Summary
- Star Citizen's Alpha 3.24 update focuses on Cargo Empires, adding depth to the item management system.
- Updates include Freight Elevators, personal hangars, hauling missions, and a new ship, the Aegis Sabre Peregrine.
- Players can now store tradeable commodities like gold in boxes, with options for automated Cargo loading.
Star Citizen just dropped a massive update focused on Cargo Empires. Cloud Imperium has been developing Star Citizen since 2011, and now that there is more than a decade of work that has gone into this game, there are plenty of fleshed out systems that players can interact with, including cargo. Despite all of the hard work involved in Star Citizen's release, the game still has no projected release date, but players have been enjoying the Alpha for a while.
It appears that much of the recent work on Star Citizen is focused on implementing large features that give the game's expansive sandbox some more consistency. Star Citizen Alpha update 3.32 upgraded the game's character creator, added hoverbikes, tossed in some wildlife, and expanded on vehicle navigation by including Master Modes for ship operation. Players have been hyped about what would come next, anticipating improvements to the game's Cargo system.
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Star Citizen's Alpha 3.24 update is live. The game's latest major update, Cargo Empires, includes an array of tweaks focused on giving the existing item management system much more depth. Along with overall Cargo management, there are freight elevators to facilitate the storage of various items on ships, persistent personal hangars for player customization, hauling missions, and the new $170 Standalone Ship, the Aegis Sabre Peregrine. Although that price may be shocking to the uninitiated, Star Citizen is no stranger to expensive ships.
Star Citizen will now allow players to store tradeable commodities like gold in boxes. Depending on the size of boxes and overall shipments, player options will be limited, adding a layer of strategy akin to other games focused on inventory management. For players who are not entertained by the Cargo management process, there is automated Cargo loading, which makes ships unavailable, but allocates all resources properly.
Furthermore, hauling missions expand on the game's upgraded focus on Cargo management. The idea described by developers on the Star Citizen website outlines the creation of a "logistics network," creating a fully interactive product distribution process. Players will need to fend off criminal gangs who are interested in taking the cargo for themselves, and this can be done through escort missions, partaking in Star Citizen's space combat as a preventative measure, or choosing to be the one hauling Cargo. Although these may sound like simple systems, there is a lot of detail that has factored into altering Cargo management. Part of the reason Star Citizen is such an expensive release is that there has been a lot of time spent on ensuring the game's many components are integrated, working seamlessly.
Star Citizen Alpha Update 3.24 Patch Notes - Highlights
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Personal & Instanced Hangars
- Introduction of new tech that creates an instance of the player's hangar to allow for uninterrupted management of cargo, inventory, and vehicles. Personal hangars are found at the player's home location and allow for customization and organization of the hangar interior.
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Freight Elevators
- Implementation of systems and content for players to physically load and unload cargo to and from their ships by conveying cargo to and from hangars, landing pads, garages, and docking collars.
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Tractor Beam Use Adjustments
- Tractor Beam use on the multi-tool has had its cargo mass balanced to restrict use to cargo sizes under 24 SCU (multi-tool can no-longer move 24 SCU crates) and to reduce usable distance. Both handheld tractor beams have had their movement speeds reduced.
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Cargo Hauling Missions
- With the introduction of Freight Elevators, we have created a suite of legal missions where players are tasked to move cargo containers between locations. These new hauling missions will generate procedurally across the Stanton system, seeing the player transport goods back and forth to various Jump Points, LEOs, Lagrange Points, Landing Zones, Distribution Centers, and Outposts. These missions can be completed either through the freight elevators in the player’s personal persistent hangar or through the cargo loading areas (currently exclusive to Hull-C pilots).
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Mission Flow
- The current suite includes Cargo Hauling missions of 3 variants: A to B, Multi to Single, and Single to Multi. Each variant can come in 3 different quantity grades: Small-Grade, Supply-Grade, Bulk-Grade. Higher tier hauling missions are reputation gated and will require doing intro and smaller grade missions to progress.
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Commodity Kiosk Updates
- Players can buy different SCU-sized containers via Commodity Kiosk. Upon purchase of commodities, players can chose to automatically load them onto a stored ship at a cost of aUEC for the automatic loading service. This will take an amount of time based on amount and size of boxes, during which the ship will be inaccessible for automatic loading process (information on loading progress is visible on ASOP terminal).
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Item Banks
- Item Bank Kiosks exist in various places in all landing zones and space stations. These kiosks replace the old local inventory. Using these kiosks, players can store, retrieve, and equip FPS items.
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Hangar Decorations
- 3.24 brings decorations into player's hands. These new decorations can be purchased at Kel-To and Dumpers Depot then retreived from their hangar's freight elevator. These decorations can be placed anywhere a player wants in their Hangar and have full interactions like sitting on chairs and couches (caveat that the Ship Platform will delete items stored on the ship elevator while storing ships). Hangar Decoration will persist in personal hangars but will get deleted in staging hangars (Hangars that you don't own outside of your main landing zone)
- Soft Death Breaching Polish
- Set default breach amount for exterior doors to 100% during soft death. Fixed up Cutlass, Freelancer, and Constellation breach amounts.
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Law System Updates
- It is no longer illegal to damage, destroy, tow, scrape, or structurally salvage an unowned vehicle. Made towing hostility only hostile to the owner of the ship. It is no longer illegal to tow ships outside of green zones. Slightly increased the grace period that players are allowed to tow an owned vehicle before they receive a Crime Stat in order to allow blockages to be removed. Added a countdown to the warning for towing.
- Additional Gameplay Updates
- Added Carry lowered FPS weapon keybind (ALT + R)
- Added ESP Dampening Strength Modifiers to Game Settings Tab
- mobiGlas Contract App UI Polish
- Developer(s)
- Cloud Imperium Games Corporation
- Publisher(s)
- Cloud Imperium Games Corporation
- Engine
- star engine
- Multiplayer
- Local Multiplayer
WHERE TO PLAY
Star Citizen gives you unlimited run of the Stanton system, a vast sandbox of life-size planets, moons, cities, space stations, asteroid belts, and more. With unmatched beauty, diversity, and danger in equal measure, you never know what's waiting for you when you take flight.
You can be whoever you want and explore the stars on your own terms. You can mine ore, haul cargo, salvage space wrecks, hunt bounties, become a mercenary, or even take up a life of crime. Fly and drive a vast variety of vehicles and play how you want to play - the possibilities are endless.
How you deal with danger is up to you -- stay safe in the regulated sectors of the system, arm up and tackle threats head-on, or turn to a perilous life of crime and get your cut of the action. Stanton's booming black market offers opportunities to earn a crooked living if a hard day's work isn't for you.
Star Citizen is currently in the "Alpha" stage of development, with each update adding new features, technology, and gameplay to grow and evolve with players.
- Platform(s)
- PC
- Genre(s)
- Shooter, Simulation
