Returning player trying to get into crafting. Is it just me or is this system kind of hostile?
I really think that the current crafting/resource quality system is headed down a path that could make Star Citizen worse, not better, and that’s genuinely worrying given how much the future of the game hinges on this loop.
inb4: "it's alpha, systems aren't final" - I know. I pledged in 2020, I survived 3.18, and I remember praying you wouldn't 30K out of a C2 full of cargo. I'm still here because I believe in the potential. But if gather–craft–economy is the core of the future, it needs to be intuitive.
TL;DR my core problem: low-quality mats feel actively bad, not just less valuable. If I'm out mining, I shouldn't be finding resources that craft items *worse* than baseline store-bought gear. That inverts the whole point of participating in the loop. Gatherables should bottom out at neutral, with better quality as the reward.
Here's what I’d consider changing:
Floor the baseline: Common mats should still be worth using for normal crafting or selling. Trust players to decide how much to use vs. sell. Negative modifiers just make the system feel hostile.
Use clean tiers: A simple 1–5 quality system would be far more readable than hidden bands. I should instantly know whether something is filler, decent stock, or premium material.
Make low-tier mats genuinely useful: Let them pad recipes, feed basic crafting, or act as fallback when you're short on higher-end stuff. Right now they're effectively junk unless you're dumping them as commodities or crafting ammo.
Show blueprint sources in-game: If a blueprint is mission, faction, or event-gated, the UI should tell me that outside of the fabricator. I shouldn't need a spreadsheet or community wiki just to know how to get a recipe. The game doesn’t need to spoon feed me, but it should at least give me direction. We already have the mobiglass and the nicknacks section is arguably redundant. Why can’t we have a crafting tab?
Show refinery yield before I commit: If refining is going to significantly shrink my haul, explain why and show expected output upfront. (Possible this already exists and I'm blanking on it)
Make the workflow legible: Even as an enthusiastic player, I can't find a clean, enjoyable path through this system that gives any real sense of progression. It feels like friction designed to pad session length, and that's a reliable recipe for burnout.
Maybe it’s just me, but the whole thing feels like it was designed around scarcity and intentional friction rather than gameplay feel. I really want to see this game succeed because if they can somehow make it work, it’s inarguably going to be cool as fuck. Maybe some day all this will make sense as part of some internal design logic, but right now it feels mostly like a test of how much tedium players will endure to engage with the system.
Edit: removed ugly markdown