Star Citizen Made a Major Shift in 2024 | But It's Not What You Think

[@hollywoodguy70]

These year in review essays need to be called Citizen Space Ketchup

[@kingotime8977]

Amazing!

[@SpaceTomato]

[@JaumeSabater]

Hear, hear!

[@lordicedewd4375]

you ,good sir , need to be in marketing

[@drakedge2000]

I second this.

[@S0HJIN]

"Mobiglapp Asses" haha 20:52 Merry Christmas!

[@FogginNobbers]

I spit out my hard boiled egg because of that beautiful line.

[@humech]

Came here for that lolol

[@SpaceTomato]

¯⁠\⁠_⁠(⁠ツ⁠)⁠_⁠/⁠¯

[@IrisCorven]

@@SpaceTomato It's done, Tomato. I will never not call them "Mobiglapp Asses", now.

[@TheMegalodonGaming]

I love 4.0. I made my home in Pyro and I'm not allowed to go to Stanton for any reason other than to buy or sell cargo. only thing holding me back is at some point between 45-120 minutes. My game will freeze, then quickly switch to a black screen, and I have to restart my game. It's super frustrating having to restart when it takes 20 minutes minimum to get to a cargo location and start loading up.

[@gumpthegreat1]

This is why as a long time backer I have not really played much since 3.17. If you have played SC since around 2017 or earlier, then you have likely played every mission type the game currently has to offer many times. With new updates rarely comes new playable missions, so every time my buddy is like "we should drop in, a new ship came out" I am like "to do what? run more bunker missions like we had been 5 years ago? nah." 2025 needs to be the year where I can stop saying this. When 4.1 drops, i need to say "oh, look at all these new MISSIONS AND CONTENT to play!" instead of "here is new ships.... to continue to do the same old content we have been doing for years with..."

[@DJCroBar]

👆

[@FullFledged2010]

Missions are just there to make money. When the economy and basebuilding is in missions don't really matter anymore.

[@BeSk9991]

Why do you even need to do missions? I played for 50 hours this year - 20-30 in June to check out everything (after not playing for 3 years) - and it was amazing. 20-30 hours in September / October to play cargo missions, which were very fun... :D So idk

[@derqatarzan4207]

Agree, 3.18 was a nail in the coffin, has kept adding nails. Loaded in for the first time in a year, couldn't get out of grim hex after moving there because of the same buggy elevators that have been there for years now lol.

[@YamGarage]

@@BeSk9991 Because it's content to do besides the same 5 things you've been able to do for years.... Not sure you enjoyed jumping back in, it was a better project 3 years ago.

[@Velthus]

The thing I hate the most about the MFD's is not the MFD themselves, but the F button interactions across multiple ships that take up such a big part of the screen and sometimes screws you if you want to use an MFD. One example? On a Reclaimer, trying to use the right MFD to go through the buttons will instead make you get out of the seat.. or turn off your ship on other consoles. The placement of those wasn't considered at all and there are more ships where this is very problematic.

[@Doc_Paradox]

some ships even have the EJECTION button interaction key taking up a ton of space which as you can guess is a fun mistake to make

[@rayfighter]

@@Doc_Paradox came here to write exactly that - ejected myself from my single-seater couple of times that way (but it also has to be said that it was always my first ride on that ship... but still, extremely rushed "design", and i get it, millions of "F"s to place all around the game, while some of them call for a different solution)

[@AKARazorback]

It's pretty simple... they went from best space sim, ie: a blend between EVE, DCS, and Escape from Tarkov To: arcade sim, ie: a blend between Planetside 2, COD, and Rust. Feels bad

[@rayfighter]

@@AKARazorback and you deduced all that from F interactions?

[@MrJalasKelm]

Pretty sure I did something similar in a cutter during the expo recently, engines off mid flight when I wanted to move to the Comms screen

[@jful]

People love to hate on managers and for good reason but having a skilled, no bs, get shit done manager who's not afraid to tackle big problems can make a complete night and day difference to whichever part of the organisation they are responsible for. It's great to see that CIG recognised the talent they found in Rich and gave him what seems like as much authority as someone who's not CR can have within CIG. I'm not saying he's solely responsible, but it seems like he is exactly the kind of leader CIG needs right now working directly with Chris.

[@KiithnarasAshaa]

16:40 I think the vast majority of players don't have a problem with physicalized cargo. I think the majority of players have a problem with the _forced manual_ loading and unloading of physicalized cargo, by hand, with a tractor beam, with all of the physics jank and instancing and snapping issues associated with it. An ideal solution might look like a drag-and-drop UI for a stored ship, where you can tell the outpost or station where and how to load your boxes if you don't want them placing them where they feel like it, and implementing a kind of non-instanced Cargo Hangar at surface outposts for Small and Medium ships (and maybe Large hangars at some of the more developed ones) in order to store ships for loading and unloading, as well as being able to manually transfer cargo and containers between stored ships and local inventory. The surface pads and freight elevators can stay as is to allow players the option to load small quantities without having to wait for a hangar and hangar services. Fees and wait timers for all of that would be fine as long as they are reasonable and don't present an _undue_ impediment to gameplay and profit margins. Similarly, I don't think most players have an issue not having access to magic inventory inside every ship and at every landing zone, but the way its been implemented has made more than a few gameloops unnecessarily frustrating, like Gem mining and bunker looting. Their interim solution seems to be Make Backpacks Bigger, but I think a more reasonable solution would be the ability to just open storage containers and inventories and collect items from the world within a short distance, like 5m or so, allowing players to more easily pick what they want to loot and shuffle things between nearby inventories.

