Rethinking the Reliants

I miss having an active MMO to play. More than just enjoying a wide variety of content, I miss the idle times. Logging in to do brain-on-pause tasks or perch in a favorite location to watch other players, all the while soaking up the atmosphere. For a variety of reasons, one being it’s still in development, Star Citizen can’t consistently supply those moments yet. I considered booting up an old MMO, but the prospect didn’t excite me. Instead, I logged into the 3.4 alpha to find something to do.

Casually Soaking up the Atmosphere

Scrolling through my list of ships, the first criteria that came to mind was a great view. If I’m going to travel around in space to relax, the cockpit vista is an essential component. Choosing between the 600i and the Reliant, captaining the 91.5 meter 600i felt overkill for my purposes. At 14.5 meters, you can’t beat the view from the Reliant’s bubble canopy, the ship’s cockpit HUD ughness aside.

Ship on the launch pad and flight ready, I began my journey by accepting a waste removal mission for the first time. The directions have you visit two different locations and clear three waste containers from each. From Port Olisar to Yela is a quick trip. The Reliant’s thin vertical profile in the third person screams sci-fi. Once in the atmosphere, skimming over the terrain provides stunning scenery. Performing that actual mission tasks was easy and secondary to my motives. I fulfilled a couple of these maintenance type missions then logged off.

During another session, I used Reliant’s small cargo bay to do speculative trading. In doing so, I finally cracked how VerseMate, the fan made commodities site, works. I don’t actually need the money. Consequently, the small payload wasn’t a concern. Using VerseMate, I planned an intentionally short-hop trade route. It was profitable but only just. My flight plan started at Port Olisar where I purchased Medical supplies. From there, a quick ride to Bensen on Yela where I’d sell them the Medical supplies and buy Fluorine. Lastly, fly back to Port Olisar to sell the Fluorine and start again. Due to a bit of server instability and other random bugs, I wanted a limited travel route that got me back to my home station often.

When the mood hit me again, the next adventure I conjured was doing delivery missions to the R&R rest stops. R&R stands for Rest and Relax, the owners of the rest stops located at the Crusader and Hurston Lagrange points. For the first time since the delivery kiosks appeared, I got them to work. Whoray! I’d abandoned them when they first arrived and would refuse to open. Nothing like traveling for ten minutes to have the kiosk reject interaction attempts. I specifically wanted to include the rest stops in at some point since one is featured in an upcoming piece of fiction for Nightbus.

Possibilities of a Reliant Trio

What I appreciated about flying the Reliant Kore was its simplicity. It’s a small ship so getting in and out is hassle free. It’s fast with a lovely view from the cockpit. It supports having a co-pilot seat for a friend. With the extra place, you can also participate in player generated transport beacon requests. I enjoyed the restrained but focused experience, perfect for some idle time.

My recent enjoyment of the Reliant Kore piques my interest in the Sen and Mako variants. The Reliant Sen will be equipped to do science – whatever that’s going to mean in Star Citizen, as well as exploration. The Reliant Mako will be a media ship equipped with components to make it a mobile broadcast vessel. Like real-life news vans, I think it would be fun to capture video and images of the game and what other players’ shenanigans.

While I’m most excited about the robust professions and the intricacies of carrying them out aboard the larger ships, my time and temperament won’t always make those an option. With the Reliant Kore, Sen and Mako, I foresee being able to find entertaining content in short bursts that can be done solo. My version of flying over Goldshire to people watch. Heading to a favorite zone to harvest resources. Dropping a fishing pole in a scenic location. I had planned to melt the Kore. Now I need to decide what to upgrade from or melt when the Sen and the Mako are available for purchase in March, which is when they’ll make their debut in the game.

For more details about the Misc Reliant series, you can take a look at a review I did when they were first announced. The ship has had its size increase since then and I believe the Sen and Mako are getting a bed to accommodate longer excursions. Causal Citizen Episode 18 – The Misc Reliant Series.