Alpha 3.18 of Star Citizen is going all in on being Space FedEx with its big boxy cargo refactor update, and now that players have had time to digest the related Inside Star Citizen episode, devs at CIG took a few moments to field player questions in an AMA.
Most of the given answers don’t really burn barns here, as most questions were related to things like how loading and unloading will work (through a kiosk and loaded boxes will snap to a grid), commodity prices (those aren’t changing this update), and how much cargo gets lost when a ship gets destroyed in combat (there will be 70% chance of a “soft death” that will keep a ship’s interior and cargo intact).
One particularly intriguing reveal is the fact that boxes of purchased commodities will have the player’s name associated with them, meaning that players who want to pirate the goods will need to do so at a “no questions asked” kiosk like those found at GrimHEX at a reduced sale price. Finally, an answer notes the devs want cargo hauling and commodity trading to be separate gameplay loops, with the former being high risk/high reward as players have to manage loading, unloading, and protection of goods, while the latter is simply moving stuff from point A to point B for NPCs.
