Star Citizen procedurally generated planet showed off in a Citizen Con video; no Squadron 42 this year

Yesterday the eyes of Star Citizen fans were focused on Citizen Con in Los Angeles. In case you missed that event, you can watch a 2-hours+ long presentation of this huge sci-fi game project. Towards the end of the show a playable demo was showcased, focusing on the results the in-game procedural planet generation system can achieve, which are truly astonishing.

What we can see is just a single, albeit huge, planet with some fantastic-looking landscapes, but there’s more to the footage than that. The character in the video not only explores the planet’s surface, driving a Mako-like rover, but also engages in a mission that involves finding a crashed spacecraft and fighting off the locals (who look much like the Sand People from Star Wars). He also gets to face a massive sandstorm and encounters a giant sand worm. Later on, the planet generation system is explained in more detail, starting from a procedural planetary landing.

But there is bad news too. Chris Roberts confirmed what was rumored about earlier – the single player campaign Squadron 42 is not coming out this year. Although they tried, the developers were unable to have at least one full chapter ready for the Citizen Con (there are 28 chapters, each one to offer multiple ways to complete). About 20 hours worth of cut-scenes was recorded for the story mode, starring famous Hollywood actors, including, but not limited to: Mark Hamill, Gillian Anderson, Gary Oldman, Andy Serkis, and John Rhys-Davies. For now, no release time window was given for Squadron 42.

By the way, the current Star Citizen funding status is well over 127 million dollars, which means fans have pledged one million in the 24 hours that have passed since Citizen Con ended.