Star Citizen
Real quick, Star Citizen is:
- A rich universe focused on epic space adventure, trading and dogfighting in first person.
- Single Player – Offline or Online(Drop in / Drop out co-op play)
- Persistent Universe (hosted by US)
- Mod-able multiplayer (hosted by YOU)
- No Subscriptions
- No Pay to Win
For more information, there’s a lot to read down below, and there’s our ‘living document’ The Star Citizen Project you can comb through also. Also - all games come with a digital copy of the Manual.
Here’s the deal. We’re doing crowdfunding on Kickstarter and on our own website (over here)
The great news is that we’ve already raised enough money to ensure this project will happen! But we don’t want to stop there. We have a lot more we want to add to Star Citizen and we need your help to do it!
The money raised on our site and here on Kicktstarter are combined to determine which of the main stretch goals we’ve met, but Kickstarter has its own unique set of stretch goals! These will be ADDITIONAL to the main ones.
Check out the newest updates here! We're releasing updates quite regularly, so the best place to stay abreast of all the new information is here.
Here’s how to customize your reward tier even more.
(Thanks to the teams at Uber and Obsidian for setting the stage for this)
For a more detailed explanation please go here:
Detailed Add-On Instructions
Add the following prices on to your pledge using the Manage Pledge button at the top of the Star Citizen Kickstarter site.
Digital Add-Ons
Please note that all digital add-ons require the base pledge to be $30 or higher.
- Digital Electro Skin Hull Enhancement +$5
- Exploration Skin: +$5
- Military Skin: +$5
- Blackbeard Stealth Skin: +$5
- False Colors Skin: +$5
- Add-On Ship: Aurora +$25
- Add-On Ship: 300i +$55
- Add-On Ship: Hornet +$110
- Add-On Ship: Freelancer +$110
- Add-On Ship: Constellation +$225
- Digital Download: Star Map +$5
- Digital Download: Full Star Citizen Soundtrack +$10
- Digital Download: 42 page book "Squadron 42 Manual" +$10
- Digital Download: 42 page book “The Making of Star Citizen” +$10
- Digital Download: 42 page book “Engineering Manual for Modders” +$10
- Digital Download: Star Citizen Novella written by Dave Haddock, the man behind the Time Capsule and Spectrum Dispatch lore. (delivery TBA) +$15
- The Pirate Pack: +$100
NEW - FINAL DAY ADD-ONs
- "Star Citizen" t-shirt [$25]
- "Squadron 42" t-shirt [$25]
- "Shut Up and Take My Money" [$5]
- Addon Ship: Anvil Gladiator Bomber [$150]
- Addon Ship: ORIGIN M50 Interceptor [$85]
- Addon Ship: MISC Starfarer Tanker [$175]
- Addon Ship: Drake Interplanetary Caterpillar ($225)
- Addon Ship: Retaliator Heavy Bomber [$250]
- Addon Ship: Vanduul Fighter [$300]
- Addon Ship: Idris-class Corvette [$1000]
Physical Add-Ons
Please note that shipping is required for tiers below $125 in the US. If outside the US shipping required if not already included with the tier.
- Fold up glossy full color map of the game universe +$10
- CD of game soundtrack +$20
- Hardback bound 42 Page Book “Squadron 42 Manual” +$20
- Hardback bound 42 page Book “Engineering Manual for Modders” +$20
- Hardback bound 42 page book “The Making of Star Citizen” +$25
- Spaceship shaped USB stick +$30
When the Kickstarter campaign concludes you will receive a survey that will allow you to select how you would like the add-on money assigned.
"The reports of my death have been greatly exaggerated"
The traditional publishers don't believe in PC or Space Sims. Venture Capitalists only want to back mobile or social gaming start ups.
We say they're wrong. We say that there is a large audience of PC gamers that want sophisticated games built for their platform. And inside this audience, a significant group of people that have always loved space games, and if given a quality one again will be happy to play it.
Ask not what your genre can do for you, but what you can do for your favorite genre.
Let's put high-end PC gaming and Space Sims back on the map!
Star Citizen brings the visceral action of piloting interstellar craft through combat and exploration to a new generation of gamers at a level of fidelity never before seen. At its core Star Citizen is a destination, not a one-off story. It's a complete universe where any number of adventures can take place, allowing players to decide their own game experience. Pick up jobs as a smuggler, pirate, merchant, bounty hunter, or enlist as a pilot, protecting the borders from outside threats. Chris Roberts has always wanted to create one cohesive universe that encompasses everything that made Wing Commander and Privateer / Freelancer special. A huge sandbox with a complex and deep lore allowing players to explore or play in whatever capacity they wish. That universe is Star Citizen.
The Reasons You'll Want to Play Star Citizen
- A huge universe to explore, trade and adventure in
Space is unending, endless and so are your opportunities. Strike out to make your fortune amongst the Stars or sign-up for a tour of duty in the UEE Fleet.
