July 2025 Star Citizen Progress & Playability Report
This is the 22nd progress report about Star Citizen in the series.
Information for this report comes from the SC FOCUS features completion page that is available 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. The 104 features were selected from the official Stretch Goals.
Progress in this reporting period
There was no progress this reporting period in terms of the tracked features in this reporting series. Progress this period was mostly quality of life and content. Please remember, these reports track a subset of the major features in Star Citizen and Squadron 42 such as escape pods, AI Crew or the Orion. These features were selected from the Funding Goals to represent a good subset of required features for the consideration of Star Citizen and Squadron 42 to be commercially releasable products.
Also be aware that these reports measure what is playable to a backer without any early wave or private knowledge. This guesswork (estimates) could be wrong or out of date at all times.
Features Updated This Period
No features tracked saw partial or complete progress in this reporting period.
Star Citizen & Squadron 42 Report Summary
Star Citizen is roughly 69% complete as of July 2025 (Alpha 4.2.1 LIVE).
*Note that Squadron 42 is feature complete. These features represent Squadron 42 features that are shared with Star Citizen and that are either currently playable in Star Citizen or not.
Playability Score
Playability Score: 3/5 - Buggy but playable
- Playability (3/5)
- Player Count (2/5)
- The Economy (2/5)
- Flight Model (4/5)
- Dogfighting (4/5)
- FPS Combat (3/5)
- AI (3/5)
- Cheating (3/5)
- Travel (3/5)
- Salvage (4/5)
- Mining (3/5)
- Trading (2/5)
- Racing (1/5)
- Bounty Hunting (3/5)
- Medical (3/5)
- Hunting (4/5)
- Piracy (3/5)
In this reporting period as of Alpha 4.2.1 (LIVE)
For starting players the game still needs a lot of patience and time dedicated. This reporting period saw a new category unlocked: Cheating & Exploiting. In the author's own experience, exploiting and cheating was noticed and gameplay was negatively affected during this reporting period.
Playability - How Playable is Star Citizen Alpha 4.2.1?
In the last report the estimate was that playability would improve for the this report. However, while some progress was made to overall stability and bugginess, a lot of hacking was noticed and reported on during this period. A "Hacking" category was added because it can greatly disrupt playability.
Even so the improvements were enough to raise the score to 3/5.
Bugs, Instability and hacking
Star Citizen Alpha 4.2.1 still has the Alpha label. As such instability is expected as the game is still some time away from feature complete (Star Citizen 1.0).
The game during the reporting period was working ok-ish during some periods of time. This score was raised from the last report.
3/5
Player Count
This score remains unchanged even though this period saw player counts as high as 725 per shard briefly during this period. For this score to be a 3/5 player counts per shard will need to be over or near 1000. For a score of 4/5 over 10,000. A 5 out of 5 score represents the maximum universe size for seamless play (100,000s or millions).
Should the playable universe see 800+ player counts this score could be raised to 3 out of 5.
2/5
The Economy
For the last report chaos was used to describe the economy. Somehow, this reporting period the economy got even more crazy with (I guess the chaos unfolded) exploits and hacking making a strong appearance. "Crafting" with Wikelo and prices all over the place means that the economy feels even more disjointed than last reporting period. This rating is staying at 2/5.
2/5
Flight Model
The score remains unchanged. Flying around is generally an interesting and fun experience.
4/5
Dogfighting
This rating remains unchanged. Dogfights have still been fun and engaging. Multicrew combat is also improving as turrets and large ships are better again.
4/5
FPS Combat
This reporting period saw combat in strange places including invulnerability and invisibility. Complaints continue about jank combat. The new looting system makes combat a bit less real than before. This score remains unchanged this reporting period.
3/5
AI
This reporting period the AI continued to improve throughout the game. From moves that NPC soldiers make to abilities and motion of wildlife. This score remains unchanged and is expected to stay until AI have more complex activities.
3/5
Hacking & Exploiting
Hacking & Exploiting was introduced in this report due to the amount of it taking place during this reporting period. See the official post - An Update on Cheating and Exploiting - for more details.
While some hacking was noticed by the org, it did not, overall affect the experience generally over the reporting period. The community reports as well as official posts and action means that overall, the exploiting and cheating is more or less on par than it was before. This score begins at 3/5. Should cheating and / or exploiting increase to affect gameplay this score could drop. Should those issues be resolved the score could increase. Stay tuned as we observe this category evolve in future reports.
3/5
Travel
Getting from A to B in Star Citizen improved slightly this reporting period. Quantum travel was a little less buggy, the Jump Point was working more reliably and more. This score is increased to 3/5. Travel was tedious but did not get you killed as much due to bugs this reporting period.
3/5
Salvage
Salvage continues to be very playable and is one of the few professions that has worked consistently well during this reporting period. This industry is still missing some features for a full 5/5 score.
4/5
Mining
Issues with mining continue stopping it from being great. The recent global event showed that mining has issues that need resolving.
3/5
Trading
The economy feels highly disjointed and artificial almost like the numbers do not matter. Player to player trading markets are still pending. This score remains unchanged this reporting period.
2/5
Racing
Racing as a profession in game is not in a very playable state and feels neglected.
1/5
Bounty Hunting
PVP bounty hunting was fixed this reporting period. The score is increased again to 3/5.
3/5
Medical
No more significant progress was noticed on medical this reporting period.
3/5
Hunting
Hunting this patch hit new levels with the introduction of the sandbox event resource drive mission. This score is being increased to 4/5 but is not expected to increase for a long time.
4/5
Piracy
Piracy continues in a state of limbo and the score is unchanged since the last patch. While the gameplay experience is slightly better, the fact that you cannot loot enemy players fully anymore dampens the experience.
3/5
July 2025 Report Conclusion
In the past this author has used the term "glacial" when describing the development speed of Star Citizen because it felt to be on ice-age-level time scales. But this reporting period development feels even slower: Development stasis. Even the PVP looting system took a step backwards this reporting period.
The game continues to be in a state of heavy development throughout 2025 and beyond. Expect quite a few changes, some big ships and more content by the end of the year.
With the focus on stability and playability the addition of new features has slowed down and this was expected and is observed.
Cheating and Exploiting represents a new category that must be included into Playability reports because of the affect it can have. Does Star Citizen 1.0 need to be playable as well as hack and exploit free? Or is fixing hacking and exploiting part of improving playability? Stay tuned as we continue to explore Star Citizen's playability in future reports.
Suggestions to CIG
There are no new suggestions for this reporting period.
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.
Previous Reports
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.