So, for a long time, the important part of talks about "living, breathing universe" was the 90% of population being NPCs, almost undistiguishable from players (or at least, to some degree). Which means, that all those NPCs should be trading, cargo hauling, pirating, etc - so - affecting economy - similarly to players. And that's why we were told that players will not affect economy on global scale significantly. For those who missed that, it was supposed to be performed via background statistical virtual NPCs simulation, with system named "Quanta". Which was actually developed, and even demonstrated live, running real-time simulation of star system economy driven by 100,000 vNPCs on a usual desktop PC. Link: https://robertsspaceindustries.com/comm-link/transmission/18162-Quantum-Quasar-And-Virtual-AI Now, in interview during CitCon, Benoît Beauséjour, Chief Technology Officer at CIG, said the following: Base building, big time. [...] That's a pretty major challenge, but it's really interesting, it's going to change the game a lot, along with crafting. It's going to bring a universe where it's the players who make the economy, and I really think that's the direction the game needs to go in, and we're well on the way to doing that Source: https://www.twitch.tv/videos/2280687172?t=4h50m38s Translation: https://www.reddit.com/r/starcitizen/comments/1g9n68i/interview_with_beno%C3%AEt_beaus%C3%A9jour_at_citcon_2954/ So... if players define the economy globally - how that can work with "9 NPCs per 1 player, undistinguishable from players"? How 10% of population can make the whole economy, while doing almost the same as other 90% of population? Is "NPCs almost undistinguishable from players" still a plan? is "90% of universe population being NPCs" still a plan at all? Is Quanta still a plan? And if yes, what's the place/reason for Quanta in game, where "it's players who make economy"? Does SC move towards EVE model, where NPCs are nothing but dummy decorations, barely scripted for simplest returning fire only, perpetually just staying in mission instances as a mission targets, not affecting anything, and not doing anything, not "living" in universe, and not even appearing anywhere except mission instances?