For those not familiar with it, Pyro is Star Citizen’s upcoming second star system. It’s also shorthand for alpha 4.0 which brings more than just another star: server meshing, the engineering system, and probably a lot more I’m forgetting and stuff CIG hasn’t even announced. 4.0 has been in the hands of the elite testers for a while now, and CIG is hell-bent on releasing 4.0 before the end of the year (considering 23.2 has issues right now, this is kind of worrisome). Even though it has yet to be released, CIG is already looking ahead to what comes after Pyro and 4.0 in order to keep the marketing train a-rollin’.

The Third System, Nyx

I’m not entirely sure why Nyx is the third system that CIG chose to release, although I half suspect it’s because way back when, the Stanton system had a fifth planet, Delamar, which housed the separatist town of Levski. Delamar was never meant to be in Stanton, and was removed some time in the 3.0 patch cycle. Since Levski had been A Thing, and a lot of work had been done on it, I guess it saves a lot of time to simply upgrade it and re-release it in the system it was meant to occupy. Also, I have a sneaking suspicion that the proximity to Vanduul space has a lot to do with it…

Nyx’s makeup is pretty sparse with only two unremarkable planets and a whole lot of asteroids and space dust, so that’s another potential reason why CIG went with it over other systems. Whereas Delamar was a planet during its time in Stanton, in Nyx it’s been downgraded to an asteroid base.

The Return of Levski

Levski used to be a mining facility that was abandoned, and it’s now home to refugees, fugitives, and criminals who live in the tunnels and mineshafts that permeate the asteroid. It’s also the home of the People’s Alliance, a pro-worker, anti-UEE faction that we’ll be able to gain rep with. There was a whole lot of “Nu-Levski” bullet points that won’t really make a lot of sense to anyone who didn’t know old Levski (external loading platforms was really cool for Hull owners, though), and if you’re reading this with memories of Delamar of Old, I’m sure you’ve already watched the presentation.

More Landing Zone Gameplay

Currently, landing zones are artificially created inconveniences. We wake up in random HABS within our home zone and then have to run across the city to get to the spaceport where we can access our new(ish) personal instanced hangars. As you can see in the screenshot above, the city of Area18, ArcCorp is pretty big, but also 99% off-limits and un-utilized. While CIG is supposedly working on physicalizing some buildings for more permanent HABS and such, it’s apparently also looking to bring actual gameplay to these massive, sprawling, and currently useless areas.

Area18 is the first existing LZ to get additional gameplay zones.

There will be two new zones: the Municipal Works and “The Depths”.

Some parts of these areas will be accessible to everyone, but some will need to be unlocked via content progression. Three areas of the Works were called out: Maintenance, Filtration, and the Sewers. Then the Sewers were singled out and during this time it was mentioned that “down here, it’s an open world sandbox for you and other players very similar to ‘contested zones’ [PvPvE extraction zones] in Pyro stations.” It’s also an area for missions like repair, exploration, or “pest control”. The presentation then went on to say that “the main purpose is to provide access to The Depths”.

The Depths

This is the first instanced gameplay area that CIG has presented. Currently, and aside from the new(ish) instanced hangars, the vibe has always been that Star Citizen was a physical game. Early videos showcased this — in Levski, of all places — by watching a player use a glass-front elevator from a ship outside, showing that transportation moves in real space and real time. The CitizenCon presentation told us that The Depths is a new system for the game which eschews physical spaces for virtual ones, specifically to allow for targeted personal and party content like missions, exploration, and puzzle gameplay.

However, The Depths has some weird organization to it.

Rather than a single level “The Depths”, there’s a (realistically) undetermined number of levels which comprise this space. Players begin on level “B01” and must complete content there before returning to the surface. Then, they must do it again. And again. And possibly again until they unlock access to level B02. Then they do the same thing on level B02 until they unlock access to B03, and theoretically this could continue on forever if CIG wants, with each successive level increasing in both difficulty and rewards. Players will be able to continue on this path for as long as they like or are able, and it’s possible that progress will last between game sessions (I think it would be stupid if it didn’t).

Beyond Nyx: Castra

According to the lore, when the UEE was locked in a Cold War with the Xi’an, a demarcation was created called the Perry Line, creating a no-man’s land between the two empires. During this time, the system of Castra was used as a military forward base. The UEE used one of the system’s planets, Castra I, as target practice for orbital assaults, earning the planet the nickname “Bullseye”. The other planet, CasCom, housed the actual military bases and facilities. When a peace accord was signed between the two empires, Castra became a more residential system.

Castra II houses a new LZ called Sherman, which is a converted military base.

Thoughts

I’m not super happy with Nyx as the third system mainly because it’s another lawless system. When CIG says they “aren’t a PvP game or a PvE game” they seem to have a weird way of showing it by opening up more areas of opportunity for oPvP than they are for anything PvE related. That Nyx is basically an entire system that will no doubt be filled with minable resources, and that it’s going to be accessible through Pyro only, is annoying. Making things worse, according to the ARK Starmap, Castra, a seemingly more lawful system, will only be accessible through Nyx. That means that lawful players — those who don’t want to deal with oPvP shenanigans — are being routed through not one lawless system, but two — if they want to travel between Stanton and Castra. One a conscious level this makes me irrationally angry; on a subconscious level, I’ve learned that this is par for the course of CIG talking out both sides of their mouth.

The Depths also has me interested, but confused. Although the presentation mentioned the “contested zone-like experience” while on the specific slide of The Sewers, I’m not sure if players on their way to The Depths need to traverse a contested zone to get there, or if it’s just The Sewers that are oPvP and are ancillary to any other underground experience. Again, consciously I hope it’s a side-trip, but subconsciously I suspect everyone will need to traverse the contested zone.

As for Castra, it’s too soon to tell. What I did notice, however, is that although Nyx and Castra were announced, each only has one LZ mentioned. This might be just a case of CIG playing features close to the vest, or it might be just that CIG has decided that neither system is robust enough to create a complete neighborhood, and that each will only be a waystation for players traveling elsewhere.