Star Citizen now has a city in the clouds • Eurogamer.net

Star Citizen has just released its alpha 3.14 update, which adds a cloud city to the space simulation.

The Orison Landing Zone is located on the gas giant Crusader and includes a spaceport, Peace Garden, and other amenities worthy of a sci-fi tourist destination. The trailer is below:

Crusader uses Star Citizen’s initial implementation of Planetary Volumetric Clouds technology. The idea is to render multi-layered volumetric clouds of varying scale in planetary atmospheres. Cloud developer Imperium Games has said that this technology will be extended in the future to add more detail to the existing planets in the game.

Elsewhere, alpha 3.14 adds a new dynamic event, improved power management, radar, sweep and ping, an overhaul of missile guidance and control, a new ship HUD, and a new ship, the RSI Constellation. Taurus, which costs £ 153.60. Truly. As is the case with Star Citizen’s virtual spaceships, the Taurus has its own flashy advertisement in the universe:

As you might expect, revenue skyrocketed when Alpha 3.14 launched yesterday, according to CIG’s own revenue tracker, to $ 169,629 as of August 6.

Star Citizen’s long and controversial development is well documented. As the title of this latest update suggests, it’s still in the alpha stage. In March, the game broke the $ 350 million mark raised from more than three million customers.

More than eight years after starting its initial crowdfunding effort, Star Citizen still does not have a release date, although parts of the game have been released as Early Access. Squadron 42, the single player part of the game, is still in development but has no release date.

Chief developer Chris Roberts has been criticized for years for not releasing the game or providing a target release date. CIG makes money by selling starter packs, subscriptions, and virtual spaceships – some of which cannot currently be piloted in-game. CIG insists that the money pledged goes directly to support development. In May, Star Citizen made $ 13,453,609.

Alpha 3.16, which is tentatively set for Q4 2021, will enhance Orison with more stores and extended services in the city, CIG said. The development roadmap runs through the first quarter of 2022, when the 3.17 alpha is expected to be released. There are currently no target publish windows beyond this.