The penalty for character death in Star Citizen is going to get a fresh new wrinkle, as CIG has begun to test item recovery updates due for alpha 4.1 and outlined what other layers are being added to the system in the nebulous future.
Right now, alpha 4.1’s test build features the “T0” version of item recovery, which will see player characters that get gunned down respawn with the items they have equipped intact but any items in inventories and backpacks sitting at their corpse, waiting to be looted either by that player or any other players nearby. This applies to anywhere except landing zones, where gear and inventory items will still be on a character at spawn.
As referenced before, this is the first iteration of this system, with two more planned to arrive later: T1 will add a mechanic that causes items that are confirmed stolen to be “bricked,” rendering them unusable but still able to be sold for credits, and T2 will introduce a way for players to make bricked items available for use in order to open “a viable path for piracy.” There is no timeline for when any of these systems will be in-game, but alpha 4.1’s mechanics are currently in closed Evocati testing.
Players on the sandbox’s official forums are already angry with CIG’s design decisions. Most are stumping for full loot PvP, arguing that the system as outlined provides no benefits to the in-game economy and crafted items or dilutes any sense of risk or challenge, while others are pleased with the direction. So obviously this is going to step on some folks’ toes one way or the other.
