This post seeks to advocate for a full wipe of currency and assets accumulated in-game in the Star Citiizen PU by covering the topic end-to-end including defining what a "Wipe" means, quantifying the pros and cons, and making a strong case for the benefits of a wipe on the Alpha development of Star Citizen. -------------------- Why Does Star Citizen Need a Wipe ASAP? What is a wipe? In many online multiplayer games, users accumulate valuables in the form of in-game currencies and inventory items. Many of these online video games have periodic "wipes" which effectively reset the currencies and inventory the entire playerbase have accumulated over time (or since the last wipe). This action typically helps to balance the user population by level-setting the advantages players may have by accumulating in-game currency and items. In some cases the developer of a video game may enforce a wipe following new gameplay additions, mechanic or balance changes, or after overhauls are performed on some aspect of the game. In extreme cases some developers have enforced a wipe following the fix of an economy-impacting exploit. Games that have wipes: Escape from Tarkov (regular wipes occur to drive hype and help test economy changes/balances) Rust (regular wipes occur) Ark: Survival Evolved (regular wipes occur) New World (several wipes have occurred during the development phase of the game to help test economy changes/balances) Destiny (some aspect of wipes have occurred around the use of exploits over time) The Division 2 (some aspect of wipes have occurred around the use of exploits over time) And more… In the case of Star Citizen PU, a wipe includes a hard reset of the following in-game player accumulated assets: In-game bought ships In-game accumulated aUEC and Merits In-game accumulated inventory items (ship components, weapons, armors, etc.) We know from previous communications from CIG that they intend to and plan on performing wipes throughout the alpha development cycle of the PU. Some users have theorized when this will happen: it's highly likely it will occur around the point of time the games designation changes from "Alpha" to "Beta" and when the "Beta" becomes a full-release product. Another leading theory is that CIG will enforce a wipe when the upcoming player-inventory mechanics enter the Alpha. Lately CIG has avoided making any comments around their plans for a wipe at this point in time. As a project-backing community, we the playerbase, need to perform our role of testing and providing feedback to CIG around many aspects of the game…. Including our thoughts on the necessity of an in-game wipe. Why do we need one? The biggest reason we need a wipe right now is to "hard-reset" the in-game economy after the long-term use of several aUEC duplication exploits by many players and orgs. There has been several publicly reported aUEC dupe exploits and likely many more that never reached the public. In 2020 it went as far as a large org setting up macros to hard abuse an aUEC duplication bug that ended up crashing Star Citizen's backend services and locking players out from the game. There are literally hundreds of billions worth of exploited non-legit aUEC out there. A couple months ago a guy on Spectrum was offering 1 billion aUEC to anyone who claimed they were fighting pirates. Several of my friends received several billion aUEC from this particular user. How did he get so much money? It's just a SMALL taste in comparison to how much exploited aUEC is out there collecting dust on peoples accounts. The second biggest reason we need a wipe is to allow a more accurate reflection of the current state of value and economy in the PU. Over the past year MANY changes have occurred to affect the economy including adjustments to mining values, mineral scarcity, addition of refining, overhaul of rewards for bounty hunting, and adjustments to the cost of refueling, repairing, and re-arming. In order for players to properly test all these economy-impacting changes and their impact on player decision making, players need to experience the economy from a clean slate. How can I possibly know if ship claim costs are fair if I have billions of exploited aUEC? How can I possibly know that the adjusted prices of refueling have a positiive or negative impact on gameplay? How can I possibly make a realistic judgement call of bounty hunter profession income if the in game currency is irrelevant because I have so much? The bottom line: It is not at all possible for players to provide realistic and meaningful feedback on the current state of the in-game economy if the supporting currency and assets are totally valueless due to inflation from exploits. Positives More accurate and meaningful feedback to CIG on economy and costs balancing in PU due to players having a far more realistic experience of interacting with costs/rewards Deeper sense of risk vs reward for players engaging with activities on the PU Players will naturally return to in-game available gameloops like mining, cargo, bounty hunting, etc. as they experience the need to accumulate resources to reach goals Players both veteran and new are on a more equal footing as far as financial and tangible assets Players are inspired to group up and test the buffs to multi-crew to accomplish difficult yet rewarding tasks Players experience a sense of opportunity and desire as they form new goals and begin to work towards them in game General hype around the game gets a boost as players are once again excited to play and work towards goals Negatives Players will need to spend time playing the game and grinding/farming out resources again to buy the ships and items they want Did I miss any? It's clear the amount of benefits of a wipe outweigh any perceived negatives of a wipe. What happens after a wipe? I fully expect that following a wipe we will notice a return to normal player behavior: you will notice more miners out looking for rocks, more cargo runners trying to find the next profitable route, more bounty hunters sweating their profits, more pirate groups creating healthy in-game risk by looking to engage with other players, and much more. This is the experience we all want when we sign into the PU, but when the economy is inflated as it is players are not participating in many aspects of the game. I also expect the general sense of hype around the game to skyrocket. In a freshly wiped world there is opportunity to be whoever you want EVERYWHERE. Streamers will be grinding and putting out great content for their viewers, getting people excited to play. PvE activities have new found value and meaning. PvP activities produce the risk to make all other activity exciting and on edge. People are finally excited to be in their ships doing things and working on their goals. How often should wipes occur? This is a totally separate question (or Pandora's Box) that this post does not seek to answer. For the sake of this post, given the current state of the game along it's long-term Alpha development cycle, including the long-time abuse of many economy breaking exploits, we are simply advocating for an immediate wipe at this particular time. Dear CIG, we NEED a wipe ASAP. Do it for Pico. :pico: -------------------- Thanks for taking a moment to read through this overview. I hope it helped make sense of the wipe debate and I hope it made a compelling case for the positive effects of a wipe. Did I forget to include any good points? Let me know in the comments or in a DM! :crab: