In this extensive Star Citizen Live session, host Jared Huckaby and Chief Technology Officer Benoit Beausejour (Benwa) provide an in-depth update on the state of Star Citizen’s development, focusing heavily on the “year of playability” initiative set for 2025. They reflect on the past year’s technical challenges and improvements, highlighting significant advancements such as the transition to static server meshing, which has vastly improved server performance and player session lengths. Benwa explains how the development team shifted focus from rapid feature releases to stabilizing and hardening existing systems, resulting in a more stable and enjoyable experience for players despite the ongoing complexity of the game’s sprawling universe.
A major topic of discussion is the organizational and operational changes that enabled these improvements. The introduction of “hero squads”—dedicated teams focused on specific systems like transit and freight elevators—has allowed for more targeted bug fixing and quality assurance. These squads work closely with embedded QA testers who have the authority to halt changes that might introduce regressions, thereby improving code quality and reducing the frequency of new bugs. Additionally, hygiene initiatives aimed at cleaning up error logs and improving error reporting have helped developers focus on meaningful issues, contributing to overall game stability.
The session also delves into the technical aspects of server meshing, explaining the difference between static and dynamic server meshing and how Star Citizen’s 3D server meshing approach is unique compared to other games. The current static server mesh divides the game universe into territories handled by separate servers, improving performance and scalability. The upcoming dynamic server meshing promises even more flexible and efficient distribution of simulation load, allowing servers to be assigned arbitrarily to streaming groups and supporting instancing. This approach is complex but critical for managing Star Citizen’s massive and detailed universe.
Several “big ticket” gameplay issues are addressed, including the notoriously problematic freight elevators, entity cleanup systems, NPC spawn management, and the transit system. Freight elevators have suffered from obstruction bugs, UI desyncs, and platform streaming issues, but the dedicated hero squad and self-healing systems are making progress in resolving these. Entity cleanup improvements have unified multiple cleanup systems to better manage abandoned vehicles and clutter, tuning parameters to balance gameplay and performance. NPC spawning issues are being tackled with a new population manager to prevent overspawning. The transit system is being gradually replaced by a more robust “transport” system, which is already internally used in some locations and aims to support instancing and improve reliability.
Finally, the discussion covers the complex and often frustrating issue of long-term persistence (LTP) of player-owned items, especially ships. Benwa and Jared explain how entitlement records (for purchased items) and LTP records (for in-game earned or stored items) differ and why the current LTP system is fragile and prone to bugs, leading to occasional loss of player assets. The team is working on a new system that will convert earned ships and items into entitlement records, ensuring they persist reliably across patches, similar to purchased items. The show closes with updates on studio integration, a reminder about the upcoming Citizen Direct event focused solely on Star Citizen, and a candid acknowledgment of the challenges and ongoing efforts to improve the game’s stability and player experience.
