Star Citizen has kicked out a bunch of updates and details in what we can only assume was a mad rush from the game’s PR department to turn in its final pieces of work before dashing home for the holidays. There’s a lot of ground to cover, so let’s get started with the bullet points:
- The top story, of course, is the release of alpha 3.12: Assault on Stanton, which brings a number of features that have been talked up over the past few video digests to the multiplayer sandbox like refinery decks, the new Talon and Talon Shrike light fighters, the tractor beam multi-tool attachment, weapon zeroing, better capital ship AI, and an improved mining UI among others.
- Alpha 3.12 also features a dynamic events system that promises unique missions and server-wide activities with every quarterly patch. As a matter of fact, the last episode of Inside Star Citizen for 2020 hints that there will be “a brand-new threat coming to Stanton from another system that will require everyone on all sides to push back.”
- That ISC video, by the way, takes a much deeper look at the final creation of the refinery deck, talking up the work of light, sound, and art designers. It also wraps up the past year’s updates and features.
- The release of alpha 3.12 also heralds the release of a new referral program that gifts all backers a Drake Dragonfly hoverbike for free until January 11th. Recruit a friend to the game, however, and you both get to keep the vehicle forever along with lifetime insurance.
- Star Citizen is also celebrating the holidays with a number of seasonal events including several different contests, free goodies for clicking a link for six days, and discounts on game packs.
- Finally, there’s a cinematic called The Reunion that’s filled with all sorts of Star Wars adventuring vibes and a Crusader Mercury in action.
All of the linked videos can be watched in the embeds below, while patch notes for alpha 3.12 can be found here.
