This is really going to be an observation post, at least it is in my mind. Also, a bit of a ramble.

I used to spend my downtime on a site called Pleated Jeans, which is one of those “meme aggregator listicle” sites. I found a lot of their stuff funny in the beginning, when I eventually downgraded to amusing, but then the site ran aground into derivative territory when it became painfully apparent that the authors of the articles merely shared a NAS drive of about 1000 different meme images that were constantly recycled under different headers. When something new did manage to find its way into the site, it was always taken from a larger, more popular site like Instagram or Reddit, or from other similar sites like Bored Panda.

I opted to cut out the middleman and go straight to Reddit which is not a sentence I thought I’d ever find myself writing. I had never “gone to Reddit” on purpose; sometimes when looking up information on development I would get dropped off at the curb but it was never a place I desired to go. Since it was supplying some amusing content to other sites I figured what the hell. What actually happened was that I joined a few subs, but have only really spent time on the homepage since most of the subs I actually interact with are surfaced there anyway.

One of the subs that keeps coming up is the r/Starcitizen_guilds which isn’t terrible since I’ve been thinking about looking for a new org to join. I left my previous org after they got too large and kind of dropped me from working on the corporate website without telling me. I don’t bear any grudges though; they were always pretty good people but I don’t do well in groups who take almost anyone or who want to grow to a massive headcount.

What I’m seeing is that there’s a lot of “milsim” orgs in Star Citizen. Now, I get it. Organized player groups are as old as player groups themselves because somewhere in the back of everyone’s mind is the notion that if there are strict rules in place and everyone is beholden to maintain the order and the buck stops with only a handful of benevolent and just leaders then the outfit will survive and thrive. We all know how well that works in practice. But this is not a rant against what people hope to accomplish; it’s an observation which leads to a reiteration that Star Citizen really shouldn’t be what CIG is trying to make Star Citizen become because I think they’re concentrating the few eggs they have in the center of an absolutely massive basket; in other words, they’re crafting a game they really don’t know how to fill.

Back when the Kickstarter launched, the game was envisioned as a completely different entity. It consisted mainly of two parts. The first was a localized in-person experience which would have allowed players to walk around a small theme park offering commodities, ships and ship parts, and probably mission givers. The second part was all about flying around in space. We need to remember that Chris Roberts made Wing Commander, which was nothing but space dogfighting interspersed with occasional layovers on space carriers and eventually FMV. Then came Freelancer which did away with most of the narrative and is much closer to the original Star Citizen pitch. In Freelancer, we could go anywhere, do anything, but POI were all menu driven, and the overriding reason for being In Space was dogfighting. Rebel Galaxy carries on the tradition of Freelancer today, if you’re interested in getting the feel for what I’m talking about.

In 2026, Star Citizen has grown well beyond it’s original sales pitch, but I don’t think that CR’s mandate has. There’s speculation in corners of the community as to whether or not CR is still calling all the shots, but that’s really irrelevant because everything CIG does with the game centers around combat, whether it’s FPS or in space, but they keep expanding the in-game world in ways that could easily accommodate some very compelling, in-depth, non-combat related gameplay loops.

In my recent post “We’ll Make It Work” I recounted how @CakedCrusader and I managed to survive being stranded on a planet despite the bugs and current shortcomings of the game. While I shouldn’t cheer overcoming what should have been a simple situation, beating the system as it stands will never not be exciting and fun. One thing we had to get around was how abandoned player ships can become “bricked” as soon as the owner files an insurance claim to re-acquire the ship. The Polaris we found was in such a state and, thankfully, we managed to get it off the ground. It was only a few hours later when, on Reddit once again, I saw someone posting a request to CIG (I’m sure they have agents trawling Reddit) to have the Tigerclaw in-game hacking tool allow us to unbrick a ship for 15 minutes for use in cases like the one CC and I found ourselves in: being stranded, needing an exit, and being surrounded by bricked ships. The Tigerclaw is a deus ex machina device used to clear a crime stat and nothing else, so invoking it in this context seems logical. And the request seems reasonable as well; the poster wasn’t asking for the Tigerclaw to permanently unbrick a ship. Just for a little window for use in emergencies. I’m sure CIG can come up with blockers to prevent players from using this 15 minute window to strip and sell components, too. And full disclosure: I know CIG is going to allow for players to unbrick ships eventually because “pirate gameplay is legitimate gameplay” and all that; the Tigerclaw could solve a bad implementation problem right now, though, and that’s what the Redditor was asking for.

