Star Citizen has had a pretty rough go of things. There have been a lot of delays and issues for various parts of the online sci-fi epic. Squadron 42, the single-player component, has been hit with multiple delays over getting to beta. The game just hasn’t been ready for the public due to a variety of problems. But as they say, many hands make light work. it would appear that more folks are being brought in to help polish the game as it stands. CIG and Firesprite have been working together on various parts of the game since 2019, but seem to have made real strides on Theaters of War.
The 40-player mode has been teased for a while. Players will do battle in a self-contained arena designed to test the limits of their tactics and piloting. Being a combined arms game mode, it’s easy to draw some comparisons to the likes of Planetside, although on a smaller scale. The goal of the mode is to appeal to those looking for something other than a living, breathing, sci-fi universe.
And though it’s a grand vision, there are clearly still many roadblocks. And although the team has made progress, things are still in the early days. There have also been positive outcomes on various promised events, where new addons to the gameplay experience have improved the variety available in Star Citizen. It would look to be the hope that Firesprite showing up to assist on the new mode will speed up progress.
Sean Tracy, Technical Director, Content at Cloud Imperium Games, had a lot to say on the new partnership. “Thanks to the talented team at Firesprite, we’ve managed to work closely together to bring significant improvements to Star Citizen’s Theaters of War mode” she said. The partnership resulted in a bunch of improvements to both Star Citizen and Squadron 42.
Graeme Ankers, Managing Director at Firesprite, sounded pretty excited for the partnership to bear fruit. “We’re so excited to be able to convey what a privilege and a pleasure it’s been to work so closely with Cloud Imperium and develop Theaters of War from the kernel of an idea into a full-fledged experience.” The goal seems to be to offer a new perspective on the gameplay and offer much more refined fun.
The two teams involved in the mode will work to take player feedback as well. The goal is to make a much more interesting game mode that offers the kind of ever-evolving fun that players expect. The combination of cooperative gameplay and fast-paced combat will be hard to balance, but it should be rather worth it.
