The space online game Star Citizen has received an update to version Alpha 3.10. With “Flight & Fight”, space combat has been overhauled and a video shows you what it looks like now.
What’s new in Alpha 3.10? The new update Alpha 3.10, which appeared just before the highly anticipated Alpha 4.0, is quite extensive but mainly addresses a particularly important aspect of Star Citizen – space combat.
These are now implemented in a more intense and cooler way through a revamp. The developers even say that the battles are now closer to what they originally envisioned for the game.
In the gameplay trailer, you can see how the battles now unfold.
Better fights and flight mechanics
What exactly is changing? The biggest changes concern the dynamic flight mechanics and the ship combat itself. Together, these are expected to lead to more spectacular and “cinematic” space battles.
- Dynamic flight mechanics: The flight behavior of the spacecraft has been adjusted. For example, in relation to the efficiency of the thrusters and wind is also simulated on aerodynamic surfaces. It is said that if you steer a ship with streamlined wings through an atmosphere, it feels different than in previous Alphas. Each ship is now said to feel a bit different and unique.
- Improvements to the fights: To make the battles even more intense, pilots are rewarded for flying at lower speeds. Missiles lock onto targets faster and generally you have more disadvantages at high speeds. This is intended to make dogfights among the ships more exciting, as you fly slower and can thus engage more intensely. This also applies to the battles between large capital ships.
Star Citizen player TheNOOBIFIER1337 introduces these two features in his video.
What else does the update bring? With the electronic weapons, a new category is making its way into the game, allowing you to zap your opponents with electric shocks.
Additionally, it is now possible via an app for players to trade with each other. The first step is the transfer of money. This feature is expected to be further developed in the future.
With the ROC (Remote Ore Collector), a new vehicle is coming to the game, and there are further improvements to ships and other game systems such as lighting.
Star Citizen fan Citko shows you in his video how the dogfights are now taking place in the game.
There is still a lot to do
What do players think about the new update? There are still some issues, prompting somewhat heated discussions in the community about what the purpose of the test server is if an update is released with a long list of known issues.
However, the new combat and flight system is quite well received, as player crazyrobban54 explains: “Flying is better, it was fun to zip around in my Saber in the atmosphere.”
Since the update was only just deployed a few hours ago, there still prevails the aspect that the update is not fully stable and the developers still have to deliver some patches, as can be seen in the forum.
In addition to Star Citizen, the team is still working on the single-player variant Squadron 42. However, there haven’t been any updates for a while regarding this game, and the beta was supposed to start in the third quarter of 2020. This led to some criticism from fans, urging the developers to provide updates. The developers recently stated the current status of this game.