[@ThomasD66]

An idea so smart and player friendly CIG would never do it.

[@joshh9857]

I have a blast loading and unloading personally but maybe that’s just me

[@SpaceTomato]

I think most players likely won't be dealing with loading and unloading things if they aren't doing it for a "living" in-game. As long as the occasional job can be handled by a simple button press with auto-loading, I don't think it's necessarily fixing people to do it. Designing the gameplay around the problems and glitches they have now would be a bad idea, in my opinion. But I totally understand the frustration with that.

[@Torraim]

@@SpaceTomato It's one of the only reliable ways to make money in game though, so yes people are going to be doing it a lot.

[@shadowstrike5692]

Cig is more of doing it realistic or more like how the vision it. Since sometimes it just feels like those features are more for the immersion then for then actually being enjoyable and fun for the player . Shown in it taking a bit of time to get all your gear after you respawn because your running around a lot

[@Schnuffi]

Merry Christmas Tomato, I don't mind longer videos, it was perfect.

[@SpaceTomato]

Merry Christmas!

[@Finraen]

Kuddos on this video. I've watched your stuff on and off over the years, and it's been pretty good. But I feel like recently your content has taken a step up. This was a great summary of the game state at the end of the year. As great a wrap-up as anyone could ask for. Insightful, very well-written, good editing, and very professional all-around. The hard work you put into researching everything that goes into these updates in addition to your historical knowledge of the game are very apparent. You're setting a high bar for the Star Citizen community of content creators!

[@joshuaf.3723]

I see Rich as representative of the arcade style, which has taken over development from those previous who seemed to understand the original promised universe sim.

[@Nine-Signs]

Chris Roberts 2011: "I want to build a universe with you" Rich 2024: "Nah, we are doing a vastly more neutered vastly smaller pvp kit bash of eve and rust"

[@cmdrls212]

I see him more as the millennial that doesn't understand what made CRs vision resonate with gamers. He's introducing overdone MMO mechanics like crafting and ship tiers straight from grind-first MMOs that don't respect player's time and that are all about logged time metrics over enjoyment.

[@Texas240]

The full arc, though, is that SC wasn't going to be heavy on the survival (CR stating that there would be buffs or benefits but not harsh punishments for not eating drinking, showering, etc). Then, things took a survival and micromanaging your character heavy turn. If we're backing away from hardcore survival and focusing more on the game being enjoyable, that's good. There's a point where realism needs to be balanced with the game being something enjoyable that people want to play. There's a game design maxim "Does this feature make the game better? If not, don't do it." Plus, the more SC dives into survival the more bloat, feature creep, and delay is added.

[@sarthakdixit4834]

P.S two different teams working together to do something that is intrinsically linked is called Dev-ops and is a core in computer-science and anything related to it. So its not suprising that the level designers and the content pipeline team not working together caused big setbacks.

[@Pontiuspilotus-jj4wq]

I'd also be interested to know how CIG actually does their unit and regression testing since the end result of their work does not seem to indicate that they focus much on it. So not a lot of "dev-ops" if any. And how do they handle communications between the different scrum groups? A scrum of scrums? It'd be interesting to be a fly on the wall in one of their stand up meetings.

[@randomuserame]

I had a sneaking suspicion that there was a fundamental operational inefficiency going on. Something as fundamental as Dev-ops not being a thing was something that I overlooked. I originally thought it was just them stretching themselves too thin trying to make 2 games that _each_ require a full studio, but instead they split their 1 studio into 2 focuses and didn't hire/retain enough production staff. I still think that's a huge issue, but actually having dev-ops be a thing will [hopefully] take care of the "disjointed" feeling between plans vs concepting vs production vs delivery vs post-delivery rebalancing

[@Diogenes76]

Dev-ops the term that has a different meaning every time it is defined.

[@rixxy9204]

24:56 "This is the year it started to feel like a game". No, it really isn't. It feels exactly the same as it it did years ago - unplayable mess with a huge number of bugs, UI that is horrible, and gameplay that new players get bored of quickly.

[@glenn96]

hahaha upgrade your pc the game is amazing ,contested zones are insanely good and you can get a free ship . 75 fps smooth as silk ,,yes bugs happen but i just want to keep going back for a game thats in alpha thats insane .

[@rixxy9204]

@@glenn96 you're delusional.

[@jWeslo]

​@@glenn96 11:12 point disproven

[@anno-fw7xn]

I upcraded ( need anyway ) and the game is a lot better if you think its at the state of game is so far better than even 3.20 or 3.10 if you think its rhe same than 3 years ago you just worng.

[@rixxy9204]

@@anno-fw7xn I'm really not wrong. Look at all the issues, and total lack of good gameplay or missions. Sure they added some but its all so boring. For 10+ years of development it's still just awful.

[@TheNerd]

Less ambition and more game is what Star Citizen and Squadron 42 desperately need, especially for publicity. You can add new game loops or technology later on. Tons of old MMOs like WoW and Eve Online have already proven that "we need to overhaul it from the ground up" features are possible even decades after release. Yes, it is hard to do and sometimes you need to remove a lot of features that were in the game for a long time, but at least you have a playable game at this point, instead of "a bunch of stuff thrown into a test environment, because we need people to buy ships".

[@BoBoZoBo]

What happened is that it was difficult to hide how little real direction or organization CIG has, and the community is tired of it.

[@FullFledged2010]

And yet they have almost finished 2 massive games with tech other game studios can only dream of. Not sure what community you're talking about but me as a 2014 backer am very happy with the direction its going. 😑

[@DragonNectar]

@@BoBoZoBo I like the game. People need to get lives outside of video games.

