Home Sweet Home... at Last.

~or “Living the Virtual Dream.”

If you only knew how long I have wanted THIS...

Star Citizen Alpha Patch V3.34.0 dropped Aug 28th 2024...

“Cargo Empires”.  THIS... IS... HUGE.

******************************************************
Caveat Investor:

Star Citizen IS IN  ALPHA. It is a game that is currently UNDER DEVELOPMENT and HAS BUGS and GLITCHES that CAN and DO NEGATIVELY IMPACT game play.

When you "buy" a "Game Package" for Star Citizen, you are NOT making a "retail purchase", you are "pledging".

ie you are giving CIG money as "Unsecured Investment Capitol" in a "High Risk Software Game Development Project".

You MUST understand and accept this before you spend/pledge/invest one red cent. The Game has been in Active Development since 2012 and is NOT COMPLETED... yet (TM).  =]
******************************************************

Back to our Irregularly Unscheduled Meandering Stream-of-Consciousness...

Seriously, it is MASSIVE. Persistence... your “Stuff” persisting...
A place in the verse all your own... a place to keep your ships and stuff...  A Home. A REAL GORRAM HOME.

In EVE Online we had our POS (a “Player Owner Station”, I preferred to call it a Planetary Orbital Station). Our home in EVE, our home in Anoikis, negative sec, wormhole space.

We had to anchor it, build it, feed it, care for it, defend it. Stored inside it's 30 kilometer wide Force Field Bubble was everything we held dear. Our factories, our refineries, our ship bays, defensive modules and ALL the ships and gear and loot we had with us in th' hole... and most important of all, the “Spike” itself, the Large Minmatar Control Tower in which we lived.

Yes, we also had NPC Stations in Hisec where we could keep our spare gear, backup fleets and “stuff”, and for now in SC this, what you see above, is just exactly that. A Persistent Personal Hangar Bay on a planet's surface, inside the local NPC Spaceport, this is the first iteration of true persistence after all but... I have a dream... a dream that one day I will have something similar to our Home “Serenity Station” back in EVE...

But for now, I'll take my NPC dirt-side safe-as-houses Personal Hangar Bay... yer gorrram right I will!!

A few creature comforts... My “Hangar Hangout”   =]

...with one helluva view!!

When the Spaceport assigns you your permanent hangar, it is based on the largest ship you own. My biggest ship is a Constellation Andromeda, so I have a Medium Hangar.

Also, you no longer have to call up a ship in order to know where to go. You just go straight to the elevators passing right by the public AESOP Terminals... and this (below) is the ONLY button available to you. I don't know if that's because I have vehicles and ships out in my Hangar... but I don't plan on ever storing the vehicles at least, so I guess I'll find out when there's a glitch or a wipe!

“Turamarth's Medium Hangar”...  No sweeter words to me in a game.

So a few nights ago I logged in and... I, well obviously, first pulled out some furniture, the Salvaged Skull couch and chair, some snacks and drinks and a Pico of course... and I setup my “Hangar Hangout” as seen above.

Then I pulled out ALL 12 of my “vehicles” (Hover and Wheeled) and parked them all around the Hangar. You see if I decide to run some FedUps (FedX/UPS style box delivery contracts) or well, anything at all... I no longer have to (1) pull out a ship then (2) fly to a planetside location in order to pull out a vehicle to load it up.

Now I can just order up say, my Corsair, and once the elevator is up, I can just pick and choose whatever vehicle I want to use, walk over and drive it right up the ramp easy peasy...  THIS is livin' the GOOD life!

Hard to imagine that there are 12 vehicles tucked away around this hangar bay...

(1) Greycat & (2) Mule parked to the left of the AESOP Terminals...

(3) STV parked in Drone Repair...

(4) NURSA 'round the corner right of the Elevators...  First Aid anyone?

(5) Dragonfly and (6) Fury LX to the left...

(7) MPUV Cargo across the bay on the left...

(8) Fury and (9) Fury MX across the bay on the right...

in my Hangar Hangout, (10) Hoverquad, (11) X1, and (12) Pulse

That's 12... but there are 14 total “vehicles” present and persistent in my Hangar. I have my Connie Andromeda sittin' pretty right on the landing elevator...  with it's sweet little snub fighter, the P-52 Merlin docked snug in her stern!