I’d also like to see CIG creating a lot more non-combat content. I know they can do it because back when the game first become playable there was an investigation mission which had players traveling to an abandoned space station to look for information on a missing person. We had to EVA through an empty station, and it was and incredibly atmospheric experience considering EVA was new to the game at the time. Today, I still run the modern versions of investigative missions which send me out to a POI in space, take out a few NPC enemies, and search a ship’s destroyed hull for a corpse. Unfortunately, this is all I do: I click the body, “download” information, and immediately complete the mission. No follow up. No greater conspiracy to delve into. I’d like follow up. I’d like conspiracy to delve into. I’d like CIG to do more than just funnel every mission experience into a combat encounter.

I’m not sure they have anyone on-board who can think outside that shooty-shaped box, though. Their Lead Designer on the Mission Features team, Eliot Maltby, has been on SCL several times. He is an excitable young man and it’s obvious that he gets giddy at the thought of in-game combat, especially how it can be routed towards PvP. His comments have put him squarely in my “I do not care for this individual” bucket, although his recent appearances have proven to occasionally be fairly subdued and honest, which I appreciate. However, I am not sure if Eliot or the decision makers above or around him have much interest in making missions that are more Disco Elysium and less Overwatch; I’m not going to impinge his ability to do so, but I will question his desire to do so until he proves otherwise to me, specifically.

And that would be a shame if there weren’t more opportunities for players to immerse themselves in Stories of Star Citizen. Squadron 42 is, of course, the more “narrative-forward” child of Roberts, but that narrative is also centered around a whole lot of combat, and a bit of sneaking around which, for the record, I do not consider to fulfill my desire for “non-combat gameplay”.

There’s one Hail Mary in the wings, though, and that’s the upcoming instancing tech. CIG has already deployed their infamous “tier 0” for this tech, our ship hangars, which is often times more miss than hit, so hopefully the upcoming retooling of the Siege of Orison public event as an instanced experience will be better than both the hangars and the original SoO. CIG said they want instancing so as to offer “curated experiences” which, to me, sounds a lot like propping the door open for what I’m asking for, although I fully expect it to retain it’s combat focus, at least in the beginning. There’s also the “Municipal Works – The Depths” which was announced at CitizenCon 2954 and promises instanced levels with exploration, puzzle solving and, yes, combat. While I think they made this sound a lot like The Division 2’s 100-level endurance trial, I would hope that CIG might try to do something uncharacteristic just to see how it’s received. I think a lot of folks would love to have a narrative mission arc, played out through instancing if that’s what it takes, that focuses more on NPC interaction, investigation, and exploration, and less on just shoot-anything-that-moves.

My only further gripe is preemptive, and that’s if CIG does create some non-combat content that it not become a crutch. Stealth gameplay is one. “Puzzles” are another, and both have been mentioned in various forms in relation to Star Citizen throughout the years. Star Citizen is being created in the action-adventure mold, so I get that having things be fast-paced, high-stakes, and “cinematic” (CR lurves things to be “cinematic”) is the vibe they’re going for. Once stealth and puzzles are on the board, though, I fear that CIG might decide that they have enough tools to create any mission content they feel is appropriate for the game, and not explore any further. This is not a projection, as many games, both online and off, have stopped short of adding some real meat to their charcuterie board of things-to-do. I expect that CIG could easily pull up short in kind and still feel satisfied with what they have produced.

This is all entirely academic at this point anywhere. They can’t even create working instanced hangars yet, and there are many, many more systems which need tending to or creation before they start thinking beyond the muzzles of their P4-ARs. I really do hope that they take a look at the scope of what they’re creating, though, and realize that there’s more than enough room for gunplay and more thoughtful, slower-paced, and potentially peaceful content.