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[Craig of War]

Star Citizen is now free to play – for a week

Star Citizen, the crowdfunded space sim by Cloud Imperium, is available now as a free-to-play game, along with complementary ships and starter packs

www.pcgamesn.com

"After ten years and almost $500m dollars in crowdfunding, Star Citizen is still in alpha, but at least now it has new commerce options, some cheaper ships — and for the next week, the option to play for free.

From July 8 to July 15, Star Citizen is running its “free fly” event, which means you can hop in and try the ambitious space sim without having to shell out for a starter pack. You can also save money on a ship. Whereas some models, like the Legatus, can run you up to $40,000 of real actual money, for the next seven days you can have access to the Cutlass, the Avenger Titan, the Dragonfly, the Arrow, or the Mercury absolutely free of charge – though you will have to give them back, or choose to purchase them, once the promotion ends.

If after the free fly you decide you want to stick around with Star Citizen, until July 18 Cloud Imperium is also offering some discounted starter packs, which means your first ship and accompanying features can come cheaper than normal. Similarly, if you follow the game’s referral program and recruit a friend to play, you’ll score some promotional points that you can trade for badges, gold, weapons, and vehicles."

 

[Abriael_GN]

Lol what a ludicrously silly headline. It's like free flight weeks much bigger than this (in which you can fly ALL the ships) don't happen very regularly.

Also this is hilarious.

"You can also save money on a ship. Whereas some models, like the Legatus, can run you up to $40,000 of real actual money"

The Legatus PACK is not a ship model. There's no ship called Legatus. It's literally a package including all the ships. It's always hilarious when a writer obviously doesn't know what he's writing about, which in Star Citizen's case is also very common.

 

[KàIRóS]

"After ten years and almost $500m dollars in crowdfunding, Star Citizen is still in alpha

 

[Jennings]

What happens if you crash all your free ships into a planet on the first day of the trial, do they respawn somewhere to use again?

 

[Dirk Benedict]

Ok, so those of you who didn't want to drop money on this, go ahead and try it, then come back with your takes. I want to see how this fares, because I am interested in takes that have actually had time with the game.

I plan to try it, too.

 

[Abriael_GN]

What happens if you crash all your free ships into a planet on the first day of the trial, do they respawn somewhere to use again?

You can reclaim them via insurance at a port, it takes a few minutes.

 

[Jennings]

You can reclaim them via insurance at a port, it takes a few minutes.

Oh cool, sounds easier than I expected. I thought you'd have to grind for months or pay actual cash for a replacement.

 

[jigglet]

but at least now it has new commerce options,

Phew, can't call it progress till it has that.

 

[Jinzo Prime]

You can reclaim them via insurance at a port, it takes a few minutes.

Do you have to pay real money for insurance? Or is it just a gameplay penalty for losing?

 

[bbeach123]

I dont play this game but isnt the fun of playing any space game is farming 100 hours for your dream ships ? (and another 100 hours to upgrade it) .

I would quit any multiplayer game in a week or two if my character already have the end game gears actually .

 

[Jennings]

I dont play this game but isnt the fun of playing any space game is farming 100 hours for your dream ships ? (and another 100 hours to upgrade it) .

I would quit any multiplayer game in a week or two if my character already have the end game gears actually .

The fun of space games is flying your ship, exploring the universe, and torpedoing smaller ships.

 

[Abriael_GN]

Do you have to psy real money for insurance? Or is it just a gameplay penalty for losing?

Insurance of varying duration is part of a ship's purchase, some as far as being lifetime (mostly really old pledges from the original Kickstarter). At the moment insurance expiration isn't implemented yet, so everyone has insurance for free. But even when it will be, you'll just have to pay a small recurring fee in in-game credits that you earn playing. Basically, it's a small time/credit penalty for losing your ship. At the moment it's just time that can go from a minute to half a hour depending on how big the ship is, and you can decide to pay more credits on the spot to expedite it if you're ina hurry.

