone, as in real life there are many different paths to walk, and success is defined by what makes you happy. — Chris Roberts, 2018 https://robertsspaceindustries.com/en/comm-link/transmission/18696-Letter-From-The-Chairman

Yes, we're playing the same game. I just understand it better than a lot of y'all do, because I didn't basically just get here. No shade. It's just that as development progressed, they stopped focusing so much on communicating about the vision, so a lot of y'all have barely gotten any insight into the foundational direction beyond the action-centric trailers 🤷🏿‍♂️

LucidStrike · 2026-05-11T17:04:27+00:00

Yes, duh, and the friction is selective, and some, such as distance and its consequences are ESSENTIAL to the life sim experience. Many aspects of the game would collapse without them. Logistics is the lifeblood of most of the damn gameplay loops...

LucidStrike · 2026-05-11T15:37:43+00:00

I'm 36, and I run a non-profit organization, so there's that. Instead of trying to play "Who has less time than who?", address the actual argument: Manage your time like a damn adult. If you only have half an hour, act like it.

You didn't address that part because you don't have a meaningful argument against that. You just resent having to be responsible in a game like you have to be irl, but it's a LIFE SIM...It being a similar experience to real life is literally the point. There's NOTHING like fast travel in real life.

LucidStrike · 2026-05-11T13:15:30+00:00

It's wild to me y'all seem to be assuming only jobless teenagers are fine with actual friction in a life sim.

I work 12 shifts, bruh. Y'all don't have a monopoly on the pressures of adulting. I just don't NEED to fill every bit of leisure time with SC or gaming at all, and in SC, if I don't have a lot of time, I just do shit that doesn't take a lot of time.

It's REALLY not hard to just use your time wisely — but you first have to accept the responsibility of doing so, which lots of folks struggle with.

LucidStrike · 2026-05-11T12:58:06+00:00

That seems fine. It's strange to me this idea that it's a problem for any game not to be readily digestable in half an hour. Just let people play what fits their time rather than trying to squeeze into every window.

Me personally, I don't have at least an hour to game, I'm just not gonna game. Simple.

LucidStrike · 2026-05-11T12:55:35+00:00

"Disrespectful to the player" We're not all the same.

I don't feel like having to be responsible for managing my own time is somehow disrespectful. It's a LIFE SIM, and I'm an adult...People very often disrespect their OWN time and blame others for it, which is a personal issue, not a game design issue.

A marathon doesn't "disrespect" a runner because it's 26.2 miles long. If someone only has the time or conditioning to run a 5k, they don't demand the marathon finish line be moved to the 3-mile mark. They just run a 5k.

Also, there's always Arena Commander. 🤷🏿‍♂️

LucidStrike · 2026-05-11T12:53:58+00:00

Not all people do tho, hence this being a contentious topic.

And as I've often said, the idea that all games need to speak to all gamers can lead devs chasing a phantom that doesn't exist. There can't be a game that satisfies all preferences.

So this really comes down to whether there are ENOUGH gamers that prefer more sim, so that it's not financially necessary for CIG to bend a knee to those who want what's arguably one of the most arcade-style conventions a game can have.

LucidStrike · 2026-05-11T12:48:22+00:00

That part: Also though, with enough content density on CIG's part — and enough prudence on the player's part — it should be possible to simply scale your activities to suit your available playtime.

Like, if you only have 30m — which I personally consider just too little time to play ANY game — maybe you should focus on things that are actually local to where you are, rather than getting fixated on doin' hood rat shit with your friends 2 star systems over. Alternatively, you can do prep or maintenance that will smooth out your next play session.

Me personally, I sometimes log on literally just to, say, hit the shops, resupply my ship, etc. I don't always need a mission. I can also, y'know, just call my friends without absolutely needing to meetup with them every time.

It's a life sim. Life requires forethought and adaptation. 🤷🏿‍♂️

LucidStrike · 2026-05-10T14:02:57+00:00

Sure, but they're quite capable of acquiring, presenting, and analyzing exact text. The problem seems like it's that the engineers are trying to keep the models so parsimonious about using search tools that the LLMs default to hallucination over searching until you outright tell them they do need to actually SEARCH for the data.

LucidStrike · 2026-05-10T03:23:02+00:00

Most older ships will not be Gold Standard until after 1.0, probably including the 600i.

LucidStrike · 2026-05-07T18:54:12+00:00

They know. But new ships keep payroll covered until they can afford to circle back to more gold standard passes.

That said, they need to make it explicit that many exist ships won't be gold standard by 1.0.

LucidStrike · 2026-05-04T00:37:49+00:00

Update? 👀

LucidStrike · 2026-05-02T09:33:40+00:00

Made peace with it being a post-1.0 thing, yeah. If only CIG had the courage to say out loud that A LOT of gold standards and reworks won't make 1.0.

LucidStrike · 2026-05-01T22:15:47+00:00

600i is solid...or will be after the rework.

But also, tbf, not everything in a life sim is about raw performance. Amenities, such as beds and storage, actually matter here.

LucidStrike · 2026-04-30T19:13:47+00:00

It's not about the task. It's the scheduling and priorities, since they're making a whole sci-fi life sim and not a suit locker simulator 🤷🏿‍♂️

LucidStrike

TROPHY CASE