[@DrunkFool-w2r]

Almost finished bahahaha keep simping

[@BoBoZoBo]

@FullFledged2010 Server Meshing? No. That tech has been around for a while. And they fumbled bringing it together for years until they finally hired somebody who knew what they were doing. Don't get me wrong, I like the game, but the fact of the matter is, it's piss poor management; and it's okay to say that. Even a broken clock is correct at least once a day, and that's a higher frequency than CIG has achieved.

[@Twoflowersx]

@@FullFledged2010 i AM A 2015 backer and the state of the game is joke and the amount of money in development is nonsense talking 700+mils of dollars and the game yes does inovate on new techs like server mashing and gigant maps with no loading screens .. but this is a joke ..the way the company is acting is more like a cult then a game dev company.

[@avon_c6199]

21:40 Reducing SCM speeds to 250-ish m/s, in space of all places, is quite a dealbraker for me....and while we are more or less force to "just deal with it" based on the cards that CIG deals us, I would hope that we see a bump in speed to around 400-ish some time. 250 is just too slow for general movement.

[@jjnxyz4368]

@@avon_c6199 still 100 m/s faster then starfield

[@Cheesebread42]

yeah I kinda feel this, but am also getting okay with MM. Shields and Weapons aren't as crit to me in a Vulture though as my daily driver, so if I need to scoot faster I just go NAV mode and its all the same to me. Safe Combat Maneuvers TM happening at relatively slower speeds is going to be a non-negotiable, there are player sync/desync reasons for that, to have a good combat experience players cannot be tens of km apart jousting at mach jesus. They still need to keep iterating though on play/counterplay ie. the ability to flee and break away from an engagement. Interdictors still have to feel useful but a freighter pilot still needs to feel as though they have an option if they can apply some of their intrinsic skill to something.

[@SpaceTomato]

400 would be fantastic!

[@KiithnarasAshaa]

@@Cheesebread42 The trouble with that argument is that low speeds aren't better for hit registry, and jousting at mach jesus isn't actual combat; neither of these were ever true even in the old flight model. Hit registry even at 1200m/s was good as along as the servers were running without issue, and when servers perform poorly even today, hit registry and desync is bad unless both sides are perfectly stationary for extended periods of time; CIG have never said that lower speeds were being done for performance or sync issues, to boot. While it was frustrating to deal with players engaging in high-delta jousts, they never did enough damage to you to really be a credible threat, aside from just ramming into you. The combat balancing and TTK now would make that method of engagement even more prohibitive to anything resembling meaningful combat; it's entirely a defensive strategy for rookies and people who don't understand how to fly.

[@T51B1]

250 is fine

[@thisSaint]

The GOAT of insight and quality, thanks for staying on top of all things SC over the years. Your content has directly influenced this massive project in the right direction - keeping them honest without resorting to salt. Have a happy holidays :) o7

[@SpaceTomato]

Thanks for watching. Glad you enjoyed it! Merry Christmas my friend 🎄

[@ShanerTheGrey]

Oh Jesus Christ

[@AKARazorback]

It's pretty simple... they went from best space sim, ie: a blend between EVE, DCS, and Escape from Tarkov To: arcade sim, ie: a blend between Planetside 2, COD, and Rust. Feels bad

[@jWeslo]

Is it necessary to elevate while putting down others' style of criticism? The comment could have done without it.

[@thisSaint]

@@jWeslo I respect everyone who is contributing to this project, with salt or not, but its still fair for me to point out that tomato does it without, which in my opinion, takes some skill, especially with how easy of a target Star Citizen is, that's all I'm saying.

[@moriko4134]

Happy holidays Tomato!

[@countrycraftscustomwoodworking]

So glad I found this channel. I love the chill vibes and the super informed talks. Will continue to follow along for a long time to come. Also thinking about joining the org so we shall see. Happy holidays and Merry Christmas to you good sir, as well as everyone in the community!!!!

[@SpaceTomato]

Would love to see you in GII! Thanks for watching, happy holidays!

[@seanchen3496]

I don’t usually finish these long videos but the quality of your video is top notch, keep it up!

[@Neurocite]

appreciate all your hard work and the level headed reporting on sc. hope your 2025 is a good one

[@CitizenScott]

In Todd We Trust Miss you Papa Papy o7

[@Turican76]

Todd made nothing. wake up

[@CitizenScott]

@@Turican76 "nothing" lol

[@lordjerle]

Last couple days have shown how much work they have yet to do, as I wouldn't exactly call the 4.0 servers stable with the holiday traffic.

[@senn4237]

I'd say 5+ years, at least, before 1.0. And that is probably being optimistic.

[@tyger2891]

For real, I don't understand how adding a new solar system breaks all missions. Half my cargo missions bugged out, all my bounty missions bugged out. Wtf is going on over there?

[@shueybosman2017]

Wow the quality of this video is actually amazing u deserves more views. It felt like watching a professional documentary about SC. Nice analysis.