 

[ChoosableOne]

I watched it's latest state for 22 minutes and 37 seconds and that was enough: Youtube link. It is not my type of game, but it has something to play for those who love these games. It's more than a tech demo now, but it still needs more time to completion. They are probably doing this event because the money coming from the ships is decreasing. Hold on to your wallets ship lovers

 

[DerivedDataCache]

I tried, and just like last time, I'm getting low fps (20-40) and stuttering.
No matter the resolution or graphics settings.
Watched some videos like changing settings in Nvidia control panel, didnt help.

Does anyone have a solution for this?

 

[The Pleasure]

I tried, and just like last time, I'm getting low fps (20-40) and stuttering.
No matter the resolution or graphics settings.
Watched some videos like changing settings in Nvidia control panel, didnt help.

Does anyone have a solution for this?

Computer upgrades. Glorious pc master race with 128gb of ram, 32gb graphics cards, i9 sentuple core processors and super solid ssssdxXXL drives.

But seriously the game isn't optimized since it's pc only. Pushing boundries means it will be several gpus before it gets maxed out easily. Star Citizen is the new Crysis.

 

[digdug2]

If I start downloading it now, maybe it will be ready before the week is over.

 

[fermcr]

LOL.

 

[DerivedDataCache]

Computer upgrades. Glorious pc master race with 128gb of ram, 32gb graphics cards, i9 sentuple core processors and super solid ssssdxXXL drives.

But seriously the game isn't optimized since it's pc only. Pushing boundries means it will be several gpus before it gets maxed out easily. Star Citizen is the new Crysis.

Yeah I thought it might have been the cpu. But this is the first time its giving me a problem.
Maybe faster RAM too. It's already installed on a ssd.

But idk, the visuals dont justify the performance drop. Probably too much runnig on the cpu in the background.

 

[The Pleasure]

LOL.

Baited by a master who masters in baiting.

 

[Sentenza]

I tried, and just like last time, I'm getting low fps (20-40) and stuttering.
No matter the resolution or graphics settings.
Watched some videos like changing settings in Nvidia control panel, didnt help.

Does anyone have a solution for this?

Not attempting to play the game on a pocket calculator or toaster helps.

But on a more serious note: the game is very CPU-bound, so modern CPUs will have a significant advantage. It's also very RAM-hungry, so anything less than 16 GB is a no and 32 GB is ideal.
A SSD is basically mandatory, since the engine streams data from disk constantly. It's literally unplayable on a mechanical hard disk, no matter the rest of the hardware.

Also, keep in mind that the big city hubs where new players are forced to spawn the first time are the most demanding areas on the game and NOT indicative of how the rest of the experience will be.
Especially with the significant boost in performances they introduced in 3.17.1 I can now comfortably get 140-160fps in most of the Verse and I STILL go down to 40.80 in the city hubs, depending on few conditions.

Bonus: on your very first session you'll probably need to give the time to the game to create a shader cache. Performances should get progressively better (to an extent) once that is done.
EDIT - Addendum to the bonus: Increasing the size of your shader cache in your Nvidia control panel is reported to make the game smoother for several users.

 

[The Pleasure]

Yeah I thought it might have been the cpu. But this is the first time its giving me a problem.
Maybe faster RAM too. It's already installed on a ssd.

But idk, the visuals dont justify the performance drop. Probably too much runnig on the cpu in the background.

It's not just the graphics. It's the simulation of. Physics everywhere. It's a graphic powerhouse in scale but it's doing shit no game company would dare to do.

 

[Sentenza]

Back to the topic:

No idea why they decided to do another free flight so close to the previous one and on the same update, too. Especially with a new patch allegedly around the corner.
It's even more puzzling, because 3.17.1 has NOT been a good patch in terms of stability, so not exactly good advertising material.

 

[Fredrik]

I’ll try this if I have the space to install it. How big is it?

 

[DerivedDataCache]

I’ll try this if I have the space to install it. How big is it?

70-80 gb. Has to be installed on a ssd.