My (13) Constellation Andromeda with...

Last but not least... (14!) P-52 Merlin Snub Fighter docked to my Connie!

I have logged off and back on multiple times in the last several days...  and EVERYTHING, all 12 VEHICLES and 2 SHIPS plus furniture AND packs of Beef Nuggets, Vestal Water an empty coffee cup AND a Pico...

ALL are still present and accounted for!  I have a HOME in SC at last.

Fly safe, Live like it's REAL... and maybe I'll see you in my sky!
=/|)=

Cargo Cargo... Now WhereTF Did That Go?

 ~or “Moving Shit Around & Loving it!”

“Hey there (wink)... Wanna haul some cargo?”

In Star Citizen things are really Heating Up!! With the feature-completion of “Squadron 42” (SQ42, Star Citizen's “Theme Park Single Player Game”), CIG is now focused on Star Citizen's “Persistent Universe” (the PU, the “Open World Sandbox Multiplayer Game”) set in the same virtual universe.

What this means is... well, A LOT of shit that so many have been whining for is finally getting done. The Mechanics and Tech that was “required” for SQ42, is also “required” for the PU (both games are after all in the same verse), so a majority of developers and teams that were on the Push To Complete SQ42, have been reassigned to the PU and this is SOOOOO GOOD!

The New Map!!!  This is a Game Changer!

The pic above shows where I logged in. I am in my (random) room in the Greencircle Habs tower, Cloudview Platform, Orison, Crusader, Stanton System, UEE.

FIRST, A WORD FROM LEGAL:
Please understand gentle reader that we intrepid souls who paid to fly and die in SC, are ALL Alpha Game Testers. We accept that we are playing a game that is NOT finished, ie Not Ready for Prime Time.
LEGAL, OUT!

Yet this is also a game that, in it's Alpha State, is still more meaningful, deeper and vastly more IMMERSIVE than ANY other game on the market today... but, my god is it buggy when they drop a patch!

So to understand how we Star Citizen Alpha Testers work first know that there are multiple Versions of The Game...

We have the PU, the “Persistent Universe”,
we also have...
the PTU, the “Persistent Test Universe”,
and now we have...
the EPTU, the “Experimental Persistent Test Universe”. Yea, it's crazy, we get that, but... it does allow CIG to roll out and bug-fix patches incrementally for testing.

There are also multiple levels of Alpha Testers...
The “Evocati” is a group of player who are “vetted” and “under NDA”, they get first crack at a New Patch, and when they have banged it around enough and CIG has fixed what can be fixed...

It goes to the EPTU where a larger group gets a crack at it (as a monthly Subscriber, that means me), and once CIG has fixed the fixable and made it stable enough...

It goes to the PTU, where an even larger group gets a crack at it, and again, after CIG has made it stable enough...

It goes to the PU... as the most stable current version, where anyone who has bought a Game Package can join in AND where “Free Fly” events are open to the public and ANYONE who wants to try SC gets to experience it first hand... for free.

So while many of us Alpha Testers do have THREE full installs of this over 100GB game on our systems... there are “reasons” and they work for what CIG is trying to create... a game unlike ANY other in depth, detail and scale.

We are currently on ver. 3.22.1 in the PU, the PTU is currently closed, and I am play-testing ver. 3.23.0 on the EPTU. And Alpha 3.23 is HUGE! There is actually too much to cover (heck I haven't seen it all yet!) and my preference is to tell the tales of my time spent in Stanton, or at least base my posts on my experiences, so instead of a “News Report” listing features and such, I will just tell you what I DO in the game.


OK, so when a major patch drops, the first thing you often have to do is re-create your character, your ingame Avatar, your “toon” as we used to call them, because they looked like cartoons.

Your avatar in most, well really ALL PC (etc) games have always been cartoons. Photo Realistic Characters (Humans or Orcs or Elves, whatever) have in the past been simply far too complex and resource heavy for use in games... Well, not any more!

Back in 2011, in EVE Online when CCP rolled out their ill-fated Incarna Patch with the new Character Creator I was simply blown away... We went from a “cartoon” to something a helluva lot closer to a Photo Realistic Avatar.

