The combination of the Anniversary Sale, Free Fly Weekend and the first planet, have generated a new wave of interest in Star Citizen. The event, which lasted a week, brought in9.5 million dollars in funding and 50+ thousand new backers. That's pretty insane. We've also had a new cadre of streamers join the ranks of players who are regularly featuring Star Citizen gameplay. We've seen visits from Lirik, GiantWaffle, Captain Burke and other multi-game Twitch Partners. Seeing a stream with 35K viewers that isn't a Could Imperium event - whew, that's exciting. I've been enjoying the influx of new Twitch personalities, some of whom are roleplayers. Yes! You can read more about it on Aly's World. Continue reading

I put up a quick post on my Star Citizen website about Alpha 3.3.5 which delivered the first planet to the persistent universe. It's nothing short of stunning, warts and all. The RP bug has hit many players now that we have the first planet with atmosphere - albeit polluted. It's common to see people walking instead of running. Many have ditched the default spacesuits for civilian clothing and I am surprisingly among them. You can read the post and see a quick video here. I hope to return to creating more SC content in the near future. Hurricane season wasn't kind in the south this year. In fact, Hurricane Michael tore through the first floor of my home. We're all safe but the first floor is gutted - everything had to be removed to prevent the possibility of mold. Floors. 3 foot up from all walls. All cabinetry. Gone... Continue reading

Rather slammed at work these days so I haven't had time to post this since finishing the initial prototype. Continuing my love affair with Star Citizen lore and the planned physical universe, I'm automating visual star systems guides, and selected Helios, the 2nd largest star system, as the prototype. Continue reading

I've pulled out the mining content from Casual Citizen 31 and enhanced the video into a Step-by-Step Mining Guide for Alpha 3.2. I hope you enjoy. Alpha 3.2 Step-by-Step Mining Guide - Released to YouTube on Friday, June 29th. Casual Citizen EP 31 Video - Released to YouTube on Thursday, June 28th Casual Citizen EP 31 Audio Only - Released to SoundCloud on Wednesday, June 27th Continue reading

Excitement abounds for Star Citizen Alpha 3.2. In addition to new ships, such as the first luxury yacht to roll out of the showroom, the Origin 600i, we have the first iteration of the mining mechanics. Quality of life improvements is also addressed with updates to the party system and quantum travel. Things are really heating up in the development now, with many new game mechanics and professions slated to be introduced in 2018. Casual Citizen EP 31 - Alpha 3.2 PTU The video version is available here on my YouTube channel An audio-only version can be found here on SoundCloud Continue reading

With Cloud Imperium Games' intention of creating a living breathing universe, it should come as no surprise that options for pure luxury would exist. Alpha 3.2 delivers the first large-scale luxe version of a touring yacht and an exploration ship. The Origin Jumpworks 600i series has rolled out of the factory. Continue reading

Mining has arrived in the Star Citizen alpha. Continue reading

Frostpunk is hands down, one of the best non-MMO games I've played in a long time. It's rare for me to complete RPGs, world-builders, etc. I need the random encounters and small social interactions provided by MMOs. Frostpunk caught my eye because of the steampunk elements, and I'm glad I took a chance on a genre I don't typically play. Continue reading

I had a very enjoyable session this evening playing the second scenario in Frostpunk, The Arks. I'm over the moon from the detailed graphics and animations. Continue reading

I’m an introvert and no, that doesn’t mean I’m at all shy. It’s that social interactions are draining even when they’re pleasant. My source of creativity and energy come from within. I’m not motivated by external interactions. Revitalization comes from being separated - apart from others. I can be alone for very long periods of time without feeling lonely. In fact, I don’t think I’ve ever experienced loneliness. Many years ago, a coworker asked me why all of the paintings in my office were distant landscapes with an isolated element - tree, lighthouse, cabin. I blinked and looked around, never having noticed it myself. My response? “Hrm. Uh, they look relaxing to me,” I shrugged. I wasn’t consciously aware that there was a definition for this preference until I was in my late twenties and participated in a Dale Carnegie team building exercise sponsored by my employer. I just thought... Continue reading

For the past week, I’ve had a fun playing Frostpunk, a new steampunk-inspired survival game by 11 Bit Studios. I’m not into city-building games and the only survival game I played for any length of time was Don’t Starve Together. In this case, it was the steampunk theme that attracted me to it. Continue reading

