I'd throw some money at it because it's amusing at times. But it's not a game, and it's a long long way to go before it gets there.Sadly, I can believe the continued funding, there are hardcore backers who actually believe a game will be released one day. A game which the dardcore backers believes will let them do whatever they want.
These backers are easy to spot as they call SC the best game ever (when it works!), or talk about how there is just one more major hurdle keeping a flood of new content from being released!
That's not to say some people don't enjoy trying to play the tech demo known as SC, but a tech demo is not a game.
Yes, if you're dumb enough to go to Orison. Useless city that takes 10 minutes to get to in real-time (atmo!), 15 minutes to leave (atmo and gravity!), and has... well, nothing. Whale plushies I guess. Can't even sell refined minerals there.Can you visit that building? Can you walk around in it?
No one sane goes to planets. Buggy, slow, laggy, painful, climb out sucks... Everyone sticks to stations unless you're buying a ship or a part that you HAVE to go to a planet for. Orison is the worst, as crusader is a gas giant and you start at 75k m, and have to climb to 150k m to leave.
Planets are one of the biggest failures of Star Citizen - they're places we avoid unless we have to (mining lyria, mostly, or hadenite on Aberdeen).
There's a more fundamental issue though. There are exactly TWO things you can do outside of events to make money right now:
1. Bounty hunt. Same sequence, same enemies, over and over and over and over again. Profitable, easy, takes a heavy fighter to be really effective, but easy to make a ton of cash.
2. Mining. Risky, buggy (fly out and scanners/lasers don't work), can lose you money instead (every crash = 80k in modules gone, have to buy again, at a planet in the current meta), can be really annoying (bugs = quant explosion = new modules!), and once you've mined, you still have to transport it to a planet to sell - which with 30ks is risky AGAIN. A week worth of work can disappear to a server crash. A 100k profit will disappear with a server crash when you have to buy new modules (right now it's 2x Focus III - 40k each - and either surge or a third focus, and surge only works 5 times before it is consumed). At least mining heads stick around - but a character reset nukes those.
And ... that's it. Cargo is broken, and has been for a year or so (20k profit on a multi-hour trip isn't worth it). Events aren't currently running.
Oh and to replace those modules? Take thee to Microtec - at least it's easy to land, but... yeah. Planet bound. Ugh. I stock up. each time I go. Right now I'm breaking even or so with mining.