- Constantly expanding and evolving universe
We’re committed to making Star Citizen a living, breathing universe that is its own entity. It will be a constantly shifting and evolving place for players to explore and affect.
- Micro updates rule!
We’re not interested in having yearly updates. Once live, we will have a team of people adding content on a weekly or bi-weekly basis. So we’ll always be adding data, stories and campaigns as well as reacting to the needs and actions of the players.
- Squadron 42 - A Wing Commander style single player mode, playable OFFLINE if you want
Playable offline or online, co-op with friends, you sign up for a tour of duty with the UEE fleet, manning the front lines, protecting settlements from Vanduul warbands.
- Life during wartime
If you distinguish yourself in combat, you might be invited to join the legendary 42nd Squadron. Much like the French Foreign Legion of old, they can always be found in the toughest areas of operation and always snatch victory from the jaws of defeat, regardless of the odds.
- The conflict never ends
Upon completion of your tour you’ll re-enter the persistent Star Citizen universe with some credits in your pocket and Citizenship to help you make your way. But in the universe of Star Citizen when one conflict ends, another is just around the corner. You’ll have opportunity to spend more time with your squadron mates as additional Campaigns are released as part of the content update plan.
- Actions of the players impact the universe and become part of its history and lore
The universe will change based on the players' actions and adventures allowing them to become part of the history of the universe. As an example, players can scan for gravitational anomalies while out in space. If one is discovered and the player manages to successfully navigate this uncharted jump point, they’ll be able to sell their Nav- Computers recording of their jump flight path for a great profit to a space company for other users to download. But the real prize is getting the system or jump-point named after them!
- Allowing user generated content is a key design goal
Our modding tools will allow players to design new ships for both submission to the persistent RSI ship dealer network or to build custom ships and items for the self-hosted multiplayer mode.
- It’s about the gameplay and your interactions with others
We plan to put a lot of social ideas in the universe. Since the universe is dynamic, it will create some divisions and factions. For example, it’s a perfectly valid choice not to be a Citizen and operate outside the protection of Earth. We think there will be people that gravitate to crime or helping enforce the law or defending the galaxy from the alien raiders or just accumulating as much money as possible. We want to include all these social divisions so players will gravitate to one or the other much like the real world operates.
- Fully dynamic economy driven by player actions
If too many people fly iron ore to the smelting plants of New Pittsburgh, steel prices will drop. Buy low… sell high… you hope.
- The cost of society
In game trade landing and trade tariffs pay for law and order in the civilized systems. Want to make a bigger profit? Try the outer world - outside earth’s infrastructure and protection. The downside? No military or local police to protect you from an opportunistic pirate!
- Money isn’t everything
You could be a trader, a miner or an industrial magnate. Amass great wealth or just run enough missions to earn a comfortable living and upgrades for your ship.
- Space is empty but you’re never really alone
If caught alone in an online ambush, send a distress broadcast to your friends and if they’re nearby they can jump in-system to save your bacon. In each combat instance player slots are reserved for your friends so you can rally forces to join you in combat!
- Bigger ships offer bigger multi-player action
On larger ships, friends can join you to man turrets, repair systems, or switch with you on the pilot’s chair. Think the Millennium Falcon with Han-Solo piloting and Luke on the turret.
- Full rigid body simulation of all spaceships
You wanted proper Newtonian mechanics. You got it! Spaceships adjust their trajectory and orientation just like the real thing.
- Intelligent Flight Control System (IFCS)
Like a modern day F-35, the ships have fly by wire systems which take the player’s inputs and then translate them into the commands for the ship’s engine and thrusters to articulate and deliver the required thrust to achieve the pilot’s request.
- Dynamic Ship Maneuverability
Ship’s performance is calculated dynamically based on various physical variables and the ability of your jet maneuvering to deliver thrust towards a requested vector. What does this mean? Infinite customization with component damage, mass or energy changes affecting maneuverability on the fly – allowing for endless combat strategies and results.
- Ship Components matter!
Because we are fully simulating the physics and flight dynamics, the actual components matter. If a port thruster is damaged, it will affect your maneuverability organically. If you upgrade your thruster package with enhanced thrusters that gimbal faster and deliver more thrust it will affect your performance. Dump cargo, you may be able to get the edge in turning in a dogfight.
- 10X the detail of current AAA games
Most current gen “AAA” games have around 10,000 polygons for a character and 30,000 or so for a vehicle. In Star Citizen, the characters are detailed at 100,000 polygons, the fighter at 300,000 and the Space Carrier 7 million! This allows unparalleled detail, making the visuals more immersive than has ever been achieved before.
- Everything you would imagine would move or articulate on a spaceship or a device – does!
