Earlier in the month, we brought you a piece of news showing just how much funding Star Citizen has received. Well hey, we’re back again to amend that information with the latest figures.

The latest numbers are in and it keeps getting bigger and bigger, with no sign of stopping  its upwards trajectory of financial glory. When word first reached us, the game had broken the 50 million mark, sitting at  $51,079,723.

That number has since increased. Now sitting at $51,133,275, the upcoming and hugely ambitious space simulator has gone above and beyond all expectations by not only clearing its initial funding goal, but by smashing it to smithereens and speeding on, completely unhindered.

The excess money shan’t be wasted though, oh no. Now that the game has reached 50 million, the developers are going to be hiring linguists to create actual alien languages for the game. Not just noises like Sim Speak, but actual languages that you can learn to speak (if one were so inclined). You know, like Klingon.

The campaign started back in September of 2013 with a total goal of $2,000,000. Since then, things have ballooned immensely and “the little ship that could” has grown into “the star destroyer that did”.

Star Citizen is currently in development exclusively for Microsoft Windows. It is expected to drop sometime in Q1 of 2015, this is however an estimated date with no confirmation of the window from director Chris Roberts (Wing Commander, Privateer, Freelancer). Star Citizen will be Oculus Rift compatible.

• 1. Development
• 2. Story
• 3. Ships

Development

Development for Star Citizen started at some time in 2011, during this time the game was being developed and ran on a modified version of the Crytek video game engine, CryEngine 3. Like many developers in search of funding, they followed the trend of crowd sourcing funding for the game. They accomplished this by tackling the products on two fronts (coincidently somewhat similar to a Roman battle strategy), using IgnitionDeck on their personal site (IgnitionDeck is a WordPress Plugin that allows crowdfunding) and one week later launching a Kickstarter campaign to help aid the funding process.

Within a very short period of time, the goal amount was surpassed, since then the developers have added additional target goals, upon reaching each goal development for expansion content is guaranteed. Two days before the Kickstarter and IgnitionDeck campaigns came to an end, Star Citizen broke records by becoming the campaign that raised the most funding for a video game, when it raised over 4.2 Million dollars.

In the final two days alone they successfully raised over 2 million dollars. As of June 2013, as funding through the game’s official site continued to pour in they had by this point raised in excess of 10 million dollars. It has since then simply grown larger and larger and has officially been recognized as the most successful crowfunded project ever, having raised over 35 million dollars. This number is expected to only grow larger because donations will be accepted up until the day of release. Money that isn’t used to directly influence the development of the game is expected to be used to maintain the game and keep it running.

The manner in which Star Citizen works is somewhat uncommon in the games industry, but not unheard of and it’s becoming a more frequently used release style. A “Modular” approach to the game is being used, the first such module was titled the Hangar Module, and it was released on August 29th of 2013. This Hangar Module initially allowed backers of the Star Citizen project to explore their own ship.

This was at first done in CryEngine 3, but since then it has been updated to run on a new and modified version of the 4th generation of CryEngine. The idea behind these modular updates and incremental additions is to make things more manageable given the scale of the project, it also allows for quick fixes and patches where required given the compartmentalised nature of the instalments. The updates that follow the Hangar Module will enable players to modify their space craft and invite other players to their Hangars.

The next instalments that have been mentioned in this modular system are:

• The Dogfighting Module – Date: Q1 2014. A limited number of early supporters and backers will be given early access to a playtest of the games combat mechanics wherein they will be able to play against other players.
• The Social/Planetside Module – Date: EST March April 2014. This will enable backers to explore the games 1st person non-combat orientated portions. Go planet side and explore the various shops and bars.
• Squadron 42/Single player Alpha Module – Date: EST August 2014. Unconfirmed details seem to indicate that this will enable players to try the games branching single player portions named Squadron 42.
• Persistent World Beta Module – Date: EST Q4 2014. Unconfirmed details seem to indicate that this will give players the chance to play in a beta version of the games MMO Universe. This will be named Star Citizen.
• Final Release – Date: Q1 2015. This date represents the time that both Squadron 42 and Star Citizen will be launched commercially.

