12 Highlights from CitizenCon - Part 1

CitCon 2953 was a thoroughly enjoyable watch, and it's going to take quite a long time to properly break down and get the most out of. But for now I just wanted to put together a few of my key highlights (then a few turned into 12 so I split it into 2 parts)!
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Thank you to the wonderful Anorii for the awesome backing music - Nebula One!
--Chapters-----------------------------------------------------------
00:00 - Intro
00:57 - Channel Credits
01:31 - Thanks to the community
02:03 - #1 Star Engine
03:41 - #2 Pyro Playground
04:49 - #3 Engineering
06:42 - #4 RSI Zeus Mk.II
09:19 - #5 EVA Improvements
10:24 - #6 Base Building
13:35 - Outro

[@soccerjake1]

Never thought I wanted my ship to make a wake in water until this weekend!

[@LoudGuns]

The seas of star citizen are going to be full of Gladius wrecks as we fail trying to replicate that shot 😂

[@harabecswurveweathers]

I can't wait to see 890J owners using their massive space yachts as proper boats.

[@soccerjake1]

@@LoudGuns mine will no doubt be among them.

[@Desrtfox71]

Don't forget that "nullsec" in SC won't be like "nullsec" in Eve. It won't be players only doing the attacking of bases, etc. Even in "nullsec" in SC the NPCs are still in charge, not the players. Just like you see in Pyro. So "lawless" doesn't mean player controlled Lord of the flies simulator.

[@LoudGuns]

That’s quite possible, but in nearly every game I’ve played players trump NPC’s so I’d set expectations of there being a little Lord of the Flies type content in some regions 😂

[@mrJMD]

That will be pretty cool if in order to keep your Pyro base in good standing you need to make a trip to Ruin Station every now and then to "pay tribute" to whoever is in charge. Might even lead to "We appreciate your tribute, but we're also gonna need you to do a little job for us in Stanton...."

[@Desrtfox71]

@LoudGuns ​ Yeah, not the plan for SC though. I think you should take a look at the NPC discussions. Things like the 9:1 ratio, CIGs narrative goals etc. Saying that, I have no doubt that there will be some areas that have little to no NPC influence, but by design, CIG is on record saying those will not have great money making capability for example. The risk vs reward extends to NPC groups as well, and when things get out of balance, including easy money, this will attract NPC groups as well. In any case, CIG is on record discussing this although it's spread around over the years. Once again, without historical reference, you can already see this in plans for Pyro. Has CIG mentioned anything in Pyro that is long-term player controlled? No. This is by design. CIG has said many times that the players are not the main drivers of large scale narrative in the game. It's an NPC run world, and we just live in it. The players will have influence, but not control. This extends from things like economies, trading to area control, blockading, construction, crafting, etc. It's a main tenet of SC.@@LoudGuns​

[@LoudGuns]

@@Desrtfox71 Yep don't worry I've read / watched all those discussions. But in my experience of games even if that is the intention players are just plain smarter than NPC's on average. If I'm in a dangerous area I am 100% more concerned about other players than I am about the threat posed by AI.

[@Desrtfox71]

@@LoudGuns I get that, but as we've seen SC does things a bit differently, and NPCs can definitely overwhelm players even if players are "smarter" about what they're doing. We can see the nascent efforts of this in the live events that SC runs in Stanton currently as one example. All I'm saying is don't expect player orgs to run the show ala EVE even in "nullsec". That isn't the plan. How well CIG executes the plan, in my opinion, is a different discussion. It's certainly possible, as well, that CIG softens on this at some point and does allow player controlled large-scale areas, but as of yet, no such announcements or plans have been made public. I'm just saying, don't hold your breath on this, one of CIG's major goals is to maintain control over the narrative and player experience, and you can see this everywhere, even now, in SC.

[@michaelshawe]

I’m seriously happy about this years Cit con. Can’t wait to see the majority of this concept within their suggested 12 months time frame! Fingers crossed we get SQ42 in that timeframe too, because it looked bonkers!

