Cloud Imperium has released Star Citizen Alpha 3.7 titled ‘Into the Depths’ and it brings with it tons of new content for everyone. The brand new Alpha is bringing massive cave systems to the game for the first time and will also give players the chance to mine for valuable minerals inside these caves. The caves introduce a brand new subterranean level of exploration to the tons of planets and moons.
In the coming playable updates, the developer will introduce a continuous procedural generation of caves which will allow players to explore the never-ending caves on foot and mine as much as they would like. To begin mining, players will be able to scan planetary bodies from orbit to identify caves and then land on the ground to begin their mining operations.
After entering the underground cave systems, players will be able to deploy their brand new Greycat Industrial Pyro multi-tool to look for and mine resources found in that specific cave system. All mined resources are then collected in the player’s inventory which can be later sold to merchants or traded for other goods. New missions specific to caves and their exploration have also been added to the game.
Check out the new trailer detailing the content of the new Star Citizen Alpha 3.7 below.
Chris Roberts, CEO of Cloud Imperium said:
When I first announced Star Citizen I declared ‘I don’t want to build any old game, I want to build a universe.’ Step by step, we’ve been doing that. And a fully breathing universe has a lot more than spaceships and combat. With the addition of caves, non-vehicular mining, personal inventory and a wide variety of minerals and ‘harvestables’ in 3.7, we’re opening up new avenues of adventure, gameplay and commerce. Add to this continued improvements to our revolutionary Face over IP (FOIP) that allows players to drive their avatar’s face as well as to diagetically add the player’s voice into Star Citizen, combined with players now being able to share missions and their rewards, we’re improving the experience of playing with your friends, another key goal of Star Citizen.
The major features added to Star Citizen in Alpha 3.7 include:
New Features
- Cave Environments: Adding another level of exploration to planets and moons, the addition of caves includes tech that will power the creation of future modular locations, VFX and lighting.
- FPS Mining: Players can buy the all-new Greycat Industrial Pyro multi-tool equipped with a mining attachment and find small deposits of minerals in caves, on the surface of planets, and even in asteroid fields. Once activated, they can fracture and collect highly valuable mineral shards to sell for profit.
- Harvestables: Various locations across the Star Citizen universe now contain items that can be harvested, picked up, and used, consumed, or sold as commodities.
- Commodity Inventory: A personal inventory system allowing players to store various commodities, including items bought from kiosks or stores and harvestables discovered in the environment.
- Player Interdiction: Using the new RSI Mantis, outfitted with a Quantum Enforcement device, players can pull both NPC and player-piloted ships abruptly out of quantum travel. Once caught by the Quantum Snare, a dampener prevents the “interdictee” from fleeing.
- Mission Sharing: Allows players to share missions with members of their party, allowing teams to see, track, and complete objectives together while sharing the rewards.
- Ship Rentals: Allows players to rent ships from selected shops via in-game currency, increasing player choice and ship accessibility.
New Vehicles & Weapons
- Banu Defender: The first flyable ship from the Banu alien race, the Defender uses combined technology from species across the galaxy including a number of alien components new to Star Citizen.
- RSI Mantis: Set to debut on the October 10th birthday of the Star Citizen crowdfunding campaign, the Mantis is the game’s first interdiction ship. Interdiction means the Mantis can pull NPC and player-piloted ships out of quantum travel while creating a distortion field that prevents them from fleeing. The Mantis is lightly armed and should be used by players traveling in groups since they can’t always predict what it will “catch” in its quantum “net.”
- Aegis Vanguard Harbinger: The UEE’s long-range fighter/bomber, the Harbinger model converts the Warden’s escape pod into a bomb bay. The Vanguard features extended range and a relatively small profile, allowing it to strike where carrier-based ships or larger strategic bombers cannot.
- Aegis Vanguard Sentinel: The Aegis Vanguard Sentinel is an electronic warfare ship designed to “fight smart” rather than taking enemies head-on.
- Hedeby Salvo Frag Pistol: Slow-firing and heavy-hitting, this pistol can fire charged shots with a flat, shotgun-style blast.
- Kroneg FL-33 Laser Cannon: These high-damage, long-range energy weapons are for the ship pilot looking for versatile weapons at medium and longer ranges.
Quality of Life Fixes & Additional Updates:
- Arena Commander Improvements: Overhauled the Arena Commander experience, with particular focus on re-balancing the Pirate Swarm mode to make it more challenging, with several new boss-fights, and new rewards players accumulate over time.
- Character customizer v2: Improvements to the character customization feature, including iterations on the facial blending system and significant updates to the user interface.
- Human AI Combat v2: Improvements to the AI’s initial reactions to various stimuli (such as seeing an enemy, hearing a sound, etc.) with systemic transitions into those behaviors from normally scheduled activities. Also, AI combat behavior has been refactored to include multiple tactics that can be evaluated and selected according to the situation.
- AI Dogfight Combat v2: A new AI profile for “average ship pilots,” including behavior and skill differentiation by faction (pirates, law enforcement, etc.) to create a more diverse and varied combat experience for players in PVE gameplay.
- Flight Improvements: The all new “proximity assist” feature automatically detects when players fly close to obstacles and will slow the ship’s accelerations down and allow for softer, more fine control and landings. This feature is “intelligent” and based on player-context, automatically activating when needed to ensure players are still able to fly at high speed while low to the ground.
- Weapon Attachments v2: Further development of player-controlled customization for personal weapons, including new attachments to guns such as suppressors, compensators and under-barrel gadgets. This feature will allow for customization of the player’s FPS arsenal in real time.
For more details, you can check out the official patch notes of the Alpha 3.7 patch. You can check out additional details on the new ‘Pirate Swarm’ mode as well.
Are you planning to jump back in Star Citizen to try out the brand new features introduced in the Alpha 3.7? Let us know in the comments section below.