Well, CIG's Avatar Creator is quite simply amazing. The header pic at the top of the post is the newest rendition of my Avatar, Turamarth Elrandir. (I have been “Tur” in every PC game I have played since 1981... yes, I'm that old)  =]

I am simply amazed at the detail of the Character Creator in SC

2010                       2011                         2024

Here you see all three of me. Tur in EVE in 2010, then in 2011, and Tur in SC today. My hope is one day to be able to 3D scan our head (yes my real head in real life) and use that for my Avatar in SC. THAT would be truly awesome!!!

After re-creating your Avatar, now you select your Home Location. You can choose between one of the 4 planetside cities as your Home. I usually select the cloud city Orison on Crusader the gas giant in Stanton system. I like Orison because supplies and contracts are bountiful and I like the hustle and bustle around Seraphim Station, the Space Station in geostationary orbit over Orison.

So, once logged in I...
Well first, I always make a cuppa coffee... Yup, you get a WORKING coffee maker in whatever random Hab you wake up in! Happy Days!!

Note: Check out the HUD map display at the top left in the pic below. A NEW little holographic 3D map, obviously an incredible QOL upgrade!

Ahhhhhhh.... nothing like a cuppa joe first thing right?

Then I go straight to the Kelto (a general store, think 7-11 but with guns & ammo!), where I buy food, drink, ammo and other sundries in quantity. Then I walk over to Orison General Hospital and stock up on Med Supplies, in quantity. Next I take the shuttle to Providence Platform and visit Covalex Shipping and Providence Surplus where I get my uniforms, work clothes & the boots I prefer (you lose shit in this game... a lot, so again, in quantity).

Once provisioning is all done I shuttle over to the August Dunlow Spaceport and have just my Freelancer Max delivered. You see I, like so many in SC, prefer living in a Space Station. You avoid the longer flight times from dirtside to space and back... and I really like the view. So I prepare to move permanently from Orison to Seraphim.

I carefully pack my ship with my assets... Weapons & ammo, food & drink, med supplies, clothes, spacesuits & armor, utility tools, etc., etc. from my local inventory to the ship's inventory. Space is limited in the ship of course, so I have to pack carefully, it's gonna take several trips.

Several assets such as Armored Spacesuits and Ship Paints are very large, and of course, I have a crap ton of armor, weapons, clothes, etc. I usually physically place the largest Spacesuits and Backpacks directly on the ship's floor in the cargo hold to leave space in the internal Inventory. This patch it took 5 trips up and back to move everything.

There is something SOOOO satisfying about “real” cargo...

I considered filling these (I don't trust the game that far,   yet)

So off I go...  Load up, take off, dock, offload, take off, land, load up, take off, dock, offload, take off, land, load up... till all my gear and stuff is stored safely on Seraphim... And yes, there is a very VERY real risk to doing this... If I was attacked by some random “sealclubber”, some A-hat griefer with nothing better to do than attack random players for the Lulz, and my ship was destroyed and I was killed (to be reprinted at the Clinic in Seraphim)... then ALL of my cargo drops in cans floating in space with my wreck... ripe for anyone to just grab and run off with.

That is unless he or they go for a Soft Kill (soft death)... leaving my ship disabled without power or shields or weapons, but with me still alive and well armed... well, then I just might have a chance to fight back (I LOVE PVP, just for the right reasons is all) and hell, maybe even yell for help in local.

Remember dear reader...
Risk is the Spice that makes SC SOOOOOOOOOO good!!

I lived in Anoikis (wormhole space) in EVE Online for 10 years... Where we owned and operated our OWN Space Stations! And those stations and EVERYTHING in them... ALL of our ships and gear and loot were at risk of attack and loss every second of every day, for 10 years. And yes, we lost Stations, and yes, we took down other player's Stations. I like PVP, when it's for a good reason. I was a Bounty Hunter and a Merc for most of my EVE career. (Griefers & bullys have no honor)  =]

In EVE we always said, “Don't fly what you're not willing to lose.” and we lived by the creed, “HTFU” (Harden The Fuck Up). Risk is REAL in both SC and EVE and that gives you that “frisson” of real gut level excitement that you ONLY get when there is NO real safety, NO “safe space” when you undock... and I personally love it.

So many new features impact how I go about my day in Stanton... The New Map and HUD Map are the BOMB!! Keep in mind we didn't have ANY map AT ALL in this game until now, so this is huge.

