Cloud Imperium posts Star Citizen update with explanation on ship insurance

Nothing gets me excited about an upcoming MMO like the mention of a nice, hardcore sandbox feature. The folks at Cloud Imperium Games did exactly that in delivering their most recent update on Star Citizen. While the blog post serves as a general FAQ of sorts, the point of interest to most will be the ship insurance.

Insurance? Why would I need insurance, you might ask? Great question!

In most modern MMOs, the penalty for your character dying or otherwise losing a fight has become increasingly tame over the years. Rare is the long race back to your corpse in hopes of saving your items or gold. 

But in more hardcore and typically sandbox-style games, there's usually much more at risk. In Star Citizen, it's a form of "perma-death" in that if you lose a battle and your ship is destroyed, it's gone. As in, you can't just revive at a graveyard, pay a small penalty and get back on your merry way. Your ship is gone, along with any cargo you had in it. Here's a blurb from the blog:

"Pilots in Star Citizen can purchase insurance policies for their ships, modifications and cargo. This ensures that your ship will be replaced and/or its modifications and cargo will be subsidized should you be destroyed in a fight or accident. As in real life, insurance policies must be maintained: you must pay a regular fee in galactic credits (the in-game currency) or your policy will lapse and you will not receive a payout or a ship replacement when your ship is destroyed."

So, the concept of insurance becomes crystal clear. But what if you don't have insurance? There's an answer for that too:

"Your character will have to buy a new ship with any credits he has, or if he doesn’t have enough credits fly missions for a third party (both NPC and player) until he’s earned enough to buy his own ship again."

If you don't have insurance, you have to buy another ship or work for others to earn enough cash before doing so. Hardcore. Sandbox. Goodness.

Now, I know all of you EVE Online players are quipping things like "welcome to 10 years ago." But the fact that a new high-profile game is taking this approach is good for all fans of the genre, especially us sandbox proponents!

There's lots more to be read over on the official blog, so head on over and give it a read!

Bill "Lethality" Leonard