[@SpaceTomato]

@@shueybosman2017 thank you! I may have gotten a little carried away with the last few videos. Holiday cheer! Thanks for watching :)

[@dt9233]

Yea, he does deserve alot more views. Very professional content created.... Passion must lie in it...💯💯💯

[@aitvaras5271]

Yeah, this just doesn't land for me. The whole cargo refactor was a disaster. It felt like an half-assed attempt at making things more physicalized. I don't feel like dragging 20x 1 SCU boxes brings any fun into the game. It just brings more tedium to an already tedium filled profession. The nerfs the tractor guns or the ATLS just felt like they are trying to lock fun gameplay behind a progression wall. The fact that hauling boxes has no feature to automate it, seems like a huge missed opportunity. What people expected from a cargo refactor is so much more. People expected a dynamic economy, with dynamic missions, real risk, but also real opportunity. Missions right now are still static and offer very little meaningful distinction. The mastermodes disaster is another issue where CIG relentlessly goes against the wishes of the community. Ship speeds are far too slow (and that's putting it mildly), inferior to 3.22 and they haven't managed to convince that mastermodes is anything other than a downgrade. It is by far the biggest showstopper, but CIG deliberately ignores this as a serious topic of discussion. They don't even seem to realize how incredibly badly this is hurting their reputation as a company. Even their envisioned attempt to change it, seems to completely miss the primary issue that things are far too slow. Server meshing and general server performance are the only major upsides this year. In terms of content I feel like they delivered nothing that truly progressed the game towards the next phase. Pyro was/is pretty promising, but without minimal regulation of PVP, the community just doesn't seem to embrace it. At the very minimum people want to have the chance to explore a system without being ganked the moment they leave the wormhole or land a ship at the nearest station. The monetization strategy is poor as well. The idea that you nerf a ship like the Corsair or the Redeemer, just to immediately introduce a ship that does the same thing but better, gives the impression that the marketing department is running the game and that like a AAA company they are only in it for the money. It's the exact kind of attitude that they sought to avoid. The idea that CIG nerfs old ships to introduce buffed new ships is the same kind of toxic behavior that Wargaming has with World of Tanks. I wonder if they realize how badly it hurts the longevity of the game. CIG in 2024 deserves a failing grade, as they've made too many questionable or bad decisions.

[@senn4237]

Good summary, my thoughts exactly. They made progress this year, but took major steps backwards, in my opinion. They really need to sit down and figure out what the basic systems of the game are going to be, like the flight model, and get it work consistently before adding in tons of shiny new features to sell new ships.

[@KenjaTimu]

The flight has gotten slower and slower since 3.0. What is next turn based?

[@AndrewFurmanczyk86]

Backer from 2014 here. Extremely well said. I'm very concerned with the direction SC is taking. Mastermodes being the glaring example. But in general the game keeps increasing in tedium and lowering in fun.

[@KenjaTimu]

@@AndrewFurmanczyk86 you aren't supposed to have fun. You're supposed to buy ships.

[@kuhluhOG]

"The idea that CIG nerfs old ships to introduce buffed new ships is the same kind of toxic behaviour that Wargaming has with World of Tanks." While there are A LOT of things you can criticize Wargaming for, they never nerfed a premium tank (for those who don't know, that means tanks bought with real world money), even when the tank was/is so overpowered that they probably should (have). They may introduce a new premium tank which is better than another already existing one leading to powercreep, but that's a different problem than the one you are describing with SC (besides, WG also buffs from time to time premium tanks, even if rarely).

[@CaptJackster]

I have watched your videos for years and have backed Star Citizen since early 2015. I just wanted to say you are one of the best with informative content, keeping me up to date with your backed information as I come and go between patches. Thanks.👍

[@SpaceTomato]

Thanks for always checking back in. Hopefully the game has been improving over the years in your opinion!

[@stuartburns8657]

So basically CR deviated from industry standard game development process, only to circle back to the tried and tested method 😂😢😢

[@TKanal3]

Its called innovation. You go were no one went before, and then go back on the things that dont work (for that moment). Progress is always x steps forwards and less than x steps back.

[@stuartburns8657]

@TKanal3 I applaud you trying to defend CIG's years of institutional idiocy. In essence, he was saying that one hand didn't know what the other was doing. Same lesson should have been learned when they disastrously outsourced SQ42. CIG was quick to blame them, but with that revelation, and Chris Roberts well documented history of mismanagement, you are brushing this off as 'innovative thinking' ? 😂🤣 You'd think studios with debacle such as Daikatana and Duke Nukem forever (with the same 'innovative thinking' would be enough of a history lesson, but no, CR has to double down. This is why you still fall through the world, or risk all going in a lift, 10+ years later. When your foundation is poor you'll be forever compensating

[@TKanal3]

@@stuartburns8657 aint reading all that ill be honest

[@jeremygrant1325]

​@TKanal3 except as I understand it, the development method to date wasn't innovation, but standard from 30 years ago when CR was previously involved in game development. So really it was regression.

[@TKanal3]

@ i dont think that is true. Crowdfunding didnt really exist in a meaningful way before the mid 2010s

[@11Rorschach11]

nice video. thank you and i wish u an awesome 2025! :)

[@SpaceTomato]

@@11Rorschach11 thank you for watching. I wish you a happy new year as well!

[@gamerscircle]

As a new person to the game 30+ days [been backing since 2014], I really really appreciate you getting me caught up! Your video was organized and well edited, thank you again.

[@SpaceTomato]

Thank you!

[@JagHiroshi]

I think the game is getting over the line, at last, but I do think they got Master Modes wrong and it has impacted some backers enjoyment significantly. CIG need some new hands on that wheel to make sure the revision is something fun and palatable to 99% of players. It's a bit of a gaping wound at the moment.

[@Sarazoul]

In short: they need to replace Yogi. Ever since he was put in charge, the flight content has gone downhill. (Not just master modes, across the be board.) This dude is a numbers guys that works with spread sheets. He just ain't the man for job. Not a bad dude, but CIG has to replace him.