Zoom in to the room you are in... or out to see the star system

Also, Master Modes has dropped. This is a HIGHLY contentious mechanic that is royally pissing off the Hard Core PVPers and the Griefers and Gankers. Those players who are good with the Flight & Fight mechanics “As They Were” and DO NOT want them to change.

There are always those who have a natural talent at, well, anything... from music to math to muckraking, there are also gamers who have a natural “talent”, an understanding, a “grasp” of different game mechanics. And those in SC who are invested in the old F&F Mechanics (because they can WIN with them), HATE the new F&F Modes with a PASSION.

“Master Modes” is a mechanic that ARMS but SLOWS your ship down for Fighting, and it DISARMS but SPEEDS your ship up for Flight. I love it and I get what CIG is trying to do. You see most fights in SC devolve into “jousting”.

You don't want to stay too close to the enemy... it gives him a shot at you, so you end up boosting away, turning around hard and boosting back to fly past your opponent at very high speed while strafing him as you zoom past... then boosting away, turning around hard and... well, you get it... rinse and repeat until one of you explodes.

it's a perfectly understandable tactic when there is NOWHERE to hide. In space you can't “take cover”, you can't fire from “defilade” as there is nothing to defilade behind in space. Imagine riding a horse on a wide open plain... no trees, no hills, no ditches, no bushes, NO COVER... just FLAT wide open country... and Your enemy is on a horse approaching you. How do you fight him?  Do you pull a John Wayne and channel Rooster Cogburn, put the reins in your teeth and yell... “Fill your hands you sonofabitch!!!” while galloping madly towards each other?? Actually... yup.

The way jousting works in SC is to PASS close by your enemy at high speed, using your Elite Talents and hitting him with killing effect over and over while the poor slob pubbie carebear misses you completely with each pass (because he hasn't “got gud” at PVP or doesn't “get frens” to fight for him) so he cries “UNFAIR!!!” in local as he assplodes.

So, how do you make Flight PVP in SPACE (and Atmo) more “fair” for the poor untalented slob pubbie carebears who are NEVER EVER gonna “get gud” or “get frens”? You SLOW everyone DOWN so that in order to engage, you simply have to be closer because you are ALL slower. Simple. Yes, there will still be those Talented Elites who will find their PVP Heaven in “Master Modes” but...

“Flight Mode” is for RUNNING!!! And it makes perfect sense to me. In Flight Mode, your weapons and shields cannot work but my Freelancer Max seemed to accelerate faster and I think it now has a higher top speed... (I never tested that before with the 'Lancer Max though)

In Flight Mode and burning hard

(Segue... Player Created Lore:
As far as I am concerned this is because when you power up your Quantum Drive, which is how you switch modes, the warp bubble that builds up during “spooling”, interferes with those systems, or at the least it interferes with targeting AND your computer which needs every FLOP in order to calculate the warp, or something like that...)

So what does this mean? It means if someone is in Fight Mode and attacks you, their weapons and defenses will be online but their ship  will be very limited in it's top speed... and if you are in Flight Mode, your weapons and defenses will be offline but your ship's top speed won't be “limited”, meaning you have a real shot at RUNNING for safety.

If they switch to Flight Mode... well, depending on the ship, they could possibly catch up and switch back to Fight Mode and try to get some hits on you as you pull away, maybe try to disable your engines or Q-drive. And the spooling timers have been overall reduced which helps get you outta Dodge even faster... The point is, the poor untalented slob pubbie carebears now have a chance, maybe even a fair one. (and won't THAT just piss off the PVP Elite)

You see carebears do NOT want to PVP, and because they are not AT ALL interested in PVP, they will never “get gud” or “get frens” to fight for them. Master Modes gives them a running chance. It's all they really want. Same as the Elite PVPers only really want a chance at a fair fight...  (right)  OK, that's BS, what a large number of PVPers (and ALL Grifers) really want is what a guy said to me recently... He really enjoys undocking and “Sealclubbing Bob's” as he puts it... (attacking and killing players all the live long day for no other reason than 1. he can (ITSA PVP GAME!!!) and 2. for the lulz and sweet sweet tears.

