Star Citizen there are still some really beautiful ships…”/> RSI
At this moment in Star CitizenThe long, 11+ year development cycle usually reminds us of the game when it reaches some sort of crowdfunding microtransaction milestone or updates its increasingly complex alpha development roadmap. So last week’s announcement that developer Cloud Imperium Games (CIG) has banned over 600 cheaters from its servers is a notable reminder that some people are actually enjoying — and exploiting — the game’s unpolished alpha.
Shortly after the May release of Star Citizen’s Alpha 2.23.1 update, players began to notice that they could easily make extra cash by storing a cargo ship, selling its cargo, and then returning to the ship to find the cargo ready for sale in a second time. As word of this “money doubling” exploit spread, players reported that the price of essential resources in the game had seen significant inflation for several days.
Now Cloud Imperium Games Senior Director of Player Relations Will Leverett wrote that the developer has been investigating “multiple exploits in Star Citizen which compromised stability and negatively impacted the in-game economy.” In doing so, CIG says it has “identified and suspended over 600 accounts engaged in exploitative behavior while removing illegally earned aUEC [in-game currency] from Star Citizen ecosystem.”
A ban on “over 600” players might not seem so noticeable when the games like Dota 2 and World of Warcraft regularly announce waves of bans involving tens of thousands of players. Still, it’s a reminder that at least a small portion of the game’s more than 5.2 million backers are actively playing the alpha so much that they’re willing to cheat to see more of what the game has to offer.
“From scratch, in two evenings, I made approx [200 million aUEC] only to buy ships which [are] unavailable for me to try it out fully!” user ZeroInsideOut wrote on the game’s forums. “There [are] many things in Star Citizen [which] I would like to try and test, but I lack the money.”
It’s getting late for “early access” bugs.
Leverett writes that exploits like these should be expected in Star Citizen “at this stage of development” – a stage we hasten to point out again, is now part of more than a decade of active development. Finding and squashing these types of bugs “early” is part of the game’s crowdfunded development plan, and “one of the benefits of open development and working closely with our community,” Leverett wrote.
“We have gained valuable insights through your reports to the council on the issues and we thank you for that,” he continued. “However, once an exploit is identified and confirmed, continued misuse for personal gain will not be tolerated and will result in action on our part.”
However, some players feel that the “open development” process has not been able to detect this important problem quickly enough. Commenter Nitebird held CIG accountable for “allowing[ing] exploits reported during [Public Test Universe] to live even though many people confirmed the problem [the Issue Council] and calls on CIG to stop to fix it. The patch is ruined regardless by a lot of people… What is IC good for but preventing that?”
CIG has launched an important “Persistent Universe” update for Star Citizen more than a year ago and announced late last year that separation 42 Squadron has reached “feature complete” status. Despite these signs of progress, however, there is still no target date for Star Citizen to finally move from its extended alpha version to this legendary version “Version 1.0”.
CIG founder and CEO Chris Roberts said in a March update that the development team is “hard at work, heads down, driving to the finish line” and that the leadership team has already “spent significant time looking at what Star Citizen 1.0 means and what it would take to get there.” This includes the planned introduction of long-requested key features such as base building and crafting, which were apparently not a priority during the game’s first 11-plus years of development work.
“Like this road map [for a 1.0 release] is coming together and solidifying, we look forward to sharing both its vision and execution plan with you later this year,” Roberts wrote.