[@Sarazoul]

@@ChrisHöppner I want to believe him. But he's been in that position for a while and I honestly can't recall a single positive thing coming out of him since he got in charge. I don't know man, for someone who is a flight sim enthusiast he sure is pushing the game into a very arcady direction.

[@mrgroundhog9790]

Great overview thank you.

[@dt9233]

Wow! Man, that is a great crafted video and extremely informative. Touched on alot and I learned alot. 💛💯💯💯💯💯💯👍

[@PCPAyLOAD]

I did watch until the end and while I am just as hopeful, we've heard this song so many times from Chris in the past..

[@SpaceTomato]

I do hope what I laid out here shows that this is a pretty unique situation for them.

[@MythionVR]

Great video as always! I hope you and the lady, family all had a great Merry Christmas and I can't wait to see what drops in 2025! See you all next year.

[@owenmadsen2454]

What a video, just subscribed with enthusiasm unknown to mankind! Here’s to 2025!

[@Nero-Caesar]

I know it's not a recent change but the inventory revamp killed a lot of my enjoyment of the game

[@SpaceTomato]

That's a bummer! Any particular reason?

[@dex6147]

No one I've played with even uses the "new inventory." They always just clicked top right for the old inventory. 2024 has been the year of SC downgrades.

[@cwegga]

@@SpaceTomato I'll jump in here because I agree with them. The new system is worse at looting many things from. It doesn't show all the things you can loot, it doesn't consistently move them, and if you try to drag some items it moves the backpack area so you have a changing target of where to drop them. Unless I am only trying to loot 1 mag, the second one usually doesn't work the same, then it's just another window I have to wait for to click the arrow and use the old window. On top of that until the recent backpack buff it had killed carrying loot with you. Nothing significant fit in backpacks, and there was no reasonable timed way to loot gear and get it to your ship, and then a station to keep it for later use.

[@Nero-Caesar]

@SpaceTomato well it's pretty easy to die in-game especially with glitches. Then all that armor and weapons are gone and you have to rebuy everything. I got the expo jacket but I don't wear because if I lose it it's gone till another wipe. I usually by two of everything Incase I die I don't have to go to the shop again

[@jeffrbake]

With the new backpack changes, I really don't mind the new looting system. I find it very useful to get ammo in combat.

[@Joehockey1990]

19:55 I'll add to your minimap point. I LOVE having it. But I want it to be a reward. I don't want to know exactly where I'm going if I've never been there. So, make the minimap something you have to either explore enough to map yourself or make it something you can buy. Meaning, the first time you go to a landing zone, part of your landing fee can be an "optional" minimap charting download for x amount of UEC. OR you can just explore and wander around mapping the new to you landing zone as you go. Even better, make it something you can only buy from other players a.k.a. data running/exploration gameloop. You explore every inch of ruin station and sell a copy of the charted minimap to someone who has never been, is completely lost and just looking to pass through without a headache. Makes exploration feel real and gives players who spend more time in the ground movement category a way to monetize their success on the ground.

[@SpaceTomato]

Yup! The idea of unlocking, earning, buying, or finding POI maps for areas would be amazing. The ability to buy them to supply to others as a data runner of sorts or to take missions to submit those very missions to the local city, space station, outposts. I really hope they go deep with data as a commodity!

[@Arbanoz]

awesome vids man, cant wait to have SC complete as a game and having your vids of who is in war against who, best places to grind eq, everything that makes a MMO a MMO

[@radarecho6533]

Fantastic roll-up and forward-looking summary! Makes me hopeful for the future

[@TT-jl1qs]

Would be nice if the server recovery worked after a couple days. Now all the servers have been down all day due to shards being completely screwed.

[@SpaceTomato]

Server degradation sucks!

[@D0CBEE]

The huge shift happened long ago as far as I'm concerned. Game wasn't pitched initially as "DayZ in space", or an MMO for hoarding collectables. Lets waste a day doing the same sh1tty dungeons just to get this cool armour that I'm never going to wear. Fun...

[@vorpalrobot]

Yes it was pitched that way. CR wants your friend to ask about the alien skull over your bar and you to have a story to tell on how your acquired it. These are some of the earliest parts of the project he laid down

[@T51B1]

@@vorpalrobot It wasn't pitched as Rust and Eve 2.0, which is what they seem to be trying to give us

[@4tonmike]

​@@vorpalrobot I bought that alien skull the same way I bought my Carrack! Through the storefront!

[@SpaceTomato]

You're talking about something outside of this video's scope. I'm talking about a shift in development philosophy, you're talking about a shift in game design. I agree with you, the shift to include more systems around creating/base building definitely came later in development. Though the idea of regular danger around the verse was always part of the plan from what I remember.

[@joshuaf.3723]

Yeah, but hasnt their shift in philosophy affected the game design? ​@SpaceTomato

[@ref2491]

Brilliant recap. I think the real highlight for me was getting glimpse of the PU’s potential with the release of 4.0. It was a year of sweeping all the content up into a pile and assembling it and cohesively linking it together. Excited for 2025

[@Lisa-Azra_Broad]

Nice and concise vid, thanks. Happy New Year

[@TheCitadelCore]

Nice video, compose and pragmatic not like some other youtubers, would be good to have your prediction for 2025 too 👍

[@sfulweb]

Merry Chris-Must!

[@sgtkat69]

Great video ST. I hope all my citizen friends take time to enjoy all the 4.0 features and realize the development has come a long way. The tech to do it was not even available during the early years, so the slow progress helped give us a better game. Happy New Year all!

