Star Citizen 2022. High hopes, low expectations.

[wmk]

The year 2021 has passed. We are now three and a half versions closer to the game release. I decided to deal with disappointment * by looking at the project plan and creating my personal wish list.
Please note that at this time CIG Progress Tracker doesn't show anything beyond September 2022; it means that any task marked as scheduled for Q3 might be actually scheduled for Q4 or even 2023.

1. Persistent Streaming and Server Meshing
Unlocking further development of Persistent Universe and raising the game limits. Allowing Nyx and Pyro to be implemented in game (see resources below).

2. Gen12 / Vulkan
Renderer that should improve performance for everyone using CPUs older than 2-3 years (see resources below)

3. Jump Points, Nyx and Pyro
Dependent on server meshing. No new System is going to be released in game until server meshing is implemented.

4. Selling
Allowing us to sell everything, including (hopefully) looted items

5. My personal favourite: MISC Odyssey
The big toy for big boys. I don't believe this ship is going to be released this year though; it looks like a mistake.

Resources

1. Persistent Streaming and Server Meshing Q&A:

Server Meshing and Persistent Streaming Q&A - Roberts Space Industries | Follow the development of Star Citizen and Squadron 42

Roberts Space Industries is the official go-to website for all news about Star Citizen and Squadron 42. It also hosts the online store for game items and merch, as well as all the community tools used by our fans.

robertsspaceindustries.com

2. Gen12 / Vulkan:

Spectrum - v7.7.1

RSI’s Spectrum is our integrated community and player interaction service, including chat, forums, game integration, and Player Organization facilities. Player Organizations (“Org”...

robertsspaceindustries.com

3. Star Citizen Progress Tracker:

Star Citizen Roadmap - RSI

The Roberts Space Industries Star Citizen and Squadron 42 roadmaps.

robertsspaceindustries.com

4. Gen12 / Vulkan:

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SV9_chUpDgc


-------------
* -- The reasons why I'm a little disappointed by 2021 (and partially 2020):

• Alpha 3.13, scheduled on March 31, released on April 22 with the beautiful and extremely useful Hercules Starlifter and very cool Nova Tonk. But that's pretty much all.
• Alpha 3.14, scheduled on June 30, released on August 6 with the long-delayed Orison and its beautiful, yet a little artificially-looking landing zone, extremely long distance to the orbit, and unfinished clouds that look relatively good only at the slideshow framerate (with the clearly visible dithering).
• Alpha 3.15, scheduled on September 30, released on November 10 with the long-awaited persistent inventory and looting, and medical gameplay generating 1,000 medical gowns per minute; farewell exclusive Golden arms and Pink legs you have just bought.
• Alpha 3.16, scheduled on December 31, released on December 21 with... Jumptown 2.0 and gravlev rework.

 

[KuruptU4Fun]

extremely long distance to the orbit

This part is only going to become more prevalent as time passes and other planets are added. Not all atmos are created equal and you really have to take into account whether it's profitable to go there in any profession. Right now no, I think that Quantum will change this with an increased demand level knowing that the location is difficult to get to OR that a cargo platform will be put into orbit to reduce the number of people who want to go down there.

 

[Montoya]

Renderer that should dramatically improve performance for everyone using CPUs older than 2-3 years (see resources below)

Taper expectations here.

Im hopeful, but even lets say a +10% improvement which by technical standards is massive, I do not expect my old rig to suddenly be amazing.

 

[BUTUZ]

I am particularly interested in if they enable the multigpu functionality that Vulcan brings. Given the shitbox state of the GPU market over the next few years I think it would be a really good idea!!

 

[Cugino83]

I am particularly interested in if they enable the multigpu functionality that Vulcan brings. Given the shitbox state of the GPU market over the next few years I think it would be a really good idea!!

Hmm I won't be so sure about it: both Nvidia and AMD have dump the multy GPU capability by a long time, both on the phisical side (no more connector for SLI/CrossFire) and on the driver level, keeping it only for profressional-grade GPU like the Nvidia Quadro lineup.
It's a thing that could probabily see a back with a dirver-level implementation, but since SC is not a released game and even less a "partner" of one of those two company I doubt this will be a thing.