 

[Sentenza]

I’ll try this if I have the space to install it. How big is it?

79 GB according to my install folder.
Maybe something less assuming compression and shit.

Also, if it's your absolute first time playing and you have zero familiarity with it, do NOT "go blind". Watch a video tutorial for your first steps or find a friend willing to guide you or there are good chances you'll find yourself stumbling around like an idiot with no clue of what to do.

EDIT: Something like this should do the trick, but there are countless alternate options if for some reason you don't fancy this version.

 

[JackSparr0w]

Computer upgrades. Glorious pc master race with 128gb of ram, 32gb graphics cards, i9 sentuple core processors and super solid ssssdxXXL drives.

But seriously the game isn't optimized since it's pc only. Pushing boundries means it will be several gpus before it gets maxed out easily. Star Citizen is the new Crysis.

No it's not. Crysis was graphically unmatched for years. Star citizen already looks dated and games with better graphics are out.

 

[Fredrik]

79 GB according to my install folder.
Maybe something less assuming compression and shit.

Also, if it's your absolute first time playing and you have zero familiarity with it, do NOT "go blind". Watch a video tutorial for your first steps or find a friend willing to guide you or there are good chances you'll find yourself stumbling around like an idiot with no clue of what to do.

EDIT: Something like this should do the trick, but there are countless alternate options if for some reason you don't fancy this version.

Thanks I’ll take a look if I can find the SSD space

 

[Topher]

Not attempting to play the game on a pocket calculator or toaster helps.

But on a more serious note: the game is very CPU-bound, so modern CPUs will have a significant advantage. It's also very RAM-hungry, so anything less than 16 GB is a no and 32 GB is ideal.
A SSD is basically mandatory, since the engine streams data from disk constantly. It's literally unplayable on a mechanical hard disk, no matter the rest of the hardware.

Also, keep in mind that the big city hubs where new players are forced to spawn the first time are the most demanding areas on the game and NOT indicative of how the rest of the experience will be.
Especially with the significant boost in performances they introduced in 3.17.1 I can now comfortably get 140-160fps in most of the Verse and I STILL go down to 40.80 in the city hubs, depending on few conditions.

Bonus: on your very first session you'll probably need to give the time to the game to create a shader cache. Performances should get progressively better (to an extent) once that is done.
EDIT - Addendum to the bonus: Increasing the size of your shader cache in your Nvidia control panel is reported to make the game smoother for several users.

Redownloaded Star Citizen last week. I'm hoping my new-ish PC build will be better than the last as playing the game was watching a slide show. Just hoping my 5600X will cut it. Do you think 6 vs 8 cores would have made much difference?

 

[Belthazar]

The Legatus PACK is not a ship model. There's no ship called Legatus. It's literally a package including all the ships. It's always hilarious when a writer obviously doesn't know what he's writing about, which in Star Citizen's case is also very common.

Yeah, because a $40.000 DLC pack is very reasonable for a game. This game is worse than Diablo Eternal in how it gouges whales... The defense force is also more deluded.

 

[Belthazar]

But seriously the game isn't optimized since it's pc only. Pushing boundries means it will be several gpus before it gets maxed out easily. Star Citizen is the new Crysis.

Lol. What boundaries is Star Citizen pushing? The game looks dated as hell and the situation gets worse as time passes. If it ever releases,it will look 2 generations behind of what will be on offer at the time at the least. It's nowhere near what Crysis was at launch, don't fool yourself.

 

[Nautilus]

What a joke of a scam. Hopefully this is a sign for the beginning of the end.

 

[k_trout]

I tried, and just like last time, I'm getting low fps (20-40) and stuttering.
No matter the resolution or graphics settings.
Watched some videos like changing settings in Nvidia control panel, didnt help.

Does anyone have a solution for this?

same here, on a 3070 and 3900x, 32gb ram, nvme, pretty much unplayable

 

[Sentenza]

Yeah, because a $40.000 DLC pack is very reasonable for a game. This game is worse than Diablo Eternal in how it gouges whales... The defense force is also more deluded.

