Star Citizen Alpha 3.21: Mission Ready Update Released Ahead of Upcoming Announcements

The Star Citizen alpha updates continue, adn this time we’re up to alpha 3.21 with the release of a new patch dubbed Mission Ready.

Developer Cloud Imperium Games (CIG) released the update ahead of CitizenCon 2953, a two-day event that promises insight into the future of the controversial space sim.

“CitizenCon is ultimately about our incredible community, and we couldn’t be more thrilled to return with our largest-scale physical event ever, while continuing to support our global community online. We have so many exciting developments and advancements to share that will make this our best CitizenCon to date,” said Chris Roberts, chairman and CEO of CIG and Star Citizen creative director.

“While we look towards the future this weekend, in the present we’re excited to release the Mission Ready update for Star Citizen to our backers today. Supporting both law abiding and criminal gameplay continues to be central to creating emergent gameplay opportunities and are a focus in this update. We’re looking forward to hearing early feedback directly from players this weekend!”

The Mission Ready update is free for Star Citizen players on the Persistent Universe (PU). It expands content and systems with greater risk and rewards for criminally minded pilots, CIG said.

Here are the patch notes for Alpha 3.21: Mission Ready:

• Replication Layer Split Preview: Alpha 3.21: Mission Ready debuts this critical technical milestone, which is vital to moving the PU to a single environment shared by all players simultaneously. This tech is being released in a new Preview Channel, running in parallel with live servers, allowing players to experience and test the latest advancement before it migrates to live servers. This tech is a key milestone on the path to server meshing, Alpha 4.0, and beyond.
• Dropping Bombs with the Crusader A1 Spirit: The A1 Spirit is the first in a new line of mid-sized ships from Crusader Industries. Representing the “point of the spear” for the line, the Spirit series are more advanced ships, purpose-built for career professionals who demand high performance and reliable craftsmanship. Designed to serve primarily as a light bomber capable of dropping devastating payloads, the A1 Spirit’s complement of fixed front-facing weapons, missiles, and rear-facing remote turret don’t leave it reliant on escorts to defend against enemy fighters.
• Two New Missions Dial Up the Risk: Sometimes crime does pay, a lot. But as always, with high pay comes considerable risk. Alpha 3.21 introduces a new outlaw mission to steal evidence from Security Post Kareah, a space station operated by Crusader Industries and the UEE Advocacy to maintain a presence above Cellin. This mission will pit players against security forces as they infiltrate the facility; but the greatest threat might come from other players competing for the same evidence, or who have stolen it and are making their own way out with it in-hand, leading to intense PvP or PvPvE engagements. More risk-averse players can undertake the Retrieve Consignment mission, which sends players to specific underground facilities to track down an item contained within. The seemingly simple mission can go sideways quickly though, as many of these facilities have been overrun with NineTails outlaws that must be dispatched, and their bodies searched to find the necessary item codes to retrieve the mission objective.
• Crusader’s Platform Expansion: Crusader, home to Orison the city in the clouds, is not only home to breathtaking views of commercial shipyards but also occasional raids by Nine Tails pirates. Alpha 3.21 expands the number of platforms across the planet, allowing players to take part in explosive FPS skirmishes at any time. It also supports multiple iterations of the mission simultaneously. Eliminate the hostiles in aerial and FPS combat, reap the rewards, and keep the skies and platforms of Crusader safe for its residents!
• [REDACTED] Ship Ready for Service: A new ship will be revealed during CitizenCon 2953 happening on Oct. 21-22, and will be immediately available to purchase and fly in-game.

Star Citizen crowdfunding began back in 2012 and now, over a decade later, is considered one of the most controversial projects in all video games. Over the years Star Citizen has been called many things, including a scam by those who wonder whether it will ever properly launch. Its virtual space ships, some of which cost hundreds of dollars, are often the focus of criticism.

What cannot be denied is the huge amount of money so far raised by Star Citizen, which CIG displays on its website. At the time of this article’s publication, Star Citizen had raised $612,756,728 from just over 4.8 million accounts.

Wesley is the UK News Editor for IGN. Find him on Twitter at @wyp100. You can reach Wesley at [email protected] or confidentially at [email protected].