People pay hundreds of dollars for ships that just shoot lasers at other ships, or at least some people do. Anyone got a link to the mining design doc?
Combat is "canonical" in a way. The targets aren't static rocks, so there's little imagination necessary to make it sound compelling. (
Edit: There's also some of it already playable in their released alpha tech demo. Unlike any other of the base mechanics necessary to make the space sandbox MMO sold to backers.) Just tell a little tale how this new 350$ concept fighter punches above its weight and watch backers throw money at you.
Mining?
Have a look at the design notes on mining.
And have fun imagining how everything may or may not play out in a one or five star system 150$ Mio. early access, most open development ever, only delayed because it needs to get everything right from the beginning, complete unlike other pleb early access games, ambifidelicious self labeled "Best Damn Space Game Ever" product thingy.
Frankly, I find the
design notes on civilian passenger transport more amusing. AI flight attendants? Passenger health simulation and medication?
Cocktail mixing? This was published in 2015 btw.. It was the point at which Star Citizen became a laughing stock for me. Back then, they didn't have a single non hostile, non scripted NPC and they don't have now. Not in their
released tech demos. Just like a cargo mechanic, a mining mechanic, a bounty mechanic, an exploration mechanic, more than about a dozen players in the single game instance, persistence and game space that would even warrant these grand concepts.
My tolerance for lying to myself that there is any chance in hell of CIGs rate of progression ever speeding up in a way that their released output has even a chance to converge with their design debt is simply lower than some other people's. Disclaimer: I do of course know nothing about game development (really, I don't). :'D
Edit: That's even before considering that what they propose in those design notes might simply turn out to play like shit, if they ever got it working exactly like proposed. If Elite shows anything (by
negative example btw.), it's that there needs to be lots of testing, iteration and refinment in the actual game's
design, before its any good. Just because it sounds complex and simulation-y on paper, doesn't mean its not going to be a shitty game design train wreck and should be send back to the drawing board. Suprise: You will only find out by having a working prototype. Now, where does Star Citizen stand with all those elaborate game design fantasies?
Right. Not letting the player clip through basic geometry and killing them. The most advanced AI sumulation in gaming is the immediate logical next step. As is handily out-complexing and out-scoping half a dozen different other game series, starting with GTA and ending with civil flight sims. All just another production speedup away, now that the basic pipelines are in place. For two years or so...