Anyway, I like Master Modes for the above reasons and... I really like Flight Mode for traveling. You see on my Seraphim runs I stayed in Flight Mode as long as possible. On approach to the station, I was really MOVING BABY! In space my Freelancer Max was clocking 1100 m/s. What I do is I set a course to pass really close BY the station, maintain 1100 m/s until I am really close TO the station, then at the very last moment... I punch the Q-Drive OFF and BOOM! I slow down inna damn hurry!

This allows me to be super close to the dock when I request landing permission. I just turn and burn gently to the dock well within the defensive perimeter of the station guns. Same applies when boring down through atmo to the spaceport. I drop out of warp and burn hard until I am really close then BAM! Disable Q-Drive and I slow down faster than I ever could using my engines... then, under the protection of the Spaceport, I take my time and dock at my leisure.

SAFE!

And no, I have not yet gotten into any PVP in Fight Mode, yet...
Simply too busy getting used to all the new mechanics and as a patch has dropped like 3 or 4 times in the last few days it seems, I am always pretty busy re-creating my toon and moving my stuff around or off away from the madding crowds trying to figure out the new keybinds and how the new stuff works etc.

So, all in all I am as happy as I can be in my space virtuality. All the things and hopes and dreams are coming together slowly but surely... We are on the road to SC V1.0 and I could not be more content with the progress CIG is making in bringing us all a true PVX FPS SciFi Space Sandbox Game. I have wished for this all my life...

Fly Fast & Safe or Slow & Dangerous and I'll look for you in my sky!

=/|)=

Patience Starhopper, Patience...

My first view of a Jump Point Nebulae...    Ahhhhh

 ~or "The Pieces Fall Into Place, Slowly But Surely."

Building, Creating, Developing... the concerted combined actions of hundreds of people across multiple international locations all working for the same unimaginable goal... A SciFi based, FPS/F, PVX, Sandbox MMO Virtuality.

An MMOG like no other in scope and breadth. First Person Primary Perspective, Third Person optional.
Millimeters in "Scale", Light-years in "Scope".
A True Sandbox MMO where you can pick up an object as small as a "Medal" and that object persists unless destroyed or "used up"... in a shared MMO virtual reality that is light seconds, even light minutes, in size. NO cut scenes... except Death and Reprinting.

Yea (sigh), that's me officer. I'd recognize me anywhere.

In SC we are actually 3D "Printed" from a quantum-connected "live mirror" image of "you". Using 3D Organic Printers, respawning in SC is having your entire body physically "Re-printed" and then reloading your brain's "gestalt state", top that off with a couple a shot's from a Defib kit to re-boot you, and Bob's yer Uncle. At least that's the idea, but I digress...

So you can only try to imagine the hardware and coding required. It would, and is, taking years to complete... but it IS coming together. And this past week has seen the addition of some of the foundational "pieces" of code... The initial pieces of "Jump Points" and their supporting Stations and other related hard/software.

Are these Completed and Polished and connected to fully realized, Completed and Polished Star Systems? Are these Jump Points ready for the long awaited command... "Jump, Jump!"???

This is the flight path to the future Gate...

OH HELL NO. These are the "very first" building blocks which will be worked on and iterated on and added to and tested and retested and retested until it all DOES work.
Is it hard to deal with? Is it frustrating waiting?
OH HELL YES it is... but

You gotta crawl before you can walk,
You gotta walk before you can jog,
You gotta jog before you can run,
You gotta run many a weary, frustrating, pain filled, mile before you can win the race.

I, for one, am more than happy with these virtualconcrete & virtualsteel yet somehow very "real" Signs and Portents of "Things to Come"... but many of those of us who brave the Maddening Glitches, Deadly 30Ks and Outrageous Misfortunes of playing a game that is "Currently Under Construction", many will be very butthurt and whiney. Grow up.

You are taking part in something never seen before, take solace in your suffering, we are the one's who will one day say, with well earned pride, "I was there when..."

The EVE Gate

But for me personally, this was... momentous. You see back in EVE Online when scanning and roaming through Anoikis (wormhole space) for kills, lewtz and LOLZ, the most exciting moments for me, were when we would warp to a Corpmate or a Bookmark and land on a new wormhole... and that raw gut clenching fear and excitement grabs you...

"WTF's gonna kill me behind Door Number Two today Monty?"

Seeing, locking on and spooling up to jump to the "Stanton Terra Jump Point" in the HUD was soooooooooo Deeply Nostalgic, and yet... absolutely Brand New at the very same time.

