Star Citizen - 5.0 sandbox rework - due in 2018?

look, I realise without even emailing my most recent C.V. to their H.R. Unit that C.I.G or Cloud Imperium Games aka C.R.I or Chris Roberts Industries i.e. the legendary W.G.C. or Wing Commander Creator ain’t gonna whisk yours truly westward from Oxford UK across the Atlantic on an all-expenses-paid consultancy to work with his truly in Austin TX on the 5.0 sandbox iteration of his “Star Citizen” or Persistent Universe game.

But that doesn’t stop me pondering about… THE CART BEFORE THE HORSE.

From what I can gather, this is how Star Citizen was ‘always meant to be’. And think about it. Isn’t Wing Commander a flying cart in space with a horse in tow, that’s an SFC or Space Flight Sim, carrying a human player along for the (spectacular) ride. Except that in any visual upgrade of a Wing Commander-like Experience, you’re the horse i.e. The Ship and your cart is just the means for you to personalise your existence within the simulated universe that is the PU-sandbox. The cart should be your rendered presence within the gaming suit of your faithful steed.

Confused, well hear me out. In recent posts I’ve waffled on about DOORS and IDENTITY but these were mere technical aspects to the sandbox aspect of Persistent Universe. The real issue (that Star Citizen has yet to address) is the ‘cart before the horse’ or THE INTELLIGENT SPACE SHIP as a conduit of your growing empire within the Persistent Universe of Star Citizen.

Does the CEO of a corporation (or galactic conglomerate) fly his own ship? Surely not… and while one might start the game flying around and shooting and taxi-ing and farming and looting and pirating, a greater ambition in this universal sandbox must surely be TO BECOME YOUR OWN PLANET or some not-yet-sketched-out variant of planetary manager.

And for all that you’ll need a decent command-and-control system that could be driven home right at the start with this statement, “You are an intelligence that can ‘be a marine’ or ‘be a ship’ or ‘be a captain of intergalactic industry’ or ‘whatever you can cram into such a PU-game.”

Star Citizen ‘should be’ about becoming ‘the guy who flies that part of the gaming universe’.