It isn't a DLC, it isn't a necessity and getting one isn't something anyone should worry about in the slightest.
There's virtually no gameplay loop that isn't accessible with a basic starting ship or at worst a minor upgrade you can get with in-game money (and given that making money is pretty much the only long term goal currently in the game, it's not like anyone will have anything else to do).

No, it's not in any way, shape or form "worse than Diablo eternal". It doesn't even come close to Diablo Eternal, in fact.
I'd argue that given a starting ship, there's hardly any free to play game around that could offer a fairer experience to a player that doesn't want to spend real money than Star Citizen.

I mean, this is a project that is dragging its feet to get shit done for years at this point and there's a shitload of legitimate stuff worth criticizing, so there's no need to make up stupid bullshit and hearsay to score points against it.

 

[Sentenza]

Redownloaded Star Citizen last week. I'm hoping my new-ish PC build will be better than the last as playing the game was watching a slide show. Just hoping my 5600X will cut it. Do you think 6 vs 8 cores would have made much difference?

Not sure what difference two more cores would make, but for what is worth I'm playing (SPARSELY, in recent time) with a 5800x, a RTX 3080ti, 32GB of DDR4 and the game is installed on a NVMe.
As I said I get comfortably above 100 fps every time I leave the major city hubs. Space stations, outer space, moons, bunkers, etc... All perform well.

Anyway, there are countless guides that list useful optimization tips. Most of them not even SC-specific; like the thing about NVDIA shader cache I mentioned above, it's the usual shit about maintaining your OS as lean and efficient as possible. So you won't be one of these tossers crying that Elden Ring stutters because it loses a fps every 20 minutes.

Here, random result I just googled. Can't speak about this video in particular but I'm assuming it's listing the usual stuff:

 

[Ribi]

What a joke of a scam. Hopefully this is a sign for the beginning of the end.

Enlighten us please and add me to your lawsuit

 

[Calling 911 Melts Beams]

after maxing out all of the diablo immortal classes $40k seems reasonable

how much does it cost to make my ship all level 5 gems or warp drives or whatever?

 

[Skifi28]

Too bad I left my supercomputer in my other pair of pants. I guess I'll just have to settle for playing it once it's finished. Any day now.

 

[iHaunter]

I actually quite like Star Citizen. Buggy mess still, but there's no game quite like it. There's no game that does what it does. Elite Dangerous is more stable for sure. But it's still nowhere near the level and quite more expensive. All you ever need in SC is the basic ship pack $45 and a SQ42 add-on $20. $65 isn't too bad.

 

[Men_in_Boxes]

They are probably doing this event because the money coming from the ships is decreasing. Hold on to your wallets ship lovers

Funding appears to be better than ever right now...

 

[Bo_Hazem]

Star Citizen shows the pure PC gamers mentality. They only supported it blindly so they can brag about a game not possible on consoles a decade ago. Current gen consoles surpassed that comfortably and the dream, or nightmare, game is still in alpha.

 

[ManaByte]

I tried, and just like last time, I'm getting low fps (20-40) and stuttering.
No matter the resolution or graphics settings.
Watched some videos like changing settings in Nvidia control panel, didnt help.

Does anyone have a solution for this?

The game is designed to run off a SSD

 

[hemo memo]

Free? Like this will actually encourage me to play? They have to pay me if they want me to play test this.

 

[DeepEnigma]

"Come load test our new server configs for us, please!"

 

[iHaunter]

Star Citizen shows the pure PC gamers mentality. They only supported it blindly so they can brag about a game not possible on consoles a decade ago. Current gen consoles surpassed that comfortably and the dream, or nightmare, game is still in alpha.

Consoles have not even remotely surpassed it as there are no games that do it. Starfield is a cheap imitation.