[@artuno1207]

We all know how CIG is with projected dates but... I'm feeling optimistic. All the previous dates were based on having technology they didn't have yet. We'll. Now they do, so it is reasonable to think they're finally able to make accurately projected dates? Right...?

[@koopakinkreet]

Is this the best star citizen channel? It just may be

[@LoudGuns]

Haha thanks mate 🙏

[@ThanatosGrimm]

im excited for things to roll this coming year for sure! Verse is gonna be amaaaazing.

[@rasferrastfarian739]

Great overview boss! - I was also very happy with Citcon this year - so much info and great gains being realised. I've been on a SC break but have returned for the new ships and salvage. See ya 'round 🙂

[@pontifexinferno]

Glad you pointed out the EVA movement update because holy cow does it look great. Can't wait.

[@magiccarpet6951]

finally, engineering, we get to use blue magical beams!!! cant wait for toilet gameplay...yellow magical beam

[@mrJMD]

.... there is nothing magical about the brown beam. DO NOT STARE DIRECTLY INTO THE BROWN BEAM. At least, not without safety goggles firmly in place. *Thumbs up!*

[@Mike5Brown]

Very much looking forward to building a little Homestead

[@7dawarlord63]

Great video your channel has helped me get started in SC and I'm close to my 1st mill keep up the great work ps I love mining 😀

[@mattp1337]

Please gawd yes to asteroid bases. And any hemming and hawing I was going through whether I wanted to CCU chain up to a Galaxy as my one big group play ship (as opposed to my daily driver) is now firmly put to rest.

[@maramark]

Base building Sick!

[@LoudGuns]

My hype containment is struggling! 😂

[@TheOneAndOnlyRavnak]

Puzzles in mission locations.

[@troyrarehale2517]

My highlight was the lack of search and bookmarking in the new starmap and how it was an after thought and not necessary, but they are working on it 😕

[@mrJMD]

That could be interesting if you have a large ship that requires more people than you have, if it could also just mean you need to wait at a landing zone for a while so spaceport NPC engineers can go through your ship and get everything back up to snuff. So you *could* pilot a large ship even by yourself, but you need to pray you don't run into problems on the way and your ship will spend more time at the mechanics getting worked on.

[@LoudGuns]

Yeah that sort of trade off would make sense to me (plus obviously you're draining creds more rapidly because those tune ups won't be free). I hope for a similar system as that planned for cargo - loading it yourself is potentially faster and saves money, but if you simply don't want to load up cargo you pay up and wait for a timer.

[@Dorm_]

I can not wait to see NPC`s i paid top dollars for T posing on my chairs in the mess hall :)

[@andrewfanner2245]

Stuff ter asteroid, I want an extinct colcano...and a monorail. Base building loooks to be that huge next step, Pyro may be essentially null sec but an org base gives somewhere to work form. As for a personal solo base, somehow it needs to be invulnerable if you are not logged in, and that may include someone else building on the same spot.

[@LoudGuns]

What about a volcano lair connected to an asteroid lair by a space monorail?

[@andrewfanner2245]

@@LoudGuns now we are talking. Decent space elevator ftw!

[@lilpandacub]

Maybe a short commentary about “managing” expectations (reality check) but still be hyyyyped 🙇‍♂️

[@LoudGuns]

CitCon week is the hardest week to manage expectations 😂

[@Volf1916]

I am interested in seeing the development updates and integration of the mechanics and features that are more likely to enter the PU in the last quarter of the year. Unfortunately with the servers performance and in game mechanics such as NPC spawning bugs, 30k frequency, ship bugs, random deaths, vanishing objectives, and transit in some planetary city locations not working my likelihood of being able to experience these new features is less likely, unless CIG is able to get the game more stable and features ironed out this year before IAE.

[@Mr.Free2Play]

The "Replication Layer" we got in 3.21 was bigger than people think. Because w/o the RL , we don't even have server meshing. Great video. Great points! o7 #oneofus

[@LoudGuns]

I shall take your word for it 😂 As mentioned I am a crocodile layman!

