I don't feel like a Citizen in SC anymore. I feel like a Hero. That's bad. There's a massive disconnect between the Lore of the game and the actual game itself. The believability of this game has exponentially decreased. To do anything I have to go become a terminator and singlehandedly clear 40 bunkers, haul more cargo than any company ever has, breach and assault a scientific research center, and then buy a burrito. It started out with taking armor out of stores and throwing it in loot boxes with an off chance to find the arms you wanted. Then it moved to weapons shops not selling a good variety anymore, they'll sell you a full auto assault rifle but god forbid you need heavy ordinance. Then Pyro dropped and suddenly the part manufacturers decided "nah we don't want to SELL products anymore, we want to put them in a thunderdome extraction shooter in a lawless system not even associated with the UEE." Then Wikelo came and ship manufacturers decided "nah we don't want to SELL ships, we want to give them to some random alien who REALLY likes shiny rocks, pristine pearls, circuitboards and special minerals from warzones." New weapons getting added produced by a corporation for profit? nah, throw them in like 12 facilities including abandoned mining platforms that are so old they've started to collapse but seemingly no one has ever looted. Last citcon there was talk of a crafting system "so robust you could manufacture ships even better than the megacorporation that produces exclusively this brand of ship if you use better gold than they did". This is so stupid. Unbelievably so. I know you guys are making a game and fair, but you're trying to have a cake and eat it too. You want a space sim that's believable, immersive, things happen for a reason, but also have an extraction shooter for ship parts because? Good lore makes good games. Feeling like you belong in the game makes good games. Good gameplay makes good games. But having a world you can immerse yourself in, feel like a part of something larger, that makes great games, SC has rapidly ran away from this. Maybe I'm a nerd for this but, would it kill you to run ideas past the narrative team before jamming it in somewhere just because? Corporations sell things. They sell for profit. Gun, ship, part, armor, etc. They want money. Reputation lock stuff like the polaris and military equipment behind CDF/BHG/Xeno rep or something I don't care, but don't take shit away for the sake of "gameplay" when it directly contradicts not only your lore, but real life reason. Just to clarify; I'm not asking to be John Doe working a factory job on Hurston. We're already "rich" by owning spaceships. I am asking that what we do, who sells things, why they're sold, makes sense outside of "go kill 70 people and I'll send you 200k so you can fund your trip to the death arena" Edit: HOLY SHIT MISSION GIVERS I TOTALLY FORGOT ABOUT THEM (so did CIG). They added so much to the game, a voice acted, facial rigged, mission giver you had to meet in person to actually get their mission was so cool. I miss them dearly. I don't remember the last time they actually worked, 4.0 at the bare minimum, more than likely earlier than that though. That made me feel grounded to the universe almost as much as all the rest of it too. It's the small things that really make you feel like you belong.