CitizenCon 2018: Star Citizen 3.3 update launches to backers, features technical milestone

The keynote at CitizenCon 2018 is underway and one of the big announcements is that the 3.3 alpha update is now live for Star Citizen backers. New playable items in the update include:

One “straight to flyable” ship – the Anvil Valkyrie, a dropship that allows players to easily deploy ground troops or vehicles across large distances. This ship marks one of the first times Star Citizen players can obtain and fly a ship, immediately upon announcement.
Ten other new and re-worked vehicles, including the Aegis Hammerhead, a capital support ship, four new variants of the Consolidated Outland Mustang, adding light freighting, recon, racing and a fighter variant to one of Star Citizen’s “starter ships,” the RSI Constellation Phoenix, a luxury touring vehicle, and four variants of the Tumbril Cyclone that expand this ground vehicles use to anti-aircraft, reconnaissance, racing and military situations and the newly revealed and straight to flyable Anvil Valkyrie, a dropship that allows players to marshal and deploy ground forces across large distances
One new gun, the Kastak Arms – Karna, a powerful assault rifle with charged shot capabilities for extra firepower and two new ship weapons from Hurston Dynamics to give players even more dogfighting options.

Beyond these new additions, the next stage of the game was teased as 3.3 also features an addition to Star Citizen's framework that has huge implications on the future of the ambitious project. That addition is the Object Container Streamer, something those following the game closely will be familiar with. For the uninitiated, this processing tool positively impacts the experience of players by controlling how much of the Star Citizen universe is loaded by the player's CPU. It was instrumental in the new planet and city shown during the keynote, but increases FPS performance on PCs up to 100%. Planet Hurston and Lorville, the planet's main city, will launch to backers over incremental patches.

Another addition is the Face and Voice over IP feature that allows players to connect webcams and control their avatar's facial expressions. This feature is available to all players in the Star Citizen persistent universe. Read up on Star Citizen director Chris Roberts' statements on the game's economy and stay tuned to Shacknews for additional updates as CitizenCon 2018 continues.