The video critiques Star Citizen’s refinery mechanics during the resource drive event, highlighting that excessive time is wasted on traveling and non-interactive tasks between mining and refining, leading to hours of inefficient gameplay. The creator suggests improvements like relocating refinery terminals to hangars and adding interactive refining options to make the process more engaging and less time-consuming.
In this video, the creator discusses their experience with refinery trips in Star Citizen during the resource drive event. They note that a significant amount of time is wasted moving between the ship and the refinery terminal due to the current game mechanics. Specifically, after landing, players must either store their ship or detach and store mining bags to refine ore, which involves navigating the station, taking elevators, and running through the refinery to reach the terminal. The entire process, from landing to being back in the pilot seat, takes roughly four minutes and twenty seconds, with only about twenty seconds spent on the actual refining setup.
The creator highlights the inefficiency of this system by calculating the total time required to complete all five tiers of the resource drive for one faction using a prospector ship with increased cargo capacity. According to their rough math, players would need to make between 60 and 120 refinery trips, translating to approximately four to eight hours spent just running around or waiting in elevators. This time investment is considered excessive, especially since the mining itself already takes a significant amount of time, ranging from 10 to 30 minutes.
While the video is not a critique of the resource drive event itself, it focuses on the refinery and station design in Star Citizen. The creator expresses frustration that 90% of the refinery gameplay involves waiting and running, which they feel is a waste of players’ time. They acknowledge that some player actions should take time but question the necessity of spending so much additional time on non-interactive tasks after mining.
To improve the experience, the creator suggests short-term and long-term solutions. In the short term, they propose moving refinery terminals directly into the hangar of refinery stations to eliminate unnecessary travel. For the long term, they recommend making the refinery job setup more interactive by allowing players to choose different refining methods for each mining bag or introducing a minigame where players can combine refining processes to optimize yields and speeds. This approach would make the time spent refining more engaging and meaningful.
The video concludes with an invitation for feedback from the Star Citizen development team and the community. The creator encourages viewers to share their thoughts in the comments and teases a more in-depth video about the resource drive event after its conclusion. They also thank their patrons and channel members for their support and remind viewers to like, comment, and subscribe for more content.