[@mrbrianparker]

Since you mentioned it a few times, 30 minutes is not what I would call a long video. You're an intelligent, well-informed presenter with plenty to say so longer presentations are entirely appropriate.

[@maddogs1989]

Great video space tomato. I know i called out an issue i had with one video of yours on Paul's channel. But this one was great and I 100% agree.

[@bareloto]

This video was spot on! i think iut will be a good year and my guess is that it will get only better but slow. IT's not so much anymore adding tech but fix the bugs of what already exists.

[@noelsteele]

Merry Christmas!

[@T51B1]

I miss Todd Papy. If he had the resources that he actually needed to make the PU good then I'm pretty sure he would have done it. Rich's view that the PU needs to be a Rust/Eve mashup is NOT what we were sold for over a decade

[@cmdrls212]

100%. The more Richard talks, the less I care about Star Citizen. Todd understood CRs old school space sim vision. Richard is making a generic crafting MMO. It's a generational gap unfortunately. I still hope CR will change leadership after squadron and right the ship back in its original direction. Or maybe it is too late...

[@SuperlunarNim]

Papy might've been a positive influence, it's hard to say for certain, but regardless Chris Roberts is still the one at the tiller, all these decisions go through him. You have to understand that it is he himself that's part of the problem, the coolest parts of the game have come from people under him who have talked him in to doing things like physics based flight models and stuff. He doesn't understand any of that stuff for the most part, or what makes it cool, he is just able to kind of get caught up in whatever vision someone sells him on. It's why he was able to be convinced of MM, because he doesn't understand what makes his own game cool. There's that video from years back where one of the earlier flight devs is trying to explain momentum and velocity in space and Roberts just kind of keeps getting it wrong, talking to his own dev about the flight model of his own game. The depressing reality is Roberts himself doesn't get it, and that manifests as him onboarding bad decisions and being unable to distinguish between a dev with a vision and the knock-off Ubisoft devs who think the game needs crosshairs and slow speeds etc.

[@Batsot]

@@cmdrls212 this design philosophy isn’t generational, mmos have been a thing for a long time. Surprise, SC has always been planned as an MMO and you don’t like what Richard is saying simply because the engine is starting to shape into a game.

[@cmdrls212]

@Batsot Your implications all MMOs are the same is highly inaccurate. So the fact SC was always an MMO is a moot point based on a false premise. MMOs being old doesn't mean SC was always meant to embrace the type of MMO they are pitching now which is very different from the one they pitched before. What they are pitching now is shooting straight for the type of MMO that's popular today, the crafting player driven gridy MMO that rewards grind with more grind and mtx as supposed to the old school MMO that CR pitched originally. All his videos are thankfully still there so revisionist historians can't really argue iT WaS AlWaYs an MmO. An MMO with an NPC based economy isn't the same as one without one, and both types existed for ages but certainly SC under Richard has taken a hard turn what he's grown up with rather than the old school MMO CR pitched. And that's totally ok. We'll see how funding reacts in 2025. It will either be the beginning of the end or the next big thing. I personally don't give two rats for anything Richard says or plans to do as I find his vision extremely generic and overdone. But maybe he is simply doing what the investors demand and is creating an MMO to maximize investors profits.

[@Nine-Signs]

@@cmdrls212 It has nothing to do with a generational change given there is barely a decade between them and given plenty of millennials signed up for Star citizen precisely because of Chris Roberts earlier games. It has everything to do with the individual thinking of the persons, not to do with what generation they were born in, the oldest millennials are 43 years old which is more than old enough to have played every single Chris Roberts game as they grew up. Papy had his was and ideas of doing things, Rich has his own way and ideas of how to do things, and unfortunately for us, they are mediocre compared to Todd but will likely please the handful of major investors CIG is on the hook to along side the player base as tried and tested mediocrity is easier to implement than novel genius and brilliance.

[@johnr3514]

very good take. i suspect roberts was pressed but the major actual backers and this taking over game overall development are why we are where we are

[@Apolly46]

i would like to see a montly published ship progression chart. That shows where each ship that is being made is up too (for example whitebox,greybox etc)

[@_Spacecraft]

I'm happy to see that they're going to focus on making all of the gameplay systems gel together for a better experience now, I'm just sad it probably means exploration gameplay is going to be pushed even further back.

[@Funkm4ster96]

This year was rough from a PR standpoint as they just couldn't find a good footing but overall I think this has been one of the best years for the game. We've seen a TON of changes to the game and one of the biggest tech hurdles that I think has been holding back a lot of the more interesting features/gameplay loops. I'm very excited to see whats next for Star Citizen especially after seeing all of the hard work and grinding they did towards the end of the year. It finally felt like we were getting a functional company with more communication, updates and some bug fixes (that broke more stuff lol). If they can keep up that type of energy this year and continue to focus on getting the game delivered, I'd be way more willing to put more money to support the project. Thanks Tomato for another great year of videos and cant wait to see more!

[@SpaceTomato]

I think you're on the money!

[@gittyupalice96]

Excellent break down and explanation ST, Can I hire you to do that for my workplace!? hahah

[@Monoxim]

Thanks for your cinematic videos :) Love your Content :)

[@matthewmorceau8509]

20:50, mobiglap asses! Love the content man, happy new year. 🎉

[@h.keithent4126]

And here at the end of 2024, we are being visited by the Christmas ghost of 3.18

[@MankiHerNaNDex]

Not rly 3.18, was hell.

