Today Cloud Imperium Games released a new update for Star Citizen, with the goal of addressing some of the issues that have been affecting the game since the launch of Alpha 3.18.
While 3.18 had a fairly rough start, the game's developers have been hard at work fixing things, and the new patch 3.18.1 is the first outcome of that effort. It's now available to download for all backers. You can read the full patch notes on the official Spectrum communication platform alongside an abundant dose of known issues.
It's worth mentioning that character data has been wiped and another wipe is coming when the next update 3.18.2 (which is already in the works and being tested) will be released.
Interestingly, the developers have announced that a Free Fly Event is going to launch tomorrow, April 13, and be available until April 20, providing everyone with a chance to try the new update out with no purchase required.
This isn't exactly out of the goodness of their heart, as it's their intention to street test the game and the new features as intensively as possible, helping them gather more data to identify and fix issues quicker. They also intend to ensure that the game can handle peak-traffic moments, including the Invictus Launch Week Free Fly event coming in late May.
That being said, if you've always wanted to try Star Citizen but aren't sure it's worth your money, tomorrow you'll be able to give it a spin. Do keep in mind that the developers caution that the event could be canceled at the last moment should big problems arise.
In the meanwhile, Star Citizen's growing crowdfunding campaign continues to make progress and the overall tally has just passed $563 million ($563,027,028 at the moment of this writing) pledged from backers.
The number of registered users has also recently passed 4.4 million and it's now at 4,480,569 albeit not all of them are paying since many register accounts to access the popular free fly events that provide a chance to test the game without pledging any money. According to the latest information that creative director Chris Roberts himself shared in October 2022, 1.7 million players are actually paying customers. Of course, that number is a few months old, so it could be higher now.
Full disclosure: the author of this post has backed Star Citizen all the way back when its crowdfunding was first launched in September 2012.