 

[Skyre]

Now, I wish my Odyssey was coming this year, but I expect it to be another 2+ years away (as is the case with most non-straight to flyable concepts).
As for the rest, I'm only expecting partial completions. Though being able to sell old parts and looted gear would be a solid A+ for me this year lol.

 

[Lorddarthvik]

I wish persitent streaming and meshing get done. It opens up everything! New missions, new risks, new stakes, all the game mechanics can finally be made into something that isn't jsuta placeholder, and ofc New Star Systems to discover and gawk at!
I still don't get why ppl think Vulkan will be the magic bullet. It's just another API (and a very buggy and inconsistent one at that), not a new game engine , and certainly won't be a replacement for displacement... I mean, you will still need a properly fast and new CPU and GPU the same way as you do now. Do not expect suddenly getting the same fidelity and 60fps if you now only have 12fps.

What I'm really really REALLY hoping for is that we get the Selling mechanic and it doesn't get pushed again. It would make for an almost proper game then. It would finally make sense to manage inventory, bring backpacks, grind fps missions.. and not just because you are bored. It would make sense to go to different shops as well, changing up the current "planets are just quest hubs" mechanic to travel having a meaning. It would add another risk/reward system as well if you are trying to take your loot of 462 P4-ARs to the other side of the system without getting blown up.
Seemingly a small thing, but it would add so much more dynamic to the current gameplay.

 

[Ayeteeone]

3. Jump Points, Nyx and Pyro
Dependent on server meshing. No new System is going to be released in game until server meshing is implemented.

Been feeling for a while now that when it happens, we will get more than just Pyro. The gameplay reveal at CitizenCon demonstrated a very important point - that there is more content going into these systems than just the landing zones listing in the ARC Starmap.

It will be awesome (and necessary! ) to get solar system development to the point where only the curated assets/content will hold back the release.

 

[wmk]

(...) I still don't get why ppl think Vulkan will be the magic bullet. It's just another API (and a very buggy and inconsistent one at that), not a new game engine , and certainly won't be a replacement for displacement... I mean, you will still need a properly fast and new CPU and GPU the same way as you do now. Do not expect suddenly getting the same fidelity and 60fps if you now only have 12fps (...)

Absolutely -- I don't expect my old i7 7th gen-based machine with Nvidia GTX 1070 to suddenly perform the same as PCs equipped with the latest gen CPUs and graphic cards, but... the thing is that Star Citizen used to be performing much better on that old one; it allowed me to play at some acceptable framerates even at 4K. Once the object container streaming was implemented in game performance increased in most of the locations in game, except for the large cities like Lorville, where it... dropped to 20fps on average.

GTX 1070, almost 6-year-old GPU, still works fine with Star Citizen, being utilized at no more than 60%. But the game is bottlenecking on 5-year-old i7-7820HK now, a fast quad-core processor (4 cores / 8 threads). I expect some improvement with gen12 / Vulkan ---- even extra 10fps would be something.

 

[CosmicTrader]

Where the H3ll is my Flying Saucer? Is that just too much to ask for?

 

[Thalstan]

Not holding out hope for Server Meshing. This is a HUGE task and one that the engine was never designed for. I am sure it will eventually come, but I seriously doubt it will be Q3/Q4 release time, maybe 2023/24 (better more towards 24)

A lot of Pyro is done. Once server meshing is in, I see it coming in pretty soon

Jump Points - Jump points are fairly fleshed out IIRC, so no big worries there, but they will need to be some feedback/review on them., however, like Pyro, I see this as being dependent on Server Meshing.

Odyssey coming out in 2022? I can see that. There is no big tech they need to overcome. Mining - in game. Hangar in a ship - In game. Refining, in-game....and That's pretty much it. The ring system is pretty much an elevator and I don't really see much of anything else that could be a show stopper.

Selling from inventory is a next logical step. I don't see many road blocks here. If they can take an item and move it in to your inventory and deduct cash from your account, they can take an item from inventory and move cash into your account. The big thing I see them needing is a "do not sell" flag. This might be something you can't sell due to it being an account bound item, or I can see it as being a "we don't buy that here" type of thing.

There is one potential work around for CIG if they can't get server meshing up and running but have pyro done and want to release that work...when you select your server, they could also have you be able to select Stanton system or Pyro System. They could have you set a home point for both and you would have access to all your ships no matter what server you went to. Once they have server meshing in place, they can back that part out and then you only have 1 home point and will need to move your ships as needed.

