Today Cloud Imperium Games finally released Star Citizen alpha 3.9 to all backers with the title “Locked & Loaded.”
The update adds a ton of content and features to the growing persistent universe of the game including penal gameplay, a unified friend list, the interior of the New Babbage landing zone on Microtech and the moons orbiting around the planet, a new dropship, and more.
Below you can read a list of highlights, while the full patch notes can be found here.
- Unified Friends List: Group play is getting a major upgrade. Moving forward, contacts and friends from Star Citizen Spectrum (CIG’s proprietary out-of-game communications platform) will be unified with in-game contacts. Connecting with fellow pilots and forming parties from either platform has never been easier!
- Klescher Automated Prison: Actions have consequences. Players incapacitated by security forces or bounty hunters will now find themselves serving hard time in prison. Pay off your debt to society by doing manual labor, or make plans for a daring escape.
- New Babbage Landing Zone: This brand-new landing zone and trading hub is now open for business! Located on microTech and home to the company’s flagship store, New Babbage features an extensive transit system with lines connecting all major hubs. Open spaces are enclosed by protective domes, shielding citizens from the planet’s freezing climate while offering spectacular views of frozen lakes and azure skies.
- New Mission – The Price of Freedom: In an all-new mission, some unlucky outlaws have been captured and are catching a ride on a prison transport. Players have been hired to board the ship, fight their way past security, wake these unfortunate individuals from cryosleep, and if possible, eliminate the turncoat who got them captured in the first place.
- New Ship – Esperia Prowler: The Prowler is a near-perfect recreation of the infamous dropship that battled UEE forces throughout the Tevarin Wars. Elegant, advanced, and effective, it embodies the unique Tevarin approach to warfare and organic vehicle design. The Prowler is the first Tevarin-derived ship ever offered on the Human market. Find out more about the Esperia Prowler here.
- New Player Status System: Player immersion reaches new levels, as blizzards and snowstorms are now more than just a visual effect. “Weather locomotion” now provides wind force resistance to player characters and ships in the atmosphere. In addition to monitoring temperature, the new player status system also measures hunger and thirst. Eat and hydrate to stave off starvation and thirst while taking advantage of specially designed suits to maintain an ideal body temperature in harsh environments.
- New Weapon Attachment UI Feature: Ground combat sees major improvements as players can now make adjustments to weapon attachments on the fly without having to navigate through inventory menu systems. Make quick changes to scopes and attachments on the go and stay in the action.
We also get a comment from creative director Chris Roberts himself.
“Our universe continues to evolve and grow, and through the release of Alpha 3.9: Locked Up & Loaded, our players will have the ability to experience more socially driven adventures fueled by exciting new gameplay additions and technology enhancements.
Today’s launch is part of our continued commitment to deliver notable updates on a consistent basis that greatly improve the overall experience in Star Citizen, and we continue to be humbled by the overwhelming support from our active players and community who contribute in making Star Citizen a success.”
Below you can check out a couple of trailers and plenty of screenshots and artwork.
Incidentally, Star Citizen news is a crowdfunded game and the crowdfunding total just passed $279 million.
To be more precise, it’s sitting on $279,043,960 at the moment of this writing. The number of registered accounts has also been updated ato 2,579,191.
As usual, it’s known that not all of them are paying players. The number includes free accounts created for a variety of reasons.
If you want to learn more about Star Citizen, you can read our latest interview focusing on the Cutlass Red and medical gameplay.
For the sake of full disclosure, the author of this article has been a Star Citizen backer since the original Kickstarter campaign several years ago, so you should keep that in mind while reading this article.