[@harabecswurveweathers]

We've actually had Replication Layer since we got PES, but until the upcoming Tech Preview upcoming, it's been a server-specific service. The new version is separated from the individual servers and is it's own service that servers and game clients connect to. It should theoretically remove 30k crashes because when a server crashes, game clients will stay connected as servers restart around them.

[@garrycopeland6149]

Always enjoy your content and member of Frontier, though of late not actively as been sinking 100s of hours into Starfield. Also sunk 1000's of hours into NMS, both of these offer base building and I find this gameplay loop of limited longevity. In terms of accruing in game currency, resource gathering etc. there's usually other ways so once the novelty has worn off then there's no going back to them. Not looking forward to the engineering thing either as a predominately solo player, Carrack is my favourite ship and really don't want to have to get into more 'grind' just to keep it flying. Even bearing in mind CIGs geological timeframes for delivering stuff, I did find CitizenCon exciting, many things to look forward to. Feels like we have reached a tipping point, like the industrial revolution led to incredible technological changes in short timeframes, by human standards, so CIG have had their revolution and so the pace of change will increase accordingly.

[@Dorm_]

I liked your post and you seem like a nice guy Garry, if you ever want a gunner in your carrack i am up for the task :) I have only played solo and mostly in the prospector.

[@garrycopeland6149]

Thanks for the comment, I am Jediblood in game, give me a shout if you see me around the 'verse.@@Dorm_

[@Dorm_]

Most of the people testing PU now play solo Loud Guns, and CiG will have to take that into consideration when planning professions and gameplay. I know from watching your videos that you play with a large crew a lot of the time, but for the rest of us this is not the case. Most of the content creators play with a big crew. I know this will be an MMO but that does not mean i HAVE to play exclusive with tons of other players. Take wow as an example, there you farm and do quests solo to be able to do the higher tier dungeons, raids are 2-3 times a week for a couple of hours, and you can get decent loot doing 5 man dungeons pve. You are happy to see a good citcon and that they are working on improving this unstable mess we`ve had this year and I am happy as well, but let`s not count the chickens until they hatch my friend.

[@LoudGuns]

I feel I've always stuck up for the solo player to a fair degree, but I don't believe solo players should have literally everything that those who engage in multiplayer do. To take the WoW example (because I think WoW is a brilliant read across given it's one of the most successful MMO's ever) - it's excellent that you can have a good experience playing solo and in small groups of 5, but who has better gear; the player who does that or the player who plays in a highly organised large guild?

[@Dorm_]

@@LoudGuns But then we agree Loud Guns, I wil play my solo content and when i need my high end gear i go to your org and buy it from you :) But CiG really have a difficult task ahead of them balancing the different gameplay so that it will be a fun experience for everyone. I remember the public AQ 20 groups we made and the public MC 40 groups, it was fun as hell, we were not so coordinated and had a few wipes but we did kill Ragnaros in the end, and CiG have sort of made events like this with the Orison events, which i found a bit messy but fun :) it was decent cash as well.

[@LoudGuns]

@@Dorm_ Yeah, I’m a big believer that people should play how they want to - I’ve played various MMO’s in all sorts of ways: solo, small guild, mega guild, casual, hardcore etc. the ideal is a situation where different play styles can coexist - but that to me means that not everything will be for everyone.

[@MADBADBRAD]

Once base building becomes a thing in this game, I’ll probably never touch another game again. SC is getting there but boy do I wish we had all of this stuff now. 😩

[@Dorm_]

I said to myself that theaters of war was going to be awesome, they said it was only a couple of months out, but buy was they wrong!

[@craygebrown8694]

I love the component game play and the engineering roles but I feel they are going a bit off course all components for all ships big and small should be full powered, after all no manufacture will sell you a car that only partially works. components power and performance should depend on what you buying. The state of the components should depend on damage or ware and internal components should be only take damage from outside after the a Hull breach. Doing it this way means solo players and groups benefit as solo players must decide to run or fight knowing they cant repair and way need to sacrifice whole compartments if there's a fire, where groups can have engineers and gunners. If you cant power everything in big ships then whats the point to having a crew to man weapons or buying power mods. All the rest looks great and sounds great. Destructible objects in a gun fight will really make you think about cover. Looking forward to part 2

[@Dorm_]

Big ships i feel like todays battleships, they pack serious heat but are not the fastest, to give us solo players a chance to live. I know Loud Guns gets his panties wet thinking about big orgs and taking over whole systems, but thats never going to happen. I feel like the destructible buildings is not a good idea, and with PES there will be whole planets looking like the gaza strip...