"Stanton - Terra Jump Point" only 38.8 Mkm from Hurston

I deeply loved how we, the true Madmen of EVE, lived, built and defended our very own Space Stations in Anoikis (Wormhole Space). We were the real explorers of the Great Unknown... those crazy people who lived over the edge of the map where it says, "Here be Dragons!" (or far worse... Bob, the God of Holes)

And our wormholes themselves were the jewels of New Eden... Stunningly beautiful doorways into the deadliest spaces in EVE.

Warping to and landing at any of the three new Jump Points and JPStations in Stanton is right outta my best scifi dreams...

THIS!!!  Stanton-Pyro Jump Point... So much WIN.

Huge Fully Functional Death STARrrr... oh, ummm... I mean... each JPoint has a Huge fully functional R&R Station nearby and the good people at CIG have outdone themselves. The sheer SCALE and beauty of the nebulae surrounding each JPoint rivals anything in, or outside of New Eden.

I have so far toured the Stanton-Terra and the Stanton-Pyro JPoints... haven't been to Stanton-Magnus, yet.

The R&R Stations at both are not named, BUT both stations have Full Medical plus ALL four standard station services available, Hangars & Habs, Galleria, Cargo Deck and Refinery.

I am not positive but I don't remember any other R&R's offering ALL four services.
The rest only offer a mix of three...
"Hangars & Habs, Galleria & Cargo Deck", or
"Hangars & Habs, Galleria & Refinery".

Interesting and makes sense as they are a gateway station between systems.

Jump Point Station

One other thing that brought back the ghost of my feelings for EVE... at the Stanton-Pyro JPoint, when I was spooling up Quantum, ALL the warpables, the planets, moons, stations, etc, etc. in Stanton are clustered together off to one side... you are on the edge of deep space outside of the Stanton system.  I remember that feeling from the Deep Safe's we once made in EVE.  Ahhhhhh.... memories.

There is ALL of Stanton system... a familiar sight from my EVE days.

One last thing I want to say.

I do not hate EVE Online or CCP... I played that game intensively and exclusively for 10 YEARS. I loved EVE... I truly did, but

ALL of their advertising now has "people" in it. ie Characters... 'toons... Avatars... "Capsuleers"... walking and talking and being PEOPLE in the world and that type of gameplay... FPS (the First Person Shooter perspective) simply does not exist in EVE, and it never has.

In the end for me, one reason I "won" EVE in 2020 was the repeated sad and ultimately failed attempts to bring FPS gameplay to EVE. DUST 415, Valkyrie, Project NOVA, etc. The other reason was discovering the AMAZING FPS gameplay available in Star Citizen.

I spent 10 years wishing I could be ME in New Eden. That I could opt out of the POD-Person meta and be myself in New Eden. WIS, "Walking In Stations" the very first attempt by CCP to bring First Person gameplay to EVE, and it was the worst attempt they ever made.

The "Incarna" Expansion brought what was, at the time, a truly ground breaking Character Creator giving EVE, for a very brief period, the best Avatar creator in gaming... but combine that with the absolute LACK of any REAL Content to utilize that amazing FPS Avatar IN... Well, all we got was a few different apartment layouts, each with a balcony view. That was it.

ALL we in EVE ever had, for the 10 years I played and still today, after 20 years total... is this

Your Portrait on the wall...

...and thousands of wartorn, flash-frozen, burnt up, charred and nude corpsicles...  that's it.

This is the TOTALITY of  FPS gameplay in EVE.
(I have Cargo Containers FILLED with corpses...)

I know this Turamarth wasn't happy...

But this older Turamarth...  now this guy is content.

Fly it like it's REAL... and I hope to see you in my sky!

=/|)=

Dying Sucks... But it'sa Living

~or  The Strange Case of Me and My Many Corpses

Yup...  that's me...  (sigh)

I have settled down into a simple, sweet, very lucrative and yet decidedly deadly pattern of late.

But First...
"Location, location, location!" Where you live is important so I have moved. I finally took a hard look and realized that Hurston is the closest planet to the sun... ie the most "central" world... therefore it has the shortest flight times to ANYWHERE in Stanton... duh.

Hurston Flight Times to planets in Stanton

So I moved there and I did not reset my toon to do so, this is important. A Character Reset (done outside of the client via your RSI Account) allows you to change your Home location.

