StarCitizen:Agent Smith

Agent Smith, or Agent Smithing, refers to temporarily assuming control of a Star Citizen StarCitizen:NPC crew member in order to play with friends wherever they might be. It is named after the character of agent Smith in the Matrix movies.<ref>Star Citizen: Calling All Devs - Escape Pods & Agent Smithing, Star Citizen, YouTube, 11 June 2018</ref><ref name=":0">MyRadar CEO Andy Green interviews Chris Roberts of Star Citizen, MyRadar Weather News, YouTube, 19 december 2018</ref>

It was considered to allow players to take the place of an NPC crew member aboard friends ships if those friends are off somewhere else in the galaxy, in order to have a short term immediate play experience with friends when the player has limited time availability.<ref name=":0" />

StarCitizen:Chris Roberts mentionned that the design was that if someone has 5 game packages, every one of them can be made into an NPC on the player ship or a friend could take control of one.<ref name=":1">Persistent Universe Game Ideas Forum, Star Citizen, YouTube, 31 January 2015</ref>

The mechanic has been misunderstood by some as a more literal interpretation of the character of Agent Smith from the movies, with the player character himself teleporting and replacing an NPC with himself, look and capabilities included. Teleportation of the player character itself in any way, or the replacing of an NPC, was ruled out in June 2018, while temporarily controlling an NPC hasn't been ruled out at the time.<ref>Star Citizen: Reverse the Verse LIVE - A Wild Vulture Appears!, Star Citizen, YouTube, 15 juin 2018</ref> Agent Smithing will not come with special effects of overtaking the body.<ref name=":1" />