It’s that time of year again for fans and followers of Star Citizen to come together in-person and digitally to see what’s next in the sci-fi sandbox that’s been in a state of alpha development for 12 years going: It’s CitizenCon 2024, and that means it’s time for us to recount the reveals, the showcases, the promises, and the demonstrations that were offered up from Manchester, UK, this year.
Here’s what was on display during day one’s series of panels.
The first day’s panels were kicked off by a brief keynote from Chris Roberts, who talked up the attendance for the event, promised that the Pyro system will indeed be coming at the end of this year, and vowed that after 4.0 the game would be “out of alpha for everyone to play.” Following that it was on to the first panel about the technology that’s bringing together Pyro’s planets.
Brave new worlds
The preamble for this opening panel was primarily a discussion of the Genesis tech suite that CIG has built to make planetary generation make logical sense, seamlessly combine biomes, and ultimately create more places for players to visit and missions to complete ahead of server meshing. Genesis will reportedly use “data-driven physically-based rules” that should “realistically emulate nature” in order to generate biomes on planetary surfaces, with given examples showcasing how set parameters can dynamically create swamps and jungles. Genesis is also supposed to be capable of creating higher-resolution textures and eliminating planetary tiling.
Planet generation is only part of the story, as the devs are also making sure that POIs make sense in terms of their location. This is where creating clusters comes into play – those are groups of various POIs and locations that are tied together in themes such as mining. These clusters are further bundled into larger sectors that promise to let players find over 3,000 locations on their own on a single planet’s surface.
Other showcases that were part of the Genesis toolset include new AI behaviors that let them recognize dynamic cover, better global illumination, improved sound effect buffering, and better cloud generation. The whole shebang was bookended by a combined look at many of these visual updates in a single vignette.
A social universe
Next up was a panel about social gameplay and social systems, all with an aim of bringing SC “up to MMO standards.” This was all prefaced by word that the presentation was full of very early work and not necessarily anything groundbreaking, particularly to those who play MMOs. All the same, what was shown represents some of the first times more MMO-like features are being expressly designed for SC.
Those features include a friends list with block features and party finding features, the ability to link contracts directly in chat, and guild UI features like a guild finder, guild calendars, identifying tags, and organization formation features.
Some of the more unique social updates planned include improvements to FOIP and VOIP to make it more performative and stable and the ability for players to list themselves as in-game guides to help new arrivals through various activities.
Dressed to kill
Following a cosplay contest and other break segments, the next panel focused on gear, specifically the specialization system coming to the game. In summary, there are specific attributes to each piece of clothing and armor to help players better put together gear sets for things like combat, racing, cargo hauling, and more. The whole thing is cribbed under a system named StarWear.
The devs did warn that players will need to do some legwork to find specialized items, either by aligning with certain guilds or exploring the world. Those who do put in that effort will be rewarded with many new combinations of clothing pieces and armor pieces that can work together for a distinct look as well as benefits to stats like protection, mobility, stealth, g-force resistance, and active scan capability.
Why will all of these stats matter? Because SC is planning on adding more group content, starting off with a gigantic sand worm boss known as the Valakkar. This 300 meter-long beast can be found in Pyro and can be drawn out of hiding by ground vehicles, but otherwise CIG is keeping a tight lid on what players should prepare for beyond making sure they bring multiple vehicle types and word that they can harvest valuable pearls from the creature to craft powerful equipment as a reward.
Beyond Pyro
As the name suggests, this panel looked past alpha 4.0 and the Pyro system’s arrival, starting with the new system known as Nyx that’s set to arrive after Pyro. This system features a sprawling black dust cloud and shares a border with Vanduul space. A small community has been formed in this system on an asteroid between Nyx II and Nyx III with familiar names: Delamar, home to the Levski landing zone.
Levski is a zero-g location, which allows players to more easily move large cargo hauls into freight elevators and drop-off points without two players needing to use a handheld tractor beam (or without one player having to purchase a $40 ATLS). Levski otherwise has expected locations like cargo services, refinement centers, and local areas for gameplay content.
Speaking of gameplay areas, the panel also talked up new such zones for existing locations in the game, such as districts for landing zones and a Municipal Works sandbox zone in Area 18 that connects to instanced multi-level mission areas known as The Depths.
Finally, the panel unveiled a fourth star system, Castra. This system was largely a concept art preview of planned locations including one of the planets known as Bullseye and an overview of the Sherman landing zone.
Squadron 42
Day one wrapped up with Chris Roberts taking the curtain off of a showcase of Squadron 42’s prologue, which was played live on stage – the first time the game has been shown in any sort of functional state. The prologue moved through tutorials, combat against a Vanduul fleet from multiple viewpoints, and plenty of cinematic flair along the way, though it wasn’t without a couple of crashes to desktop.
The presentation closed with word of the single-player game headed for release in 2026. The game’s official site has been updated to reflect this release window, but otherwise it shares no additional information beyond a space for players to sign up for a mailing list to be informed of updates such as pre-order details.
