StarDreamer

• I can’t simultaneously play a third MMO (already got FFXI and FFXIV)
• X4 custom start allows me to jump to the parts I want to play instantly, no matter if it’s starting wars, flooding the market, dogfighting, etc
• My X4 save is a gzip file: no need to worry about latency after moving to another country etc (my EVE account is locked to a region halfway across the world)
• I don’t have to wait for irl people to do something fun in X4
• The gziped save file is in xml format. If something breaks I can just fix it
• X4 has a huge modding scene for whatever features you want
• X4’s modding tools are super easy to learn: it’s all xml and lua. Took me only 2 hours to figure out how to modify the UI from scratch.

Because it’s in a genre that has no good alternatives?

EVE is spreadsheet simulator, Elite Dangerous is space-truck simulator, NMS is all planets not space, StarField is StarField.

The only viable alternative I found was X4. Even that is slightly different from what Star Citizen promises (it’s more empire management than solo flying in the endgame, vanilla balance is also questionable: you can “luke skywalker” a destroyer with a scout with pure dogfighting skills)