Welcome to the November 2020 Star Citizen Progress Report
This is the 8th progress report about Star Citizen & Squadron 42 in the series since November 2018.
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:
Star Citizen & Squadron 42 Report Conclusion
Star Citizen is roughly 37% complete as of November 2020 (Alpha 3.11.1).
This represents an increase of 0% on the previous report from August 2020 which covered up to Alpha 3.10.
This is the first Star Citizen Progress Report that has 0% of the SCFOCUS features list added. 2020 has been an incredibly slow year for Star Citizen progress.
Playability Score
Playability Score: 3/5 - Barely Playable
- Playability (3/5)
- Player Count (1/5)
- The Economy (2/5)
- Flight Model (4/5)
- Dogfighting (3/5)
- FPS Combat (3/5)
- AI (3/5)
Playability - How Playable is Star Citizen Alpha 3.11?
Alpha 3.11 brings a few minor improvements but no major tracked features as well as a slew of game-breaking bugs. Overall playability score for Star Citizen remains unchanged at 3/5. It was a tough decision not to lower playability back down to 2/5. Major gameplay like trading is suffering from huge issues like: outpost terminals not spawning goods, disappearing ships, randomly exploding ships while in quantum - making trading almost unplayable.
In the previous report it was mentioned that the stability had deteriorated significantly. Since then stability seems to have stayed almost as bad. Servers disconnect mid-session with high frequency.
Game and server crashes can lead to lost progress.
The game is still very much for testers. People looking to play can have limited fun but the experience can and will be be very frustrating. Welcome to alpha!
3/5
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.
1/5
The Economy
The economy feels faked.
Since the last report it has actually become somewhat harder to make some progress due to increase in bugs. Without cargo transferring, refining, ship selling, item stealing, unique items and more, the economy still feels like a test-bed shell.
Read more about the Star Citizen in game economy.
2/5
Flight Model
In the last report it was mentioned that the flight model changes seemed like a "side-step" more than polishing. This seemed to be incorrect as the flight model changes have significantly enhanced the flight experience and were received generally well (without much complaining) from the community.
However, the "realism" is still to be improved and combat still has a lot of issues. In any case, the improvements to the flight model (excluding obvious bugs) have resulted in a flight model that is as good or better than almost any other simulation or flight game out there.
Flight model is being increased from 3/5 to 4/5. For the flight model to be 5/5 it will need to go from where it is now to perfection. An achievable yet difficult step.
4/5
Dogfighting
The flight model has improved since the last progress report and dogfighting has received some attention from the developers also. However, dogfighting during the October pvp event still seemed to have many issues to also raise the score from 3 to 4. Perhaps in the next progress report it will be raised to 4/5.
3/5
FPS Combat
FPS combat has not changed much with 3.11. Character models still warp and suffer from desync and hitbox issues.
3/5
AI
AI seem to be receiving continuous yet small improvements. They are seen less standing on chairs and AI pilots seem better than in the previous report. For a score of 4 AI will need to be much more capable of complex behavior as well as better response time. For a score of 5 it will require AI crew as well as AI navigating the universe freely.
3/5
Suggestions
No suggestions in this report but the old suggestions still mostly apply.
November 2020 Report Conclusion
This is the first progress report in this series with no progress on the 104 features listed to quantify SC development. 2020 hasn't been a good year in general and SC dev seems to have suffered strong setbacks like everyone else.
The game is still very much in an early alpha state of testing at approximately 37% complete. The game is not recommended for new players as it is highly unstable and still missing roughly two thirds of the actual game.
Enough quality of life features are in the game to make it feel playable at some level for short playtesting sessions. Progressing in the game is harder than it was in the previous report because of the instability of the game.
Progress in the past 3 reports seems to be confirmed as stagnant for 2020. Perhaps 2021 will bring more gameplay and stability.
Release date estimates for both Star Citizen and Squadron 42 will be pushed back significantly.
About this report
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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.