The second day of CitizenCon 2024 started with introducing crafting to Star Citizen, which will allow players to build new items, upgrade existing items, and make things more valuable and more meaningful.
Crafting will be a profession like mining or salvaging, as it requires its own tools. This new profession will allow players to build and upgrade existing things. The materials extracted from mining or salvaging will be crucial for crafters to build or upgrade what they want.
When crafting becomes available, all raw materials in the world, even Kopion Horns, will be refineable. Refined material is the core resource for crafters to work with. In between, trading refined materials with players or NPCs will be a much more beneficial profession than it is now.
The first requirement of crafting, before resources, is a blueprint. Blueprints can be unlocked either by researching or through earning them as a reward for a mission or even buying from somewhere.
Blueprints are not physical items. There will be specific missions to earn them, and once earned, they will be added to the player’s digital library. More than 1,000 blueprints will be available.
Materials will now have a quality factor, that is gained over the process of harvesting and refining. A material that has been mined carefully and put in a slow refining method will preserve a higher quality.
Craftable items will have some unique modifiable item stats. For example, a weapon’s damage rate will be adjustable by the quality of the materials. Even a hotdog’s nutrition rate can change based on its raw materials.
Since blueprints can also be upgraded, crafted items will have tiers based on the blueprints they were made with. Higher-tier items come with more modifiable stats. Upgrading blueprints through research will require tackling certain objectives for each one.
Hopefully, it’s not only about items. Crafting will even expand to vehicles, including ships. Players can either craft new vehicles or upgrade the existing ones to improve their functionality, like faster spooling time or a higher salvage gain from a salvage ship. Crafted ships can be sold to other players!
