Alpha 3.12 of Star Citizen is still running through its private test server paces, which is probably a good thing because the latest build of the game has brought some adjustments to insurance timers and costs and players are not too pleased.
For those who aren’t familiar, when an insured ship goes pop in Star Citizen, you simply head to a ship terminal and have it replaced for free after a wait timer ticks down, or you can expedite the process for a fee. With the latest 3.12 PTU update, the base wait time to reclaim a free ship, the cost to expedite a ship’s return, and the length of expedition time have all increased. These changes, according to the devs, are being made in an effort to stop players from self-destructing and reclaiming their ships to restock a loadout as a result of ordinance replenishment changes, introduce more consequence to actions, and bring Star Citizen’s economy closer to its final state.
However, the adjustments are not being met with delight by Star Citizen fans. One Reddit post offers a chart that shows the old and new timers and costs, illustrating how immense these adjustments currently go, while many replies in the original announcement post and on Reddit bring up a number of complaints, chief among them being that persistence is not reliable enough to apply these changes. A dev reply in the announcement post seems to further dig CIG’s heels in:
“We fully acknowledge bug-driven reclamation, and finding the sweet spot between supporting a live service and testing is a hot topic internally. However, the team does need to test these economy specific scenarios early. This type of testing is a key step in moving forward towards the intended experience, and isn’t exclusive to just insurance prices/timers. In fact, I’d expect similar ‘frustrating tests’ to come when it’s time to test physicalized inventories too. In the end, these early tests are essential and help us isolate pain points we can address sooner rather than later when their impact is more detrimental.”
