All,
I thought it would be useful for OTGers new to Star Citizen to have a primer on what the game is, and how they can sign up for the game using the OTG Referral Code Generator in order to get extra benefits for themselves and a random OTG member.
If you already know what Star Citizen is and you want to join, skip to the bottom of this post for instructions.
What is Star Citizen?
Star Citizen is a first person space adventure MMO being developed by Chris Roberts, the creator of popular 90s space dogfighting games such as Wing Commander and Privateer.
The developers aim to create an MMO where you can play in any role or career you choose. Far from just a âspace dogfightingâ sim, there will be a fully developed economy driven by both NPCs and Player characters.
Some of the potential careers or roles in game include:
- Explorer: Discover new routes between locations or resource rich deposits and sell that information to either NPCs or other PCs.
- Repair ship: Run a ship offering repair, refueling and rearming to PCs and NPCs⌠At a price.
- Salvage: Scrounge through the leftovers after a major battle looking for salvage.
- Space Miner: Mine asteroids and nebula for resources needed to drive the economy. Without raw resources, the shop shelves will be empty!
- Marine: Not interested in flying spaceships? Put your FPS skills to use as a marine aboard one of OTGâs drop ships!
- Gunner / crew member: Not everyone needs to own their own ship. Serve as a gunner, engineer or some other crew role on a large capital ship!
- Cargo pilot: Buy sell and trade commodities between the various planets and moons.
- Hospital Ship: Run a hospital ship serving as a ârespawnâ point for other players, for a price.
- Search And Rescue: Fly your space ambulance through the battlefield to rescue pilots who have ejected from their craft, and get a payday from their insurance companies.
- Pirate: If someone canât defend themselves, they really shouldnât own shiny things should they?
- Bounty Hunter: Hunt down those filthy pirates and cash in on the bounty on their heads.
- Freelancer / mercenary: Gun for hire. Protect a transport ship or help capture it!
- Luxury / VIP Transport: Run a âspacelinerâ bringing VIP NPCs or PCs from place to place.
After being turned down by major game studios, Chris Roberts turned to crowdfunding to fund the development of his new game. âBackersâ had the option of purchasing the base game, or by donating additional funds start the game with bigger and more advanced spaceships.
After the successful completion of the crowdfunding campaign, Chris Roberts founded a new company called âCloud Imperium Gamesâ (frequently referred to as CIG) to develop the game.
What is Squadron 42?
Squadron 42 is a single-player, narrative driven space adventure game being developed in parallel with the MMO âStar Citizenâ game using the same base assets.
They have assembled a triple-A cast of actors and actresses that will feature in the game, not just as voice actors but with their performances captured in game through motion / face capture technology. Some of their stars include:
- Gary Oldman as Admiral Ernst Bishop.
- Mark Hamill as Lieutenant Commander Steve âOld Manâ Cotton.
- Mark Strong as Captain Thomas Wade.
- John Rhys-Davies as Randall Graves.
- Liam Cunningham as Captain Noah White.
- Gillian Anderson as Captain Rachel MacLaren.
- Andy Serkis as ThulâOqquray.
- Jack Huston as Cal Mason.
(Unfortunately their star cast is almost all men, but Iâm super excited that Gillian Anderson will be in the game!)
The first teaser trailer for Squadron 42 can be found here:
The second trailer can be found here:
A âvertical sliceâ where they play through one entire mission of the game can be found here:
What is the state of the game today?
At present they have finished most of the core technology underlying the game and are working on fleshing out the various gameplay mechanics, worlds, and NPC systems.
Currently in the game you can perform basic missions (cargo delivery, bounty hunting, exploration, racing), mine for resources (best way to generate money at the moment), buy and sell cargo, buy ships/armor/guns with in game currency, explore several worlds/moons and participate in FPS / Starfighter combat.
Examples of what you can do in MMO game right now can be seen in the following Keynote talk, or by watching any of the various Twitch streamers out there:
There are also two âmini gamesâ within Star Citizen called Star Marine (a very Counterstrike FPS experience) and Arena Commander (starfighter combat and racing).
Many of the game systems are in a rough state, and while there are a lot of individual pieces, it is far from a full game at the moment.
Is Star Citizen âPay To Winâ?
By my personal definition (and there are many out there) a game is âPay To Winâ if you gain a competitive advantage in game by spending real life money outside of the initial purchase of the game.
To fund the development of the game, CIG offered players the option of paying additional money to start the game with more advanced or specialized ships rather than having to earn these in game.
Therefore by my earlier definition, yes Star Citizen is âPay To Winâ as these players would have an advantage over those just starting with the base package.
But that is not the whole story.
Aside from the question of âwhat is winning in an MMOâ, I might be able to spend $1000 to start the game with a large corvette, but that same corvette will take around 25 players to fly effectively. Star Citizen is at its core about community and group gameplay. So even if someone drops a lot of money on a fancy ship they could have just earned for in game currency, they are up a creek without a paddle (in an asteroid field without fuel?) unless they have the friends to crew it with.
Should I buy Star Citizen right now?
Personally I advise everyone to at least buy the base game package right now if the game at all sounds interesting.
Every year they raise the price of the base game package by about $5. So buy now and even if the game takes another 3-4 years to come out in its full glory, youâll be saving money in the long run.
How can I buy just the base Star Citizen game and get benefits for both me and a random Guildy?
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Go to the following page, wait 10 seconds for the referral code generator to generate a code, then click on the hyperlink and follow the instructions to create your account on the Star Citizen Website:
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1pZZTvOECwurZ8kG0v5TOdrNLkLw4oezWoBVTF_6_0KE/edit?usp=sharing -
Once you have created your account, go to the following page:
https://robertsspaceindustries.com/star-citizen/fly-now -
Select either the Mustang or Aurora starter package (essentially identical, Mustang is faster and lighter armor, Aurora is slower and better armored)
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If you want to add on the single-player game Squadron 42 to your purchase, select that option.
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Click âCheckout And Buyâ
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Follow the checkout instructions
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Download the installer from here: https://robertsspaceindustries.com/download
Thatâs it!
If you have any questions about Star Citizen, Iâm always happy to answer them. If you are uncertain regarding what you can do in game right now, Iâd be happy to hop on my Stream and show you!