For people not following Star Citizen’s development closely,
it can sometimes be difficult to get the right information
on just what Star Citizen is. In this article we’ll look at Star
Citizen and broadly cover its main features.
STAR CITIZEN?
What is Star Citizen?
Three things:
• The Squadron 42 single player campaign, featuring
Hollywood quality voice acting, motion capture animation
and a fifty mission non-linear campaign, where your
decisions and actions will affect the story. Squadron 42
allows drop in co-op anytime, and can be played with a full
squadron of friends.
•The Star Citizen Persistent Universe, a massively multiplayer
online environment with a fully fledged simulated economy,
more than 100 star systems to discover and explore, and a
dynamic plot featuring the decline of the human empire.
Players can trade, fight, mine, explore and
run organizations in an entirely free and
open universe.
• The Star Citizen Private Servers, where
players can run smaller instances of the
Persistent Universe and make their own
rules for the game. Private servers can be
heavily modified, so expect to see some
very interesting player content soon after
release!
How Can I Play Star Citizen?
Star Citizen will be released at some point
in 2015. It is currently at the pre-alpha
stage of development, which means most of the game is
still being developed. By pledging money to the project, you
will gain access to the alpha and beta phases of the game,
Hangar Module (which you can currently download and
enjoy) and the soon to be released Dog Fighting Module.
Alternatively, you can wait for the game to be released and
buy it at slightly higher regular retail prices. Star Citizen is a
Buy To Play game, meaning that there are no subscription
fees and all of the content in the game is available without
needing to spend any additional money.
Be warned that as the game is currently in a pre-alpha state,
there are many unfinished and unbalanced ships, weapons
and game mechanics, as well as bugs and missing features!
By pledging and participating in the game’s development
you are helping to make it great, but if you would prefer to
play a finished product you
might want to wait until 2015.
INFORMATION
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How Do I Pledge?
Pledgers can donate any
amount of money they would like to Star Citizen, from $5 for
a ship skin to the $15,000 Completionist Package.
The cheapest option that includes a ship is the $30 Aurora
MR package, which includes a copy of the finished game
and access to the Hangar Module. The next cheapest option,
(the $40 Aurora MR+ package) adds full alpha and beta
access.
While many people have taken to collecting the ships
available on the pledge page, all of the listed ships
(including the special limited edition ones) will be available
for purchase in the full game, purchasable in-game using ingame currency earned through gameplay.
Even though Star Citizen has already raised
$36,000,000 (enough funds to fully develop
a AAA-grade game) additional funding
goes directly towards hiring additional
programmers, artists, quality assurance
staff and a host of other people needed to
develop a modern video game. Your further
contributions will directly lead to a more
polished, diverse and complete game being
delivered to store shelves.
Hangar Module? DFM?
The Hangar Module is the first interactive
portion of Star Citizen released to the public. It allows
players to walk about their in-game hangars and look at the
ships they have received for pledging. Not all ships have
been fully modelled yet, so some of the more exotic craft are
yet to appear in the Hangar Module.
The Dog Fighting Module (DFM) is planned to be released
in April, 2014. Players will be able to take part in multiplayer
battles using either test ships or their own pledge ships,
depending how far along in the development process their
pledge ships are. The DFM will feature a lobby, matchmaking
service, and will fully integrate with the Hangar Module.
Where Can I Read More?
If you would like to know more about Star Citizen or its
development, here are some good places to start:
The RSI website:
https://robertsspaceindustries.com/
The Star Citizen forums:
https://forums.robertsspaceindustries.com/