Star Citizen’s Q&A panel was packed full of fans who absolutely love the game, many of which traveled far and wide just to attend the Q&A panel, showing the dedication and enthusiasm of the crowd. A lot of questions were asked, but sadly no information was given directly on any release dates. However, the biggest takeaway was that they did confirm the order that updates were going to release in. The order is, I am not 100% sure this is 100% accurate, but as far as my notes show the next Arena Commander update, followed by the 1st iteration on multi-crew, and then the first release of Star Marine, in the comments this is corrected to Social/AC, Star Marine, and then multi-crew.

Check out how many fans were in attendance!

Speaking of dedication, many of the fans in attendance owned a lot of ships. Backers with more than 10 ships numbered well around 20~30, while those with more than 20 ships numbered more than 10,  with a few in attendance having 30 to 40+ ships.

Pictures were only allowed before the panel began, but they did allow "blurry photos" of the Endeavor, shown below.

In attendance was David Haddock, David Ladyman, Ben Lesnick, and Sandi Gardiner. The information below might not be 100% accurate, as there was noise and I could easily have misheard anything. If something isn't accurate, feel free to reach out to me about it.

There were a lot of questions asked – Star Citizen fans were very good about keeping their questions in short bite sized chunks, so here are the details from the panel:

  • They did not host a tournament at DragonCon this year, but would love to do so again.
  • Sataball* (see comments) port to Star Marine will come, but it’s not a priority.
  • SQ42’s story is expanded on from the original Kickstarter, but when the original Kickstarter happened, the story hadn’t been fleshed out nearly that far.
  • The Herald is the next ship to be released.
  • Hacking is coming, but it’s difficult to get right, but they will be getting it right.
  • I’m not 100% sure on if this is real or not, but new fish will be coming for the aquarium, but it was such a joke fest that I can’t confidently say they will be coming or not.
  • Performance will be worked out, Chris Roberts can apparently make any computer crawl with the fidelity that he goes after, but they’re aware that it’s an issue and will work to make the game run the best it can.
  • There will be more Xi’An ships. I believe there will be at least one more ship.
  • There will be a lot of progress hitting in the next year. They’re looking at rapid expansion.
  • They want to update the world bi-weekly, based on what players are doing, from news feeds to various updates. While big “World of Warcraft” size patches will be further along, they will keep the game fresh.
  • Third party parts will be in the game, you can either equip your ship with a name brand, or pick something up off that’s a replica. Ships will require specific brands only in some slots, while other slots will be open to a wide range of parts. It’s a complex system that involves a lot of modularity.
  • There is no ETA on mining, but it’s one of the most important systems, and the design doc is done.
  • The severed head in the shop is because the shop is eccentric.
  • I believe SQ42 will include a female playable lead.
  • Track IR will be fixed.
  • Low-fidelity ships, like older models, etc. will appear in junk yards. I don’t know in what capacity, as if they’ll be blown apart as derelicts in space, or will be purchasable for less, but be run down / lower power.
  • Planet destroying won’t come into the game. “We’d be out of planets in 35 seconds.”
  • They will get balance right.
  • There will be more Vanduul ships for sale, but they’re mostly being saved for SQ42. Maybe a light fighter.
  • You’ll be able to be many anti-roles, like Pirating, Smuggling, Data Interception. Most main roles will have an anti-role available.
  • You cannot earn bad guy / unlawful reputation straight out of SQ42.
  • They previewed the Endeavor. Pictures were included above. It’ll be a hospital ship, science ship, etc. It’ll contain a lot of pods and other cool stuff.
  • The difficulty leading a target is being looked out. Ship speed will be adjusted.
  • Chris Roberts wanted novels since the conception of the idea, but working on the game is their #1 priority.
  • When you logout, you’ll be an NPC, but they’re going to see if that works. There is a lot of balance involved in making sure you can’t just logoff and making sure that long voyages, you can logoff and your character maintain their role. It’s something they’re still working on.
  • Modularity of ships will be based purely on the ship. The Endeavor might be modular, but they won’t be retrofitting any ships anytime soon (Constellation given as an example). Not every ship will be modular.
  • Their voice communications will be internal.
  • Retaliator will be the next to have a commercial made. They made it super clear that commercials are on hold and were just a training method for their cinematics team.
  • I believe there was some discussion on the ability to live on Terra or Spider as a totally viable playing method, but I can’t confirm that’s actually a thing.

That’s all the details. Like I said, it was one of the rawest informative Q&As I’ve seen, considering the questions were able to have short answers. No timeframes were given for anything and they were adamant that they could not give times for anything, but, the above information I think is worth more than timeframes for most players (in attendance).


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Last Updated: Mar 29, 2016

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Get in the bush with David "Xerin" Piner as he leverages his spectacular insanity to ask the serious questions such as is Master Yi and Illidan the same person? What's for dinner? What are ways to elevate your gaming experience? David's column, Respawn, is updated near daily with some of the coolest things you'll read online, while David tackles ways to improve the game experience across the board with various hype guides to cool games.

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