Crafting Spaceship

I am excited about crafting, but I am very concerned that if we can craft spaceships in the future, and those spaceships can have AAA quality, then the people who purchase their ships through the web store really are at a huge disadvantage. It would have been better just to get an Aurora and then craft the ships in game, because if you're going to spend hundreds of thousands of dollars on ships that are going to be basically inferior, there is not much point to it.

This becomes even more concerning when you look at how the crafting and manufacturing system is being described for Star Citizen by Cloud Imperium Games. The highest tiers of crafted items, often referred to as AAA quality, appear to require rare materials, advanced facilities, and significant industrial expertise. That means ships produced through large scale player manufacturing could potentially reach a higher quality tier than ships purchased through the official pledge store.

That creates a serious fairness question for backers.

Historically, when customers buy directly from a manufacturer, the expectation is that they are receiving the manufacturer’s highest certified standard. When you buy a car directly from a manufacturer, you do not expect it to be a lower quality version than something assembled later by third parties. The factory version represents the official specification and quality control of the brand.

Ships sold through the pledge store represent factory built vessels from the in universe manufacturers. Because of that, they should logically arrive at the highest manufacturer certified quality available. Crafting could still allow players to specialize their ships, experiment with materials, or tune components for specific roles, but it should not make the original manufacturer ship objectively worse.

There is also a strong argument based on consumer expectations and crowdfunding history. Many backers supported this project years before the crafting system was even discussed. People pledged significant amounts of money specifically to obtain certain ships. If the final gameplay system introduces a situation where those ships are mechanically mid tier compared to player manufactured versions, it creates the perception that early supporters paid premium prices for equipment that is intentionally weaker.

A reasonable solution would be simple. Ships purchased from the store should represent the highest manufacturer certified quality. Crafting should allow specialization, customization, and economic gameplay without making factory ships inferior. This preserves the value of early backer support while still allowing industrial players to build an economy around manufacturing and materials.