It's been months since I've blogged or created any content for Star Citizen. Life has been very busy with freelance work, that came about from having created content for Star Citizen. I've had some grueling weeks working my day job and taking on freelance work but I also enjoyed it. If the Angels are listening, it would be great to break into a new career one of these days. I'm slowing things down to consider options. All work and no play is extremely stressful. And while I'm considering options versus working myself to death, I've had time to turn my attention back to gaming. Back to playing a bit of Star Citizen. Alpha 3.1 is live for play-testing and I've been partaking of it the past couple of weeks. It's not perfect and there are few missions I'm interested in doing BUT we've turned a corner. And this little alpha... Continue reading

My newest article discussed the ups and downs of my second attempt at trading in Star Citizen's Alpha 3.0 Patch. My objective was to see how much I could earn doing trading for two hours using one of the smaller ships, the Cutlass Black. Continue reading

Star Citizen Alpha 3.0 has unveiled the first implementation of cargo hauling and trade. At first, I spent time doing a little of both. In the end, I decided to focus more on trading. It suits my preference for ad hoc free wielding gameplay scenarios versus checking off lists for NPCs Continue reading

I sat out two patches due to CPU spikes and what seemed like rampant RAM consumption. It's testing of Alpha on the Private Test Universe, so it's not entirely unexpected to run into memory issues and unoptimized code. Both of which have been addressed EXCEPT my technical problems persisted, as it has for others Continue reading

In Part 1 of my Star Citizen Alpha 3.0 PTU experience, I expressed my concerns about the game in general. Now for the rest of the story. Continue reading

I've been play-testing the newest patch for Star Citizen, Alpha 3.0, on the Private Test Universe. I'll admit up front, this is the first patch that's left me feeling concerned about Star Citizen as a whole. I'm a long time backer with a considerable amount pledged. I'm not worried that the game won't be completed. I'm not concerned about how backer money is being used. I believe that CIG is doing everything in their power to deliver what has been promised. However, the time it's taken to develop and test 3.0 leaves me with the impression, it's a much longer road to hoe than many of us think. Continue reading

It's been a while since I've posted about Star Citizen or produced one of my related shows. It's not because I've lost steam or interest in following the game. I've just been very busy with real life commitments, some of which, are the result of producing my SC content. Continue reading

An easy to use template that helps you formulate the essential elements for defining a cohesive story. This is something I've developed iteratively over the past year of writing short stories in the Star Citizen universe. It's helped to simplify the process and ensure the critical elements of storytelling are in place before I begin writing. You may find this useful for penning fan-fiction, short stories or creating the outline of a story for machinima scripts. This article on my blog explains how to use and access the template. Cheers, hope you find it useful. Continue reading

It's been several years since I've had an MMO to call home. I've played all the AAA MMOs that have come to the NA market. Unfortunately, out of the seemingly endless sea of MMOs, I've tried, the only ones that felt like home for any period of time since my WOW days were GW2, EVE, ROM, WAR and AA. With EVE being the only sci-fi title among them. Continue reading

I just released Star Citizen Nightbus Fiction Collective Volume 1. Whew, that's a mouthful. It's a compilation of the fan-fiction I've written thus far for Star Citizen. It contains the serialized stories that were previously released in NB episodes 1 to 6, plus the narration of Maggie's Origin Story. Star Citizen lore and the upcoming MMO have inspired me to start writing fiction again and I'm enjoying it. As ever, I wish there were more leisure hours in a day to explore all of my hobbies but, I try to make do as I can. Smile Somehow, I'm going to begin making time to resume writing my own fiction while I'm feeling excited and motivated. There's more to come for my NB fan-fiction too. The next two pieces of fiction that will appear alongside my OpEd pieces will be "An A.I.'s Story" and "Murder on the 890 Jump". A.I. will... Continue reading

Story Synopsis: Maggie, a licensed paramour in Croshaw plans a new life in Stanton but a demanding and malevolent client has other ideas. Background: Maggie made her first appearance in The Exterminator. This is her origin story, describing how she ended up in Stanton. Excerpt Maggie rolled away from him, relieved his session was over. She sat up and swung her legs over the side of the bed. It was out of fashion but she wore her hair loose and natural. The auburn waves undulated down below her shoulder blades. She clutched the bed sheet to her chest, about to stand up and wrap them around herself. She stopped when she felt him reach out and rub his knuckles up and down the small of her back. She winced as he slowly traced his fingers along the bruises he’d left there. It took all her composure not to flinch away... Continue reading