Hello everyone, I’ve been a Star Citizen backer for 11 years—oh, and don’t bother checking my profile, relax—this is just one of my five accounts. You might be wondering, “Why so many accounts?” Well, it all started, as I said, many years ago, watching a game that made us dream. That dream of being whatever we wanted—hauler, smuggler, bounty hunter, medic, mechanic, journalist, farmer… you know, all those roles they told us about over the years, along with specialized ships dedicated to those roles: like the Reliant Mako for journalists, the Anvil Crucible for mechanics, the Apollos for medics, the Mercury or Drake Herald for data runners, etc., etc. So each year that passed brought a new profession, and I thought, why not add another account to fully embrace a different profession with each one? Then came the promise of having one NPC available for each game package you owned. Yes, NPCs—something that’s been talked about endlessly over these past 11 or 12 years. They’ve been mentioned, shown functioning… yet, now, not even in patch 1.0 (or maybe in 3, 5, or 10 years—no one knows) will they be available. I remember those times, waiting for every Around the Verse episode hosted by Chris Roberts and Sandy—shows full of info and insight into development and what was coming next. I won’t forget Reverse the Verse and all the other great episodes—it was amazing! Those old CitizenCons showed truly awesome content, like the Quanta system, which in 2019 promised a fully living universe. Or that Bounty Hunting 2.0 demo showing the hunter dragging his bounty onto a Cutlass—how long ago was that now? Five years? So many features have been left behind, and others delayed, like FPS scanning or on-foot repair gameplay (no, the repair missions in Pyro don’t count—don’t joke, that’s not real repair gameplay). Then there’s data running mechanics, player hygiene gameplay, outfit customization… features announced in 2023 that still haven’t come out. Going further back, I remember around 2017 when they told us we’d be able to customize ships with org decals. Back then, magnetic boots also became popular and highly desired—remember those? Things have changed so much, it sometimes doesn’t even feel like Star Citizen anymore. I feel like over the years, everything’s been getting simplified, and this current version of Star Citizen is far from the dream we once fell in love with and trusted completely. Today, Star Citizen feels like just another game in the industry—like if Call of Duty and Rust had a baby, and Star Citizen was born, with uncles named Tarkov and Battlefield. It’s been many years, and we’re still waiting for a final flight system that doesn’t upset flight aces, doesn’t frustrate casuals, and somehow pleases everyone. We’re still waiting for an economy that even begins to make sense—one with a solid foundation and logical consistency. We’re still waiting for a universe that feels alive—full of NPCs and players coming and going, entering and leaving cities and stations. But instead, we still see broken AI at times—clunky and unable to complete even short routes like Lorville to Everus. AI that feels artificially buffed, with ships that have way more HP than they should—maybe to make them seem “tough” or “good,” but I don’t think that’s the right way. Before, the excuse for bad AI was the server. Now, with server meshing, it still performs the same—or worse, as I said earlier, it's overpowered. We still have around 40 ships/vehicles that have been sold but aren’t released yet—and no one knows when they will be. One reason is "they don’t have gameplay." Okay, then why not release the Anvil Crucible, the Tumbril Ranger, or others that do have gameplay, if we bought them years ago? Let’s say they release 4 ships per year—those 40 would take 10 years to deliver! And that doesn’t even count the new ships being worked on and sold for funding purposes, which, I admit, makes sense. But back to the point—I wish we could go back to that magical era, when every Around the Verse felt like waiting for your favorite soccer team to play. When you logged into Star Citizen expecting nothing in return, but were amazed by everything it offered. When the experience wasn’t centered on PvP rewards, when players weren’t forced into one activity or another, when the game wasn’t a permanent warzone. When each roadmap was actually exciting. When you genuinely wanted to invite a friend to discover the project. When the universe truly felt like a space environment—dark and somber, not filled with colors like Valorant or Fortnite. When talks by Todd Pappy or Tony Zurovec filled us with hope for what was coming. And when young devs with ideas pulled from Call of Duty or Rust were nowhere near our dream. I think Star Citizen was a dream that won’t return. We were happy with so little… and we didn’t even realize it. o7