Star Citizen shows off derelict ships and in-game economy in new videos

Cloud Imperium Games has released two new videos in its Around the Verse series chronicling the ongoing development of Star Citizen (which Chris enjoyed an alpha build of last week). In one, the team show off how derelict spacecraft will be a key part of the game, and in the other they give us the first look at the player-driven economy. 

The idea of exploring abandoned, hulking shells of old space ships is one of the things that appeals to me most about the game. These ships will act as "destinations" that players will reliably be able to visit if they want something to do, the team says in the video, and they'll be both floating in space and on the surface of the procedural-generated planets.

There's "several scenarios" for the derelict ships, too: they might be makeshift homes, they might be overrun with bandits, or they might even be ambushes set up by raiders just waiting for a curious explorer to come along. They'll all be fully explorable by the looks of it, which is great. 

Developers Cloud Imperium Games will deliberately place the ships at specific points on planets as well, and they mention one shipwreck that will be dangling over the edge of a waterfall. Awesome.

Skip to 9:15 in the video below to take a look. 

In the other new video, the team has gone in-depth on the game's economic systems, focusing on kiosks. These are screens at which you buy and sell items outside of shops, refuel, purchase ships and equip items on your craft.

There will be an delivery system for items you buy, which one developer describes as like "ordering through Amazon", where you can tell the kiosk to send your goods directly to your ship, to a cargo area, or to other places in the world. No mention of Kiosk Prime membership though...

The team also talk about commodities in the video: iron, gold, titanium, etc. These items, which players will be able to buy and sell, will be used to build objects in-game. It's early days but it sounds like they'll be the basis for the game's player-driven economy.

Flick to 14:10 in the video below to learn all about it.

Samuel Horti

Samuel Horti is a long-time freelance writer for PC Gamer based in the UK, who loves RPGs and making long lists of games he'll never have time to play.