[@papa_andy4497]

@@MankiHerNaNDexthis is a close 2nd…

[@h.keithent4126]

@@MankiHerNaNDex Christmas eve and the few days after when everyone was getting the black screen plague, was the ghost of 3.18. It was hell in that no one could play and if CIG had kept true to form, it wasn't going to get any help for weeks. Thankfully, that wasn't the case. In fact, I have to give CIG a lot of credit and kudos for how hard they've been working on getting hotfixes in on 4.0. 4.0.1 is coming along swimmingly and I think it'll likely drop to the live later this week. Honestly, if CR allows the devs to stay on track defined by his letter for what the focus for 2025 is, playability, then this promises to be a good year indeed for CIG and SC.

[@AnymMusic]

Imo it would be nice to actually know what their plans are with things like server meshing, their own anti-alias system, etc. Like did they do all this JUST for SC with no plans to do anything else with it? Or do they plan to use it as another means to fund the company by selling (or probably licensing) the tech? Cause especially those who might look at this game from the sidelines, or those who have pledged but don't really keep up, I feel like this can aid in at least making people understand a bit more as well why things take the time they do (aside from management issues and marketing lies)

[@Wind_Lord]

Merry Christmas Tomatoes. As usual a well researched and thought provoking video from you. Issue I have with this is that it is still very difficult for us to see how well the gameplay works. Take cargo moving fir example, when it works at all and the cargo elevators don’t bug, movement and placing of the cargo still feels and plays very jankily, this makes it hard to tell how much we will enjoy the feature. Same can be said for nearly all the actual gameplay.😊

[@stewartmacy4859]

This was sensational analysis and review. Great talent, as is Star Citizen, always needs a change agent from outside to disrupt the structure and then reformulate it to achieve its destiny. Star Citizen needed to see a therapist and you caught this painful process with clarity and kindness to all. Great content, Sir.

[@stollie7608]

Important distinction there and really good call out. Less "make cool feature" and add it to the pile and instead start to make it an actuall cohesive game. Visionaries are great, however, every visionary needs a highly practical person to pair up turn it into a realistic reality.

[@darisanshanger1616]

It is amazing what a fresh vision can do . I am digging it. More work on stability needs to be done.. we will see

[@SundayPriest]

Loved this in depth analysis. Well made!

[@xkaiser421]

This video really contextualizes why the game suddenly feels like its starting to click together.

[@ashj8998]

Sorry but picking up items like guns especially in combat sucks soooo hard, oh my god Tomato, try picking up a gun in a fire fight when you already have two or if its near a dead body, its the worst, you get locked into a UI and get shot to death or it just throws the gun you pick up across the room, literally just been through this and its a 3.23 bug in 4.0, oh my...

[@CitizenGVN]

2024 was the year I actually started playing SC, playing so much to the point where I even purchased a set of flight sticks and then even upgraded those flight sticks lol. The game was/is rough but it's come along way from when I last played several years ago, I haven't played for a few months due to a career change but jumping on 4.0 this week, WOW! The game finally feels alive, I see people walking around cities, stations and even landing zones, I generally see multiple ships when out and about and travelling between Stanton and Pryo is a blast! It's slowly becoming the game I wanted 10 years ago when I made my original pledge and I'm tempted to spend some more coin now to purchase some more ships now because I feel there is now light at the end of the tunnel

[@Yougottubed89]

In short, they screwed around and wasted a lot of money on inefficient development then when money started to run out they got their stuff together. This stinks of Bioware Magic which worked so well in Anthem.

[@M4VERICK69]

Congratulations on pulling together such a great recap on what really has been a significant year in the development of our beloved game. Thank you for continuing to produce such high level content and bringing us so much in depth information in one location. Keep up the great work and have an amazing Christmas.

[@SpaceTomato]

Thanks for always tuning in Mav! Merry Christmas!

[@ARC_VR]

You're an incredibly articulate man, I appreciate this video!

[@cedric5947]

To me this year has been bad choices after bad choices from CIG. From MM, to instances, to player driven game and not NPC, the lighting and oversaturation, the overall balancing... Besides the interaction system is still very clunky so is the star map. The inventory management is still bad and more importantly, though it seems like it has changed lately, they didn't listen to their community throughout the year.

[@BVDxBEAR]

i feel like this was a good set up year and next year we'll see alot of those forgotten mission types, Raids, and the talk about what bounty hunter v2 will finally play like, but i don't think that will be in this year. Along with bases and crafting in testing by end of year.

[@SamuelCersosimo]

Great job, man! Nice content.

[@SamuelCersosimo]

And what a VOICE!

[@SamuelCersosimo]

And Merry Christmas

[@cmdrls212]

CR & Todd were trying to deliver an epic 90% npc driven verse where you and other players could partake on this immersive experience. you were part of said world but could not control it and no amount of player effort could override the system. This gave the world a vivid and rich setting you could experience and immerse in the lore and creator's vision for the mood of each area Richard is trying to deliver a player driven sandbox PVP Eve with fps crafting simulator where ganking is the norm and toxic players are the content. Players are te story. Players set the narrative. You're part of a group or you're nothing, effectively locking you out of most of the game unless you join the gank fest Eve style. Let's see how 2025 player growth amd funding holds to see which vision was right.

[@DarthSpyro]

Merry Christmas

[@OckamGamer]

I have been pledged for over 10 years. This month has been the first time I’ve actually flown my ship and enjoyed the experience. I immediately bought another ship. $100 after ten years I was happy to give more money for a functional product. This is becoming the game I believed in near its inception. Looking forward to more to come.

[@anno-fw7xn]

Thanks for you great work! Also its great to see that 30min video I mean the tec first idear is fine but i think a tec zoo were you can test stuff like the AI offline would help a lot to bring it over. I also think the shift is a good think, mm need a update fast, but 1.0 is at least 5 year out at least i hope

[@northendtrooper]

19:35. How do you change favorite action?