 

[ManaByte]

Star Citizen shows the pure PC gamers mentality. They only supported it blindly so they can brag about a game not possible on consoles a decade ago. Current gen consoles surpassed that comfortably and the dream, or nightmare, game is still in alpha.

There is no way in hell either of the current consoles could run this game. You still need an absolute top of the line PC running a Gen4 SSD, tons of RAM, and a high end GPU just to run it smoothly.

 

[JackSparr0w]

Funding appears to be better than ever right now...

It's actually accelerating propelled by haters tears

 

[Droxcy]

I always join in on the free flights to hop in the huge ships and just cruise around with some friends.

 

[RespawnX]

Star Citizen shows the pure PC gamers mentality. They only supported it blindly so they can brag about a game not possible on consoles a decade ago. Current gen consoles surpassed that comfortably and the dream, or nightmare, game is still in alpha.

Supassed in which manner? Show me a single console game with that level of scale, and compexity. And don't drag me some "R&C has prettier fur" examples. No cherry-picking, but a game that pursues just so many objectives and degrees of complexity.. Star Citizen is still far ahead of it's time. Which is also lamentable, the complexity makes development extremely tedious. However, I prefer a game which sells me 500 Dollar ships as optional instead of fragmenting the whole game for mtx and dlc. Took me around 20 hours of gameplay to get a "750 $ ship". So yeah, every AC game has more grind to get some cosmetic shit.

 

[Abriael_GN]

Yeah, because a $40.000 DLC pack is very reasonable for a game. This game is worse than Diablo Eternal in how it gouges whales... The defense force is also more deluded.

I don't dictate what others consider "reasonable" to do with their money. If someone wants to spend $40,000 to support the development of a game they care for, that's their prerogative, just as much as if they want to spend $20,000 on a watch while I spend $300, or $2 million for a car while I spend $10,000. Some people can afford luxuries I can't like they were peanuts, and I don't feel the need to paint them negatively out of simple envy.

Because we all know this is the point. People being able to spend $40,000 on a game grinds your gears because you're envious. Simple as that.

The point that you completely missed is that whoever wrote this article doesn't know what they're talking about, and the same can be said for you.

Star Citizen shows the pure PC gamers mentality. They only supported it blindly so they can brag about a game not possible on consoles a decade ago. Current gen consoles surpassed that comfortably and the dream, or nightmare, game is still in alpha.

Really now? There isn't a single game on any platform that does what Star Citizen does, nor there will be one for the foreseeable future. Even Starfield doesn't get close.

I watched it's latest state for 22 minutes and 37 seconds and that was enough: Youtube link. It is not my type of game, but it has something to play for those who love these games. It's more than a tech demo now, but it still needs more time to completion. They are probably doing this event because the money coming from the ships is decreasing. Hold on to your wallets ship lovers

They've been doing this type of event for years, several times a year.

It's funny that every year I hear people announcing to the world "this is the year in which Star Citizen declines!" and it turns out much bigger than the year before, which is exactly what this year is looking like.

 

[Dr. Claus]

I don't dictate what others consider "reasonable" to do with their money. If someone wants to spend $40,000 to support the development of a game they care for, that's their prerogative, just as much as if they want to spend $20,000 on a watch while I spend $300, or $2 million for a car while I spend $10,000. Some people can afford luxuries I can't like they were peanuts, and I don't feel the need to paint them negatively out of simple envy.

Because we all know this is the point. People being able to spend $40,000 on a game grinds your gears because you're envious. Simple as that.

The point that you completely missed is that whoever wrote this article doesn't know what they're talking about, and the same can be said for you.



Really now? There isn't a single game on any platform that does what Star Citizen does, nor there will be one for the foreseeable future. Even Starfield doesn't get close.



They've been doing this type of event for years, several times a year.

It's funny that every year I hear people announcing to the world "this is the year in which Star Citizen declines!" and it turns out much bigger than the year before, which is exactly what this year is looking like.

This sounds like someone trying to convince themselves that they haven’t fallen for a scam. Its OK to admit you wasted your money and time, Abriael.