Your Home location is where all your "stuff" goes by default. All of your ships, subflair (Subscriber Flair items are permanent because "real-world money") and any ingame items that you have purchased (with aUEC) that have survived to date are spawned there after a wipe or after a Toon Reset. And as I decided not to do a reset, I had to MOVE all of my ships and ALL of my stuff... by hand, so to speak.

This is actually really easy as far as the ships go... I went to Everus Harbor, the main space station in geosync orbit over Loreville, Hurston's main, well, only city... then I simply worked my way down my fleet, "claiming" every ship to EvHarbor... boom done. But the rest of my stuff, not so easy.

I warp back to Bajini Point, New Babbage's geosync station over Acrcorp, pull out my trusty Freelancer and start in the laborious, tedious, mind and mouse finger numbing task of draggin' and droppin' EACH and EVERY single damn item... by hand, into my ship's cargo (inventory)... dear gods.

The Future of Stuff...

We are still waiting on the "Cargo Refactor" (Alpha 3.18.0 we hope), whereby we will have REAL Cargo Containers we can actually fill with "stuff" and use to move large amounts of "stuff" around in... you know, like IRL, like in EVE (Yes, I said it!)... and MAN do we NEED those Uhaul Boxes!

But until we get them... Imagine moving from one house to another by walking into your house, picking up EACH THING, no matter how small, walking that one thing out to your truck, placing just that one thing into the truck... then walking back into the house, picking up the next "thing" (no matter how small) and walking that one thing out to your truck, placing it into the truck then... Oh My Gods.

But, in the end and after a massive, nay near fatal case of carpal tunnel had set in... I got it done. I then warped out to EvHarbor and yup... UNLOADED each and every single damn item from my Freelancer into my Local Inventory... and I was home.  =]

Everus Harbor Station, view from the Concourse

As for why, well logistically Hurston is the most central location so flight times are optimum and... I have been splitting my time (6 to 8 hours a day on avg!) really enjoying the amazing content available at Hurston!

OH! Wait! I mean I WOULD enjoy it if we only HAD "real content" in Star Citizen... (that's a nod to all you SC haters out there)  =]

(1)
"Combat Assist Service Beacons", or CASBs are FPF missions.  CASBs are broadcast by NPC 's who are under attack by random pirates. You accept the mission, warp to the marker, engage and take out all "reds".

There are 4 levels of difficulty (Alpha 3.17.3):
I  Combat Assistance - LOW THREAT
-Reward - 1,500 - 9,000 aUEC
-Complete x8 for higher tier
II Combat Assistance - MODERATE THREAT
-Reward - 15,000 - 25,000 aUEC
-Complete x2 for higher tier
III  Combat Assistance - HIGH THREAT
-Reward - 45,000 - 95,000 aUEC
-IV  Combat Assistance - CRITICAL THREAT
333,000 aUEC Reward

(2)
"Assist in Defending Site", or ADS are FPS "Bunker" missions. As I am now based out of EvHarbor, the merc work is mainly offered by Hurston Security.

Mission Brief:
"A HurSec bunker and personnel are under attack by Nine Tails. HurSec has an open mercenary contract to respond to the location and eliminate any hostiles.

You are cleared to engage with hostiles ONLY. Assault on any HurSec personnel at the site will result in breach of contract, loss of compensation and potentially a Crime Stat."

-HurSec personnel are in Yellow Armor
-HurSec personnel (should) have a "triangle" marker
-Nine Tails personnel are in Purple Gear
-15,000 aUEC Reward

Generally speaking, I wake up and armor up with this basic setup:

Basic FPS/FPF Kit

-Stoneskin Undersuit
-Morozov Heavy Armor
-Gemini "C45" 10mm SMG
(fav of Nine Tails, easy to re-ammo and re-gun)
-Behring BR-2 12 ga., pump action, drum fed Shotgun (also a Nine Tails fav)
-Kastak Arms "Coda" .50 cal revolver (my Fav!)

I fit silencers on everything, grab 4 grenades, 4 magazines for the S45, 4 drums for the BR-2 and 2 reloads for the Coda hand-cannon.

I also take 4 medpens (I don't use a Medgun. It takes too many actions to use, the Medpen takes just 2... "C" + Mouse Click).