[@dariuscarpenter7211]

You always produce such great content on Star Citizen's development. Thank you!

[@CraigPayne_52]

I'm feeling better, but I have to caveat with the fact that after about 3.22, I decided to tune out and wait for 4.0. Well, I'm back and while I'm still irritated by gameplay issues, I see the vision and I have hope that one day we will be able to enjoy our space adventures.

[@Sylar0n]

"...im not saying its because of Rich Tyrer". Yes you do, and we say too. Something seriously changed in the past one year and we can feel it.

[@MadhatterMike42]

Really enjoyed this video. sums up a lot of thoughts I have had and I am looking forward to 2025.

[@StoneCoolds]

How do you select a favorite action to an item for the F interactions?? I dodnt even knew it was in game!

[@SpaceTomato]

If you hold the F contextual menu while looking at the item it'll let you change the "favorite" action!

[@TennysonEStead]

What do you think this means for building interiors?

[@BigQuadsOnCampus]

Earned a new sub! Great vid

[@TeambitDK]

Great vid and roundup of the year 2024. Despite what I hear, I think it's been a really good year for CIG, and I can tell that the games looks to be coming together ever so slowly. I really hope they'll be able to release within a few years. Have a great New Years Tomato, thanks for keeping us all entertained.

[@Bluewolf1118]

I love this style of video. Keep it up!!

[@Diogenes76]

I guess it makes sense that FPS seems to be the focus of a spaceship game since that is the guy they promoted up. Even though it is not rally what I signed up for, the new space rust direction does at least seem achievable in a reasonable amount of time.

[@Dr.Kryptanical]

I made a change recently when I first tried 3.24 and it's made my gameplay smoother there is a little UI bug with it but I was fine with that... I had already been using the *>* side mouse button for inventory for a while but with the new interact I wanted to try changing interact to the *

[@ShathAllenson]

Wors, they say one thing then do another with the pipeline, and shady ship nerfs for new ship sales.

[@Tw33die84]

How do u change the F interaction default??

[@SpaceTomato]

Use the contextual "F" menu by using left alt and entering the interaction menu. You can set an action as the favorite for whatever item you're interacting with.

[@Toutvids]

Sometimes people come in and have a definite plan of action and results start happening around them. Tyrer obviously has that skill and has risen the ranks quickly because Chris has witnessed it. Todd was great and I loved the conversations with him on their videos but life happens. Sometime fresh blood is needed to give a project an injection of urgency and perhaps some focus. His traditional goals for the development team is a very good thing, in my opinion. A lot of the progress we are seeing has been in the works and they have been telling us it is coming. We knew SQ42 is getting close to finished, we've seen over 2 hours worth of game play in two vertical slices so far. As SQ42 gets to the finishing phases more devs will come back to Star Citizen. Server meshing was demonstrated last year so it is not shocking that the first iteration is now on the 4.0 preview. It works incredibly well, I see server 30 fps most of the time when I play and the lowest has been 20 fps. Same with Pyro, they told us it is coming and Nyx is the next system which has very little in it so once the meshing is working well, I wouldn't be surprised to see Nyx in game in a year. The tools are mostly built. They haven't been lying to us, they literally explain and show us what they are working on. The problem is the internet kids all scream and shout 'scam! Why is it taking so long?' They told us, years ago. People just don't want to pay attention and think games are still being made in 3 years time now. Rockstar has released one game in the last 10 years Red Dead Redemption 2 in 2018. Think about that... GTA VI is coming next year will only be the second game in over 10 years time. GTA V was released in 2013, 11 years ago. This is the new normal.

[@MadM4F14]

good work brother. made me look differently at the game in a positiv way.

[@GalacticAbsurdity]

This is a very good video :) If I feel good about the game, yes. Slightly disapointed at how 4.0 turned out, (as a start). But recognizing the work CIG put in to push this patch, is something we all should do. I was more or less expecting something like 4.0 start, to be rough, specially concidering the way 3.24 worked for me, it was awesome. Yea, I can still play that branch. But that does not lead to anything. Besides the updated tech in 4.0 makes it look so much better, it acually runs better. The feel of the game is something else in 4.0. I would not want to "go back" to the 3 branch even if 3.24 is acually the 4 branch. But you get what I am saying here. Just walking around the NPCs now is so cool.

[@FeathersMcClaw]

20:53 Can't wait to get my Mobiglap-ass into Pyro.

[@tbor7710]

Great, all great, when will i be able to load into the game?

[@wassi5560]

I get it, you make revenue by producing content about SC - but lets be honest: All you and SC content creators do is read patch notes, you just add clips and sounds - crossreferencing when certain features were promised and when they came in the end. You guys keep enabling the grift this has turned into - in the end, it all comes down to if SC can deliver that gamechanging experience everybody was promised, and you are gullible enough to believe that this whole thing is about making that dream come true, and not being the cashcow for a few people - how they will get to something gamechanging after all is beyond me.

[@Tainted-Soul]

the one thing I think is missing off the new MFD is Fuel levels how much Qt or Hyd is an important thing that you wold want on the dashboard like your cars you dont look through screens on the sat nav do you ? no you look at the speedo and the fuel gauge is there in sight. I hope your right with regards to the speed as 4.0 was 3 years late ?

[@StarBadger07]

This is excellent reporting

[@NotYetForsaken]

My God. Tyrer looked so young back then!

[@Antares-A]

A year of shift ... I think you misspoke the last word XD