A new update has just gone live on Star Citizen.
Dubbed “a transformative patch” by the developers, “Alpha 3.8 – New Frontiers” includes “some major new technology to the Star Citizen Universe”, including new planetary and tools improvements, planetary weather effects, and server-side object container streaming (SOCS), which is a fancy way of saying the server will use less power. Here’s the science bit:
“SOCS will not only improve performance on the server by dynamically loading only what the server needs at that given moment, but more importantly, will enable the game to contain and present exponentially more content to players as it is only updating what it needs to, bringing the dream of a living, breathing universe teeming with experiences one step closer to reality,” the press release states.
The update also adds “huge swathes of new content”, including new frozen planet microTech and new multi-crew mining ship, the Mole. There are also multiple missions designed for cooperative play, and the update also introduces melee combat to Star Citizen, so you can beat stuff up either using melee weapons or just your mighty fists.