I'm Just a Simple Squirrel ....

[SecretSquirrel]

...Who needs help!

I'm an ED player and have been for 3 years or so.

Looking on the rather messy SC website thinking of maybe giving SC a go, a couple of questions percolated to the surface of my mind, like -

Are there only two ships to choose to buy.

Which one is most cost effective.

Whats all the other peripheral stuff at extra cost and is any of it recommended

Do my eyes deceive me but I didn't see any mention of a Joystick, surely Its because I've gone blind. My little podgy squirrel type claws can't operate a keyboard for flight.

[albert]

The minimum requirements to play are a game package which basically is the base game persistent universe and includes a ship. The 2 you read about are the starter ships. On top of that there is a story driven single player game that will kick it all off called Squadron 42 and that is sometimes included within a package certainly the older packs but now it's a stand alone game. In short, a game package with a start ship + squadron 42 gets you all you need to play. Add a decent Pc as well, as it runs shall we say a tad laboured right now on even the high end machines.

[Obsydian]

Yeah, as Albert says, a game package is all you really need, the rest you can get in game (eventually), but there are literally dozens of ships you can buy right now if you have the cash and the desire to do so.

A game package comes with the game itself and a choice of two starter ships, and costs $45 (or the UK equivalent plus the dreaded VAT).

If you want Squadron 42 as well (a stand-alone single-player game - think Wing Commander) that will cost you approx another $15.

S42 is slated to be released before Star Citizen goes gold, but won’t be this year.

A joystick is a god idea for immersion as well as flying, and you can use pretty much whatever you want, although the main proponents are a HOTAS or twin sticks (2 T16000M is the usual setup).

A webcam for FOIP coming in September should also be fun!

Enjoy!

[SecretSquirrel]

I have a Saitek X52 Pro - Is this compatible ?

Which package would you recommend, If the gameplay is anything like ED, the bigger the better and the easier to get them credits. Don't really want to start with ta real basic ship then struggle to bring in the wealth/complete missions

btw I assume gameplay is similar to ED regards principally driven by cash & Missions.

[BrotherTobious]

Yes mate your stick is compatible

[albert]

I have a Saitek X52 Pro - Is this compatible ?

btw I assume gameplay is similar to ED regards principally driven by cash & Missions.

The joystick is not an issue. The fundamental difference between ED and SC is that SC has more need for accurate strafing whereas ED treats that plain more like traditional flight sims (rudder effect). So a joystick isn't necessarily the best option for what I would call spinning your ship on a dime.
Overall the control options are many in SC, you can have as many bits of hardware, mice, joysticks as you feel best to suit you.

Gameplay, well who knows, only thing I can say for sure is SC has spacelegs, FPS, and things to do other than fly a spaceship. The game promises to incorporate more actual doing rather than menu clicking with some story driven missions and ability to team up with friends to do them. If they deliver the basics of that then they already exceed Elite from a depth point of view by some margin.

That said, they are only 25% of the way there right now IMO. But that 25% is impressive especially with v3.2 (alpha).

Package wise, it's about what your willing to spend, I imagine there is still a grind for cash whether you spend £300 or £40, it's not a race and paying won't help you win anything other than have inventory on day 1. You may want to buy a cheaper package and try it out with a ship that is already in the game, and see for yourself before deciding if it's worth further spend. Their model for buying items is like a pledge, they charge a lot for ships especially the more advanced ships.

Think enter casino, have X amount I can afford to lose, spend it on ships and don't worry. Don't spend anything you would miss.

[Jamoe]

Well put Albert, the only thing I'd add is that any aUEC (Alpha UEC) you make now gets reset on every major release. So no point in stock piling cash during alpha, it's just there to help testing but it's disconnected from the UEC you would have picked up by buying game packages, ships or UEC from the Pledge store.

https://robertsspaceindustries.com/community/citizen-spotlight/5547-Citizen-Guide-In-Game-Currencies-Explained-UEC-AUEC-amp-REC

[Obsydian]

Which package would you recommend, If the gameplay is anything like ED, the bigger the better and the easier to get them credits. Don't really want to start with ta real basic ship then struggle to bring in the wealth/complete missions

What you need will depend on your priorities in game to be honest.

of the base packages, I have been told that the Mustang is the better ship for combat, but if you’re looking to make money then that means either cargo running or mining right now, although there are fee paying missions which the base ships can be used for.

if you’re into cargo running, then I would suggest upgrading to an Avenget Titan or a Cutlass as all-round ships.  If you want to do mining, then the only choice right now is a Prospector.  For cargo runs only, you’re looking at a Caterpillar, but these are all very expensive ships.

[Lysander]

For what its worth...

If you can afford the basic package go for it.  (I prefer to the Aurora because I think it has more cargo capacity)

Then once your in game I'm sure we can arrange a meet up so you can try our ships and see what you think.  I have a Freelancer (imagine a large white transit van), and two Fighters (Buccaneer and Gladius) which you can take for a spin if we meet each other in game.