Star Citizen launched its latest version 3.7 to all backers recently which brought new features such as shareable missions and caves which players can now mine on foot in FPS mode. The game continues its development and recent functionality added in its regular quarterly drops includes the ability to now be able to rent ships in game. As such, players looking to discover if the game is for them can sign up and play for a week trying out a variety of ships and careers to see if they think the game is worthwhile without spending any money on it. Access the free fly from here.
Additionally for the duration of the free fly, Cloud Imperium Games will also discount introductory packs for new players down to $40. While not as good value as the early game packages in the kickstarter days which included both the multi-player universe (Star Citizen) as well as the single player campaign (Squadron 42), given that Squadron 42 isn’t out yet, Star Citizen represents the only playable element of the games at the moment. Speculation is rife that we’ll learn more about Squadron 42 at CitizenCon in November (I’ll be reporting from the show) although it seems more likely we’ll learn more about it next year when the beta is supposed to launch (currently scheduled for Q3 2020).
In the meantime however, Star Citizen itself keeps going, continuing to raise funds (it now sits at just under $240 million at time of writing).
Star Citizen 3.7 Functionality Details
So what do we have in 3.7? Remember that Star Citizen has already been going for many years and although some are somewhat dismayed that it hasn’t gone gold and released a full game yet, there’s a lot of functionality to enjoy. Arena combat in the form of both ship combat modes (Arena Commander) and FPS (Star Marine) are in game and perform well given the controlled and contained nature of them, however the star of the show is undoubtedly the persistent universe (PU) which has quite a few locations and play styles associated with it.
Expect however that the PU will be busy during the free fly week and the less restrained server sizes and larger universe mean that performance will likely be variable. If you’re struggling to get on a server which has good performance, perhaps try one of the arena modes.
New in 3.7 is the ability to do mining now on foot. Mining is currently the most lucrative career a player can choose in Star Citizen so if you want to earn a reasonable amount and try to rent a lot of ships during the free fly, this is probably going to be your best bet for earnings enough in game currency to be able to rent the ships.
New Features:
- Ship rentals – Players can now rent ships from multiple locations throughout the game with in game credits.
- Mining on foot – Players can get a multi-tool and mining attachment from locations on Area 18, Lorville and Levski.
- Caves for mining – Cave locations with mineable materials now on Daymar, Hurston and Aberdeen.
- Crime stat landing zones – Major landing zones will not allow anyone with a crime stat rating of one or more to land. Rest stops, Port Olisar and Levski will allow anyone with a crime stat up to level 3 to land, but not with a stolen ship. Grim Hex will allow any player to land, even in a stolen ship.
- New investigation mission in caves.
- Shareable missions – Accepted missions have a “share” option to allow everyone in a player’s current party to take part. Upon successful completion of a mission, the payment is split equally among the party members.
- New playable ships – Aegis Vanguard Harbinger, Aegis Vanguard Sentinel, Banu Defender and the RSI Mantis.
- Quantum travel interdiction – From the RSI Mantis, players can prevent other close range players from escaping via quantum travel. Additionally, the RSI Mantis can setup a “Q-snare” 20km bubble which will pull players out of quantum travel if they pass through the snare.
As usual, a bunch of additional minor weapons and bug fixes continue to make their way into the game but I won’t detail them all here. Go to this page for a list of known issues and full functionality in the new drop.
Some interesting stats that CIG released on the game below
About the author: Run Product Management for Aquis stock exchange. Designed, built and managed several market making, algorithmic and aggregation trading systems for most exchange traded asset classes including Equities, FI, FX and Commods cash and derivatives markets as well as multi-venue FX spot. Massive PC gamer!
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