Then I pull out whichever ship is not currently needing to be "claimed"... In order of preference,

(1) Anvil, F7C-M Super Hornet
(2) RSI, Scorpius
(3) Drake, Buccaneer

I undock and...

Ok, I gotta digress here for a minute.

Sittin' at "0" at Everus Harbor, waitin' on a mish.  I LOVE THIS SHIT!

I played EVE online for 10 years... 10 YEARS.. and I spent that whole time wishing I could undock and just sit in my ship gazing out of the cockpit canopy, watching the goings on around the space port just as if "I" was actually there.

In EVE you cannot leave your ship. YOU are Canned Space SPAM, A Pressure Packed Pod Pilot... tucked away in a lightless, airless, goo filled, pressurized armored POD, buried deep in the guts of your ship...  sigh.

I hated that, I really did... but SC is THE SHIT!!!!

Chillin' watching the dock from INSIDE... (can't do this in EVE or ED)

Being "there" as "yourself", In Person as 'twere. To walk out onto a station's Concourse and gaze out the armored window-wall. Enjoying the amazing view of the planet, watching the ships come and go... and it all LOOKS and FEELS REAL in every aspect. Amazing!

And none of that damn magical being "Teleported" into the station, like in EVE... And no, SC's physics are not completely and fully "real world"... but they are close enough, and they are a DAMN sight closer to the real than EVE or ED will EVER BE.

This shit ROCKS... 'nough said, back to my irregularly unscheduled rambling...

So... while I am hanging out at "0" outside of EvHarbor I peruse the open contracts. I have been hammering away at the Low Threat CASB's and raised my HurSec Rep enough to unlocked the Med Threat CASB's... moar Pew-Pew FUN and a nice credit bump.

I saved him!  I'm such a giver!

But if I don't see any CASB's (1) close enough and (2) high priced enough (I don't take ANY that are over 100km away and many are around Crusader, too much flight time), so then I check the ADS "Bunker" missions for HurSec and if one is open I take it, warp to the marker, land and do the pew-pew.

This is where the many corpses of Tur come in. You see you don't often leave a body behind when you lose a CASB... it IS Space Combat after all... pretty much if things go BOOM... that's usually it, that first mistake is all you get.

But FPS "boots on the ground" missions are different... you very often DO leave a bloody and slowly cooling and yet well attired and kitted out corpse behind as "you" are re3Dprinted at your re-spawn location... Ev Harbor is mine... remember, where all my ships and stuff is...  =]

Uh huh... me again. Caught from behind...  again... (sigh)

So, I re-suit, re-arm, re-gear, re-ship and re-turn to the site and now I have a serious reason to do it right, to kill them all... I want my STUFF BACK!!

And as long as you don't log out or crash the client your mission should remain active... I mean you only died you know, it's not like you perma-died for reals... (GASP! SHOCK! HORROR!)

Of course all this dying, gettin re3Dprinted, and Leroying back in causes another issue I had not forseen... abandoned ships...  sigh.

Yup... all are mine.   Well, they say the third time is a charm.

But all in all my gaming in SC had been very full and fun and overall quite lucrative seeing as I am basically playing solo... (also something not really supported in EVE).

At an average of 20K to 40K aUEC per Med Threat CASB and 15K aUEC per ADS I can pull down an easy ~100K to 500K creds per night... definitely covers my running costs... Suits, Armor, guns, gear, food, fuel, repairs and ammo with a decent profit left over.

"I got a bad feeling about this..."

All in all I am very satisfied with Star Citizen and the gameplay we have right now in Alpha... and if this is that good now... I cannot begin to imagine what the future and CR and CIG will bring to us in the years to come...

One other thing... I don't just fly missions and run bunkers... oh no. I will often just take off and explore... low-fly at high-speed "Nap of the Earth" style... or I will break out a ground vehicle and roam far and wide.

Recently I took a day off, flew out to Arccorp and found a really beautiful, secluded spot... Man would I LOVE to build a base, or a cabin! here.

A really lovely valley, remote and unspoiled.

I'd build my cabin right here...

Later, on Hurston, I found a lake... and went swimming...  let's see you do THAT in EVE or ED!

I wonder...

Oh yea!!!  The water is FINE!

Swim like it's your own Private Lake
I hope to see YOU in the 'verse!

=/|)=