If your getting into this game and having problems loading, or once the game loads it is so slow it is unplayable, you get single digit fps and near constant game crashes... you need an SSD.

If you honestly want to play the game you need to put the game files on your SSD, if you don't have one, spend $40 on amazon and get yourself one.

I've been trying to get my "gaming enthusiast" friend to play since 2.6 when I got fairly regular framerates and server connection, I watched him rebuild his computer, i7 processor, DDR4 ram the whole shebang... He plugs in a beefy 1070ti plugs it all in and runs the game. After two five minuet loading screens I watched the game crash as his character went through the getting-out-of-bed animation.

Five minutes of moving files onto his SSD later he was getting fairly consistent frames (32-45) and I got to watch him go from cynical nay-sayer to genuinely impressed with the game.

Edit: After a day of way more comment replies that I expected I feel I should clarify a few things

1. (and I thought this really went without saying) this is an Alpha, shit's going to change.
2. No, you dont need an SSD to run SC
3. by "Run the game" I am by no means saying that it is perfect, and that by installing an SSD you will suddenly have 60 fps and no other problems
4. when I say "runs fine" not only is that an opinion, but I use the word "fine" to say 20 fps average and enough time between "random crashes" to complete any one mission.

as an after thought this post's TL;DR should be as follows

right now an SSD is listed as recommended hardware. The game will run better with an SSD. Right NOW the improvement will be vastly noticeable over trying to run the game off of a HDD