Space means so much to our species- the scientific wonder, the endless exploration, perhaps finding answers to life's greatest questions. Now think about what the Science gameplay loop is almost certainly going to be in Star Citizen: It's going to be a way you craft guns, to shoot at people. Instead of discovering new species or analyzing and selling research data, or exploring some specific part of deep space that no one has been to, making discoveries in physics or chemistry- the little realisms, the vacuum, all of it barely means anything in Star Citizen, it's completely non-existent and what's worse is it feels like they totally lost the intention of pursuing this direction. It feels like they really forgot this is a space game. It's hard putting it into words, because it's more than just "non-combat" although that's obviously the biggest part of it. But even the ship designs lately don't feel "spacey" - the original Carrack felt spacey. The Endeavor has that same intangible, "this isn't just battlefield in space" vibe to it. Even small ships like the Reliant and Aurora had that sense of exploration, travel, and wonder; the Aurora's trailer with the custom cargo, seats and interiors for instance). The 300i that serves basically no function other than just being a luxury sedan. Today there is a flat out zero % chance of getting a ship like that- if it doesnt shoot lasers at something they won't sell it. The Herald is another great example, and almost comically it is now also a missile boat. It felt like space was the setting of this grand adventure, like space itself was a main character almost, and now it's just the medium you traverse before shooting lasers at things, and even quantum is kinda boring, just the same button over and over again- at least Elite:Dangerous had the FSD gameplay which brought some agency to flight. Even mining is shooting lasers at things. Salvage, shoot lasers at things. Cargo, shoot lasers at things (tractor). The mining gadgets were a move in the right direction, but not nearly enough- they needed more horizontal axes of this, different types of gadgets, different attachments, surveying a rock's interior and exterior, really understanding the scifi/lore 'science' behind why rocks behave the way they do. You should be able to mine a rock without a ship even. Imagine attaching a scanning module, getting a randomly generated 3D scan, then lining up drilling beams with different strengths and weaknesses over 3D weak points for an easy crack, or risking volatility for rare crystals deep within, that you would never be able to detect as a lazy prospector pilot. If this sounds too involved, it really isn't- an indie dev would be able to come up with really cool minigames in a day that leans into the space and science side of these loops way more than shooting a laser at it. Cargo should require specific containers and have travel requirements for liquids, gases, and solids. I don't want my luxury whiskey dangling off the side of a beat up Raft- I want it transported in an Origin, with a well-dressed pilot that I know will treat my cargo with respect. I think a lot of us had at least a little bit of Star Trek, The Martian, Expanse, or Interstellar in our heads when we backed. Or even the side of Star Wars that wasn't just the "X-wings shooting at things" scenes. Just the remotest resemblance to real life space travel, it doesn't have to be Kerbal, not even close to it. Am I the only person who at least partially expected some semblance of realism/verisimilitude from this game? Take as many liberties as you need, of course. But just something to actually remind us we're in space, we're hundreds, not thousands of years into the future? Opening a door on your ship and everything not just being ok with it. Airlocks that actually do something. Even Engineering doesn't feel like they gave much thought to the non-combat side of things, instead everything's about penetration and fire, blowing up the other ship's fuse. It could have been about mixing different fuel types, a Nitrous Oxide-inspired fuel injection system, utilizing different frequencies to modulate Shields so that it performs better against Cannons but worse against Repeaters, or better against Ballistics, but worse against Laser. Or hell, better against faster moving projectiles but worse against slow projectiles like Kevlar. Overcharging an Engine to give it more acceleration but worse top speed, or improving every flight characteristic but releasing toxic gas into the ship which eats through spacesuit purification systems. Like doesn't all of this sound cool and... 'Spacey'? Imagine different modules for Engineering terminals that enable Engineers to do different things, like a module that installs a rail-accelerator in ballistic weapons, but it drains shield power to do so- so your engineer is going to want to stay on top of that. The reason this never happens is because they want to overthink and over-engineer everything. These things could be achieved with a simple UI on an MFD or engineering panel. Think about how hard this stuff would be for any existing game to implement. It wouldn't be hard at all. The problem is that it doesn't even seem like they're trying to take things in this direction anymore. Just shoot things and stop asking questions. I'm not a designer at CIG, I dont know what the whole solution is, but if I were paid for it I'd sure as hell figure it out, even within the limitations. You don't need another $500,000,000 to make things more 'sciency'. I just hope CIG realize there are those of us who would prefer things go toward the 'exploration, wonder and science' part of space too. Fun as it is to... shoot lasers at things... Edit: A lot of people are misconstruing this post, saying that it's "pew pew bad" but that's really not even the point. As I said yes it's a part of the problem, but even combat isn't scientific. No penetration, no custom ammo, no 'kinetic' or ballistic behaiours at all. Lasers shouldn't be pulse lasers magically, they should be superheated plasma rounds, laser weapons should be a beam-weapon with a narrow band of 'focus' where it can deal damage (for instance, between 800 and 1000 meters, below or beyond that it does decreasing damage) - my point isn't that combat sucks and we shouldn't have combat. My point is that EVEN THE COMBAT isn't scientific or 'spacey' - it's all just click and shoot. There's no thought given to the "why" behind anything.