The creators of Star Citizen have announced the first major wipe in a while. While they are allowed to keep their expensive ships, players will lose items, money, and reputation – but they are happy about it.
What has happened in Star Citizen? With version Alpha 3.15, the data centers in Star Citizen are getting cleaned up. In Alpha 3.8.2, the developers had announced that something like this could happen, but there has not been such a loss of progress in the last 18 months.
The reset of player progress is explained by the studio with five reasons that the community seems to take well, as most are even happy that their belongings are being taken away.
Star Citizen even announced further wipes in the near future, but the general mood of the player base remains mostly positive, as server wipes essentially benefit the players.
What are the reasons for the wipe? The studio outlines the reasons for the wipe in 5 main factors:
- The long-term progression is to be divided into three. This means that items, money, and reputation will function separately in the future and can be reset individually. For this to be possible, a major wipe is necessary.
- The entire reputation system has undergone a significant overhaul, which can only be implemented through a reset of the old system.
- There seem to be some bugs in the game that prevent account progress and have not been solvable by players themselves so far. The developers hope to fix some of these bugs through the wipe.
- The player base has amassed too much wealth, as there have been hardly any ways to take money away from players. This inevitably leads to inflation in the game, which they want to avoid. Additionally, it helps to observe how fans earn and spend money while developing new systems.
- The main reason is a major overhaul of the entire inventory and item system. It is supposed to fundamentally change how these systems work in Star Citizen and be another step into the universe they envision.
Items, ships, or similar purchased with real money are not affected by the wipe and will remain with the players. Furthermore, fans who helped defend Stanton against the Xeno during the event are also supposed to receive a reward after the wipe.
“I am really happy about the wipe!”
The community takes it easy: Although most players will lose nearly all of their progress from over a year, many are happy with the developer’s decision. Even those who are not particularly thrilled praise the good communication from Star Citizen and saw the wipe coming.
From an outside perspective, it might sound a bit strange that someone is happy when everything is just taken away. But that seems to bother very few, partly because the ships bought with real money can be kept.
This is what the fans are saying: On reddit, the post with the announcement at this time already has over 800 upvotes and a whopping 335 comments, most of which are positive.
- User Professional_Ninja7 writes (via reddit): “I am really happy about the wipe. I have earned some ships that I still don’t use, and I feel so rich right now that I have no desire to grind, but at the same time, it feels like I don’t have what I want. I look forward to working my way back up from the bottom and earning the ships I really want, not the ones I never use.”
- User Pojodan sums it up more briefly and gets almost 300 upvotes (via reddit): “I came into the game expecting inevitable wipes. For me, that works perfectly.”
- User Darkdodger137 is a bit sad (via reddit): “I have to admit, I hate that I will lose my Phoenix. But with the redesign of the inventory, I saw the wipe coming from a mile away. Well, now it’s grinding time again!”
- User BuhoneroxD is also relaxed (via reddit): “It was foreseeable, so I am not angry about it. One thing makes me particularly happy, namely that we still get something for participating in the event.”
Do you play Star Citizen yourself? What do you think of the wipe and the developer’s decision? Can you understand why players are even happy about the wipe? Feel free to share your thoughts in the comments.
Other fans are not happy about the general direction of the game. Star Citizen fan reports developers to the authorities because he is “tired of the lies”.