[@lilpandacub]

🐼

[@mart911]

hey loud guns, can you make a getting organised for a "jack of all trades" org (it seems imposible to me) and a "fun" org (it is very subjective but some things are more fun then others

[@LoudGuns]

I can try for a Jack of all trades but tbh what sometimes happens is you get this wide shallow pool. It becomes hard within the constraints of 100 people to get any real vertical integration. But it could be interesting to look at ships that are maybe particularly multi-role / modular? I’ll have to think it over but could maybe be done 🤔

[@BigSneed404]

I know an excellent strategy for solo players to be able to easily upkeep their ships: dont fly big ships solo.

[@LoudGuns]

This is why I really like the look of the Zeus - something built with a smaller crew in mind but that offers more than other 3 person ships. There needs to be that progression in terms of ship quality without it just being a case of going up and up in size.

[@gameshowmatt]

+1 for asteroid hangout plox

[@arcadealchemist]

i'd be more impressed if didn't understand how development worked and was happy with being told how things change instead of knowing whats about to change how and seeing CIG do it in real time. focus on what you want to see and it happens focus on the time frame it takes and nothing happens

[@williamblake7386]

so this game is finally complete enough?

[@LoudGuns]

🤷‍♂️ my only advice is to try it out during a free fly event and see if it’s for you

[@Dorm_]

With all the feature creep and new tech they are adding it`s going to take another 20 years :( !remind me 20 years from now

[@Rantandreason]

#3: I knew right from the start that when they said "crew of 5" it meant a crew of 5 would be NEEDED to run that ship efficiently That's why I never worried a single bit about the guy buying 17 capital ships, because he will only ever get to pilot ONE of them. That is also why that majority of ships I have bought, are single crew or very small crew The biggest ships I own are the Mole, the C2 and the Liberator, and I constantly waffle on keeping the Mole

[@LoudGuns]

I think this is a really big talking point - 5 means 5, not 1-3!

[@Rantandreason]

@@LoudGuns I'm sure some of those numbers are going to change a little, but a multi crew ship WILL BE a multi crew ship CIG is really going to have to work on the benefits for it though. It has to be worth people's time and effort to do, or they will all just go solo, and if solo is overly lucrative, people will look for multis And yes there are intangibles you get from playing with a group of friends, but I can also get something similar when I get 2 friends together, have me in my prospector, 1 guy in an SRV, and another guy in the Expanse

[@Rantandreason]

@@LoudGuns Also something, is that what is meant by the whole thing is "efficiently." So yes, 1 person can bring pretty much any ship out of dock Yes, on some ships, you can have 1 person pilot it, and fire SOME guns. But will 1 person be able to fly, and target, and affect repairs, and reload? Absolutely not! The ships not manned "effectively" are essentially just floating targets I think there is going to be a bit of a scramble for some backers who have put all their eggs into the multi crew basket, trying to buy single man or small crew ships. I've see a couple people who have like 3-5 capital ships and that's it. They're in for a very rude awakening

[@Desrtfox71]

NPC crews will eventually be a thing as well as server blades. So, of course one person will only be able to bring out one ship at a time. They will be able to use that ship efficiently, just not as efficiently (depending on many things) as a fully expert-player crewed ship.

[@LoudGuns]

@@Desrtfox71 one thing I always come back to is if you can feasibly crew a cap ship largely with NPC’s would large orgs not just being 50 Javelins to every fight?

[@jamesatkins7592]

First?

[@lilpandacub]

Noo😂

[@LoudGuns]

Equal gold medals? 🥇 🥇

[@mrJMD]

First is not best, Last is not worst, Ends are middles, Tiddies. - Sun Tzu