Story

While there is little known about the actual story of Star Citizen; we do know that the game will have a branching single player mode alongside its drop in co-operative modes and multiplayer game modes. This is currently called Squadron 42. Both game modes, Star Citizen and Squadron 42 are set in The Milky Way in the 30th century. The central focus for the game is the UEE (the United Empire of Earth), apparently modelled of the late Roman Empire. Whether or not this will include a Roman-eqsue war machine remains to be seen.

This is however reflected in the games focus on citizenship, a key part of the Roman Empire wherein even a low born man may acquire wealth and prosperity for his family by serving time in a military service, and when you couple this with the current expectation of citizens paying reduced taxes and having easier access to trading with different species, it does lend credence to the late Roman Empire theme. Players interacting with each other will be a main pillar, how players behave in the game will have a dynamic effect on the in game economy.

Ships

The following is a list of ships that are expected to appear in the final release of the game, some may have already been confirmed whilst others are purely speculative and suggested by long standing community members. No official and complete list of ships will be made known until released by the developers, or unless it’s included in an upcoming module. [Please note that it also includes hulls and manufacturers]

• Aegis Dynamics
• Avenger
• Avenger Trainer
• Dogfighter 3000 (Jump Point 5, pg. 29)
• Retaliator
• Overlord
• Starfarer Gemini (Star-G)
• Surveyor
• Anvil Aerospace
• Carrack (Civilian)
• Carrack (Military)
• Devastator
• F7A Hornet
• F7C Hornet
• F7C-S Hornet Ghost
• F7C-R Hornet Tracker
• F7C-M Super Hornet
• F8A (Jump Point 5, pg. 29)
• Gladiator
• Hurricane
• Osprey
• Consolidated Outland
• Mustang
• Drake Interplanetary
• Buccaneer
• Cutlass
• Caterpillar
• Herald
• Light Passenger Liner
• Marauder
• Privateer
• Kruger Intergalactic
• P-52 Merlin
• Musashi Industrial & Starflight Concern
• (MISC)
• Flying Wing
• Fiera
• Freelancer
• Hull A
• Hull B
• Hull C
• Hull C (Discreet)
• Hull D
• Starfarer
• Starfarer (Fuel Refinery)
• Starfarer (Liquid Foodstuff)
• Starfarer (Bulk Goods)
• Origin Jumpworks
• 200 Series
• 300i
• 315P
• 325A
• 350R
• 600 Series
• 890 Jump
• M50
• Roberts Space Industries
• (RSI)
• Aurora Essential (ES)
• Aurora Marque (MR)
• Aurora Clipper (CL)
• Aurora LX
• Aurora Legionnaire (LN)
• Bengal-Class
• Black Widow (Jump Point 5, pg. 29)
• Constellation Mk1
• Constellation Mk2(?)
• Constellation Mk3
• Constellation Mk4 (Jump Point 5, pg. 29)
• Mover Transport
• Orion

Note: This wiki will be updated once we have more information about the game.

Robert Space Industries have announced that Hangar Patch 9 has been released for Star Citizen and it fixes a ton of bugs and features client side persistence. These changes will make sure that whatever changes the player has done to hangar will now be saved. So even if you log off and log in, you will find the changes intact.

The developers have also promised that another patch for the Hangar is due before the end of 2013.

“Patch 9 includes a number of bug fixes, but more importantly it sets the stage to incorporate future hangar changes and other Star Citizen modules currently in development. We know it’s not as exciting as a new ship, but it’s essential for what we have in the works. Another public-facing Hangar patch is coming before the end of the year, and it promises to include more for Citizens to play with,” reads the official statement at Robert Space Industries.

This patch also adds a trophy case. “There are still a few surprises to be found in your hangars today. We’ve added a trophy case to every hangar, which displays several possible things. If you have a Gold Ticket on your account, it will now show up there, as will the RSIZeus model and the 2943 Gamescom trophy. Your fish tanks have also been given a big makeover,” the developers revealed.

Star Citizen is a space trading and combat simulator which is due exclusively for the PC sometime in 2015. Let us know if you have downloaded the patch and are enjoying the latest updates. Sound off in the comments section below, Citizens.