Welcome to the April 2022 Star Citizen Progress Report
This is the 12th progress report about Star Citizen & Squadron 42 in the series.
Information for this report comes from the SC FOCUS features completion page which has been updated again here: https://scfocus.org/star-citizen-s42-features-complete/
Stretch Goal Completion Scoring
Completion for Star Citizen & Squardon 42 is scored based on a total of 104 features that were chosen to represent major gameplay milestones for both projects.
Previous Star Citizen & S42 reports:
Progress in this reporting period
Two tracked features were marked as in game this report:
- Massive Ships (SC & S42)
- Player Operated Outposts (SC & S42)
The Javelin has been seen in combat during events like Xenothreat. The ability for such a large ship to fly and fight represents an important milestone.
Players are able to interact with station outposts and ground outposts in a variety of ways. Soon they will be able to build them.
Star Citizen & Squadron 42 Report Conclusion
Star Citizen is roughly 50% complete as of April 2022 (Alpha 3.17)!
This is an important milestone as half the original features for Star Citizen and Squadron 42 are now in the game and testable to some degree. The progress in this period represents an increase of 2% on the previous report from November 2021 which covered up to Alpha 3.15.
The pace of feature completion is still very slow but not as slow as before. The most notable improvements are to gameplay and stability. The sharp increase in new backers and players reflects these improvements and enhancements.
Playability Score
Playability Score: 4/5 - Somewhat Playable
- Player Count (1/5)
- The Economy (3/5)
- Flight Model (4/5)
- Dogfighting (4/5)
- FPS Combat (4/5)
- AI (3/5)
Playability - How Playable is Star Citizen Alpha 3.17?
We mentioned in previous reports that gameplay and stability could be improving and that is exactly what has been observed in the last several months. Optimizations and bug fixing have improved the playability of Star Citizen significantly. This also shows that Squadron 42 must be getting close. The experience is starting to feel more polished and premium.
Bugs and Instability
Star Citizen Alpha 3.17 still has the Alpha label. As such instability is expected as the game is still some time away from complete. However, more players are starting to play more regularly and there has been a shift from long term backers to more new people.
Overall playability score for Star Citizen was increased in this report to 4/5. There is enough of a game here that quite a few players are playing it like a released product even though they should not. Bugs are still prevalent but there are times when stability is good enough to enjoy some epic moments.
The game continues to be for testers due to bugs and fast development cycle (including resets) but more non-testers are starting to sink more time into the game.
4/5
Player Count
Player counts are still 50 players per server. Far from anything that can be considered an MMO. This shows the infancy of the Alpha still.
This is constantly the area of the project with the least progress again.
1/5
The Economy
Alpha 3.17 brings the ability to sell items found looting back to shops. This is an immense addition that improves money making possibilities as well as takes care of cluttered inventory. However, the economy as a whole still feels like a shell, ship selling is not in and dynamic pricing is still to be properly tested. This could easily move to 4/5 in the next report.
3/5
Flight Model
Continued fixes and enhancements (like power management) have helped the flight experience continue to improve.
4/5
Dogfighting
We have extensively been taking part in PVP dogfighting whereas before we would mostly ignore PVP ship combat. The experience is improving and starting to feel more refined. Desynch improvements and increased frames have improved the vehicle combat experience. This rating has been increased to 4/5.
4/5
FPS Combat
This rating has also been increased to 4/5 from the last report (3/5). FPS combat both PVP and PVE has improved enough to bring in lots of new backers. This trend is expected to continue.
4/5
AI
AI are still having issues so this rating remains unchanged. With more reliability and less latency this could easily be a 4.
3/5
April 2022 Report Conclusion
While the introduction of new features since the last report has been low, it is apparent more serious efforts are being placed on optimization. Alpha 3.17 brings a small amount of new features which has led to a noticeable increase in new players as the game is more "playable" than ever before.
A total of 2 features were marked as complete and both were Squadron 42 features.
Progress is still not as fast but the year is shaping to bring in some major gameplay loops such as ship refining, physicalized cargo and more.
This brings the total completion for both games to 50% - a major milestone has been reached since we started tracking progress.
Progress appears to be speeding up but is still slow.
Release Date Estimate Changes
The NOT BEFORE dates for Star Citizen and Squadron 42 are being pushed back. The scary pandemic that caused global chaos set back development somewhat but most of the delays were not related to it. The NOT BEFORE date for Q2 2022 for Squadron 42 is being pushed back but not massively. The game is over 65% complete according to our own tracker and the features left seem small in comparison. Polish and adding the extra missing gameplay features (such as escape pods) is well underway.
For Star Citizen NOT BEFORE release date estimates are being pushed back as well.
Caveats
The list of 104 features used to track "progress" in this report are listed at the Star Citizen Completion Features Percentage Page. This is a highly simplified list of features out of thousands of technical, art and gameplay features that the game(s) will end up having. 104 features were chosen as a simplified average set of gameplay features that the author guesses are plausibly required in the final games to be considered "complete".
The data is gathered as objectively as possible and is non-promotional in nature. This information is purely speculative based on personal criteria. Opinion can and should vary. It is provided for free and actually costs time and money to maintain.
Disclaimer
As always, this article does not represent the official views of Star Citizen. It is provided as speculation to help SC FOCUS org plan the strategy going forward. This information is provided to readers openly and freely and each reader is free to form their own opinion.