If you guys haven't been following Star Citizen too closely, you might not know there's a free fly going on. What's a free fly Mech? Glad you asked! Basically, you enter a code on the Star Citizen website, it gives you access to the game (in this case, until October 30) and you can buzz around in it for free! I know a lot of people are skeptical about Star Citizen's future. Not too long ago I was as well. I'll leave it up to you to decide when the project's matured enough to earn your support - but this is a chance to get your hands on it completely free. Don't have any ships? That's okay, they're giving you one of the best (and my personal favorite) fighter, the Anvil F7CM Super Hornet! You can play it in Arena Commander to earn rental currency for the custom guns, gimbals, and missiles if you don't like the stock loadout. Interested? Go to robertsspaceindustries.com. If you don't have an account, you can enter in a referral code to have extra money for when the game goes live. My referral code is STAR-JSTD-MP4H. Once you make your account, or while your account is being set up, make sure you enter in the coupon code FALL2016. Your free fly will be activated once that code has been entered. What's in the game now: Spoiler Three "modes": - The Hangar: A hangar mode to view and set up a ship - Arena Commander: A more "arcade" mode. You can either fight arena-style against other players, fight an 18-wave AI PvE raid, or race against players! Of the modes, racing is the best to get currency in once you get the hang of it - Public Universe: An open world mode set in the star system Stanton, around the gas giant Crusader. This will be the final game someday, albeit on a much larger and more complex scale with all the game mechanics, and things like the Hangar and Arena Commander will be embedded in it. It's not just buzzing around in spaceships, as there is a significant first person aspect included as well. Aside from the bugs I find it pretty immersive. In the Public Universe there are quite a few places to explore, you probably won't run out of things to do in the week you'll have in it. There are exploration missions, investigation missions, security guard missions, and even piracy! - On the RSI site, you use your currency from Arena Commander to buy ships for Arena Commander (sadly, not for the open-world solar system) as well as equipment which can be used either in Arena Commander or the Public Universe. Since it is an alpha, you'll see at least a few bugs. But we play Empyrion so we're used to that!
"rental currency" Wait wait wait wait wait... are you saying that upgrades are not purchased, but RENTED? Does this only apply to people doing the "free fly" thing, or to everyone that plays the game?
It applies to everyone in this build of the Alpha. It's an expectation, though not a guarantee, that you can purchase persistent permanent upgrades with aUEC that you earn in the 'verse. So for now, yes. They are rented for 7 periods of 24 hours each, and a period is only activated if you log into Arena Commander. The way it works now you can't even buy them in the game client, you must buy them in the "Electronic Access" store on the Star Citizen site. But they will of course put ship upgrades as a permanent purchase made with ingame currency in the game client.
Why not just do that in the first place? I mean, I'm in love with the design of the Constellation Aquila, and I wouldn't mind a chance to get an up-close look at this game, but "timed items" remind me of some of the worst money-sucking practices of certain Chinese F2P MMOs... this is not a complimentary comparison, mind you. Couple that with the previous statement about the "Electronic Access" cash-shop, and you are painting a very ugly picture here.
The timed items last for a very long time. I believe it was implemented this way because this module, specifically, will work that way in the final game. Lore wise, the Arena Commander module is a simulation developed by Original Systems, and everything that happens there only happens there. The game is still incomplete and the economy won't even be an economy until alpha 3.0, when we'll hopefully be able to buy weapons in game where we will sell cargo. Scrap and salvage is due the patch after that, so they will DEFINITELY have gear purchased permanently in the universe. Besides, getting weapons, missiles and gear with REC is relatively cheap. And Electronic Access is NOT a cash shop, it is where you spend REC, you cannot spend IRL money there at all. They do offer selling UEC, credits which will be present in the final game and can permanently be bought, but everyone agrees that's a bad idea because they're still rebalancing weapons. Their attitude is, "We've raised $129M from people buying virtual starships that don't even exist yet. We don't need to rip people of with micro transactions". They claim that when the game is live, their business model will be the standard $60 for the game - no monthly fees. In terms of micro transactions, UEC is and will be sold, but it's capped so you can't advance too far. They have a bigger budget than most AAA titles at this point, and most people know it, so they know they won't get away with ripping people off.