 

[Cugino83]

Not holding out hope for Server Meshing. This is a HUGE task and one that the engine was never designed for. I am sure it will eventually come, but I seriously doubt it will be Q3/Q4 release time, maybe 2023/24 (better more towards 24)

Well that not a so difficult thing to happen actually.
"Server meshing" is mostly think as a single "feature", like a ship for example, that is completed in one block and dropped in, but is not like that: SM is a combination of several aspect of whitch we arelady see several component, like the "30k error protection" or the persistent inventory from patch to patch.
The "only" think that is missing is the actual ability to move player and object from a shard to another seamlessy... actuall that I think is the most complicated part, but I think we could see some smaller implementation during this year and the "full one" in the following.

For the new star systems it whould be nice if CCIG release them initially as a separate system to choose from in the main manu leaving them compleated separeted item for the initial release and then join them togheter one the tech will be in. It will be a nice fresh up of the game and it will speed up the testing of the new, location, item and mission givers in the meantime.

Selling from inventory is a next logical step. I don't see many road blocks here. If they can take an item and move it in to your inventory and deduct cash from your account, they can take an item from inventory and move cash into your account. The big thing I see them needing is a "do not sell" flag. This might be something you can't sell due to it being an account bound item, or I can see it as being a "we don't buy that here" type of thing.

All of that, if you think, is already in game in a limited form. Think about selling hand/ROC mined ores, or harvestable item to shops...
The major work here is not the background system, but the rework of the shopping experience and implmenting the ability to intereact with item that, I suspect, lack untill now all the data attach.
Also I suspect CIG plan to implment a more refined version of the selling system where stolen item are clearly marked and not regularly sellable, that will require a new "owner" system, like the one for ships, to be implemented basially for evey item in game, both for personal weapons and armors, but also for ship component anticipating the requirement needed for salvage and full phisical ship's items

 

[wmk]

(...) There is one potential work around for CIG if they can't get server meshing up and running but have pyro done and want to release that work...when you select your server, they could also have you be able to select Stanton system or Pyro System. They could have you set a home point for both and you would have access to all your ships no matter what server you went to. Once they have server meshing in place, they can back that part out and then you only have 1 home point and will need to move your ships as needed.

Theoretically it is possible, but there would be so many limitations, including inability to jump from Stanton to the new System (it would have to be running on separate game instances server-side, as Stanton already reached server memory limits), and so many temporary modifications that would have to be done on both client, server and backend sides in order to let people play with the new System for a while, that I'm 99% sure CR would not let the team do it.

 

[Lorddarthvik]

Theoretically it is possible, but there would be so many limitations, including inability to jump from Stanton to the new System (it would have to be running on separate game instances server-side, as Stanton already reached server memory limits), and so many temporary modifications that would have to be done on both client, server and backend sides in order to let people play with the new System for a while, that I'm 99% sure CR would not let the team do it.

Nah you're right, CR will make us wait till the funding get's to 800mill so he can buy that other Caribbean island as well!

On a more sensible note, i don't see it happening either. That would be like running a second game with it's own bugs and glitches and issues, when they can barely keep the current version playable... We do have a pretty solid "parts of meshing will be implemented cos it's done" from one the past official videos, so I expect that a limited iteration of it will be implemented by end of this year at least. That may allow for a kinda-separate-but-not-entirely release of Pyro, with a working jump point as a loading screen to switch instances but running a shared database and backend stuff so some of the meshing is in action being used and tested. I do think we will get this especially if the funding drops low enough lol.
If it doesn't allow for it, we will just have to wait even more, and I'll be very disappointed, again. I do give this option happening an 80% chance so yeah, my expectations are kinda shattered after so many years.
Tbh I don't really care about anything else being released at this point. It is the silver bullet we are waiting for. More ppl, more Ai around, more missions, more objects, more places, more everything to liven up the game.

The second item on my wishlist is: Maybe another serious overhaul to the flight model and especially the AI would be nice? Fights are hella boring, you either joust, or you spiral-of-death. As realistic as it may be, I'm not a fan of this current kinda Newtonian physically pseudo-correct approach. I want my WW2 dogfights you promised CR!
But this was not mentioned anywhere on the board I think, so I don't expect to get it at all.