Every spaceship is built from 100s of sub-components, many of them moving and articulating just like they would in the “real” world. If a component gets damaged during combat be prepared to feel the effects on your ship.
- Range of scale never seen before in a game
From a vast 1km long carrier to a 27m fighter, to your 1.8m tall pilot, Everything is rendered and to the same level of detail. Zoom in to the paneling of the carrier and its texel density is the same as the 27m fighter. All without a load screen or loss of visual fidelity.
- Really feel the scale of ships and space battles
Because of the ability of the game to scale seamlessly you could be looking out the windows on the bridge of a carrier watching the battle unfold or jump into a cockpit and take the fight to the enemy.
- Joystick, gamepad, mouse, keyboard are all supported.
We’ve all got our preferences, so why be forced to choose?
- Advanced peripheral support
As part of commitment to high end gaming we are dedicated to supporting the more exotic enthusiast peripherals; HOTAS, flight chair, rudder pedals. It’s all about the immersion and if you've got the equipment we want to support it!
- Virtual Reality is here!
We have backed Oculus Rift and will support it in Star Citizen / Squadron 42. Who doesn't want to sit in their cockpit, hands on your joystick and throttle, swiveling your head, to track that enemy fighter that just blew by?
- Next generation, TODAY
Built on top of Crytek’s award winning CryEngine3 technology, Star Citizen’s engine is built to scale for the PC’s of today and tomorrow.
- A PC gaming enthusiast’s friend!
As you upgrade your PC, Star Citizen will take advantage of your extra processor cores, memory or GPUs. This is why you’re a PC gamer – you love being on the cutting edge, not stuck in the past!
Today’s game publishers, like their Hollywood counterparts, want predictable returns from sequels to last year’s hits. A game in an out- of-favor genre, set in an original universe is viewed as a bad investment. And the concept of developing a new product exclusively for the PC sends publishing executives and most Venture Capitalists running for the exits.
And that hero is you, the unappreciated PC gamer. The ignored Space Sim fan.
This is your chance to have your voice heard. To tell the world that high end PC gaming lives. That you want to sit in the cockpit of your space fighter defending the galaxy or making your fortune as a wily entrepreneur.
Star Citizen is meant to be everything you ever dreamed you could have in a Space-Sim, all in one glorious ever-evolving package.
We know it may not look like this, but we do!
What you've seen was put together by a very small team over the past year. We felt that this vision needed to be shown rather than talked about so we invested our own money to build the technical and visual prototype that shows just how Star Citizen is going to push the limits of PC games.
Instead of taking this prototype to a publisher for a green light, we are cutting out the middleman and taking it to you.
You as the customer get the ultimate vote in whether we make this game. Your dollars are your votes and the better we do the more resources we’ll have to bring you a great game.
We have investors that have agreed to contribute the balance we need to complete this game as long as we can validate that there is a demand for a high end PC space game. By meeting or surpassing our target on Kickstarter you tell the world that you want a PC based Space Sim and allow us to make this game.
But we're offering more than just the chance to support the platform and genre.
As an early backer, you’ll also be getting a lot more than just the finished game.
For the people who pledge for their spaceship in the Star Citizen universe, you’ll be part of a select club that has exclusive access to early gameplay and behind the scenes development updates.
The people who pledge for their spaceships will get to test-fly them long before the general public. 12 months in, we will allow the early backers to play the multiplayer space combat Alpha, and then 20-22 months in they will get to play the Star Citizen Beta, adventuring around the huge open galaxy, well before the general public. We are going to limit our alpha slots to 200,000 as we want to stress test the game with real users, but will not be ready for the full load until we have finished Beta.
In addition, part of the money we are asking for is budgeted to maintain the Roberts Space Industries site with constant updates. Our goal is for the game’s website to be live from day one, constantly giving information about what’s happening in the galaxy even before the game is live, sharing interesting insights into the development process and canvassing the early backers for their opinions. Roberts Space Industries should be the first stop into the Star Citizen universe. When we say we want to involve the community, we really mean it!
Finally we are offering the pledge slots a discount to what the final digital price will be. Like Guild Wars 2, the basic game will be $60, but for the very early backers we are offering the entry tier at $30. But hurry! Slots are limited!
Our hope is that these benefits are compelling enough for you to pledge for your spaceship today.
Please support us, tell your friends and participate in the discussion. An amazing Interstellar adventure waits!
Can't use Kickstarter? Visit the Roberts Space Industries site to use Paypal or a credit card.
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Risks and challenges
We are aiming for a AAA game experience. But depending on the funding levels reached, we may have to limit the experience for the initially released game version. Nonetheless, Chris Roberts and his teams have shown consistently that they are able to develop epic story-based games. Even with our very limited self-funding we have been able to do already a lot of work which is why we can show you not just concept art and a cinematic trailer, but an extensive demo of actual game play. So, we are confident that even with limited means we will be able to deliver an amazing experience.
