40 millones ....

[Luft]

Greetings Citizens,

 

We have reached $34 million in crowd funding… without any special promotion, new ship releases or even LTI! Much of this is because new users are finding Star Citizen and the community you’ve helped create every day. I know that we have loyal backers to thank for that: in addition to making the game possible with funding, you’re introducing your friends and families to Star Citizen.

 

At $34 million, you unlocked the penultimate fan-voted ship role, the MISC Hull C:

 

MISC Hull C (Discreet) – Scaling from small “box trucks†to massive supertankers, the MISC range of cargo hulls (A-D) are the standard goods transporter in human space. Extremely configurable, MISC Hulls can be adapted for most any type of transport job: from standard bulk shipping on the patrolled spacelanes to armored cargo hauling on the frontier. While these pre-configured hulls are primarily used for legitimate purposes, the MISC Hull Cs have recently become the favorite for criminals who modify the ship with advanced sensor shadow technology, quick-decompress holds and a variety of hidden compartments without modifying the ship’s body so it will appear to onlookers as standard everyday transports.

 

Last time, you were asked to vote on a major feature of the next Star Citizen system. The audience resoundingly chose a location on the event horizon of a black hole. As a result, the $36 million stretch goal is the Tamsa System:

 

Tamsa System – Located near the fringe of Banu space, Tamsa System features a massive central star that has collapsed into a black hole. Evidence suggests that there were at least two more planets in the system when the star collapsed before the ensuing black hole engulfed them. Only two planets remain in the system, a chthonian world and a gas giant located far from the black hole’s event horizon. Initial surveys indicate that the two outer planets are slowly being pulled towards the black hole, leaving the two as a risky proposition at best for any sort of colonization.

 

We look forward to showing you more about this system as the locations develop… and the countless others you’ll be exploring in Star Citizen. In the meantime, you can vote on the next location. As with the ship polls, we’ve removed the highest and the lowest options from the previous poll. Now tell us what kind of location you’d like to see next!

 

Pues desde que seguimos de cerca el proyecto de Star Citizen, puede que sea el mayor tiempo en que se invertido para conseguir un nuevo founding goal, y creo que sera la tonica normal, mientras no haya promociones u ofertas como las de la LTI, a lo mejor despues de la alpha se vuelva a disparar un poco la financiacion. Esperaremos.

Como dice la carta de este nuevo streach goal, se ha "desbloqueado" una nueva nave, en este caso un carguero al uso, con muchas posibilidades de modificacion para adaptarse a cualquier tipo de trabajo.

La ultima encuesta que nos hicieron en el anterior streach goal, fue que sistema queriamos ver dentro del juego y vemos que ha triunfado un sistema en claro colapso, con un agujero negro absorviendolo todo, donde solo habra dos planetas, uno de ellos sera un gigante gaseoso alejado de dicho agujero, donde podremos extraer materias primas para refinarlas en combustible. Y como en anteriores cartas, finaliza con una nueva encuesta y nos siguen preguntando que mas sistemas queremos ver en el Universo Persistente.

[Luft]

Greetings Citizens,

 

We just hit $36 million in crowd funding! What’s even more impressive is that we reached this goal while Cloud Imperium was closed for the holidays, without any kind of special “holiday†promotion – pretty staggering and it’s entirely down to the word of mouth and enthusiasm from all of you!

 

I’m happy to report that the Star Citizen Development team will be back on the job as of Monday, revitalized and with an ever-greater determination to do everything to make this the Best Damn Space Sim Ever. Your continued financial support allows us to chase this goal with confidence.

 

Starting on Monday, I’ll be sitting down with the Dogfighting Module team to go over all your feedback from our live demo at the end of the year and schedule the remaining functionality, content and polish we want to achieve before we push it out to all of your hard drives!

 

After this I’ll be making my first visits to our new offices in Manchester and then Austin, where we are holding a summit with all the teams from around the world working on Star Citizen to schedule and coordinate this year’s work in detail.

 

Last but not least, launching The Next Great Starship, exposing some great talent to the community and allowing you to see the process of building ships up close for Star Citizen!

 

I can’t wait to get back to work!

 

At $36 million, you’ve unlocked the first of the backer-voted systems, Tamsa:

 

Tamsa System – Located near the fringe of Banu space, Tamsa System features a massive central star that has collapsed into a black hole. Only two planets remain in the system, a chthonian world and a gas giant located far from the black hole’s event horizon.

 

For the $38 million goal, your votes have selected the “fully aquatic planet†option. Here’s the description of the system we’re creating based on your input:

 

Cano System is home to a G-Type Main Sequence Star that’s almost identical to Earth’s. Of the four planets in the system, only one is inhabited: Carteyna. Located on the edge of habitable zone, Carteyna is a classic waterworld. Fortunately, its planetary axis constantly keeps the northern hemisphere away from the sun, which allowed for the water to freeze into the landmasses used as the initial landing zones in 2587. Multiple attempts have been made to try to convert the thick atmosphere into something breathable, but the process never seemed to stick. In fact, over the years, every time there’s a new technological development in geo-engineering, they test it out here on Carteyna only to yield the same result. Almost fifty years ago, scientists discovered microscopic organisms in the very early phases of life in the depths of the oceans. This caused a massive uproar throughout the UEE at the prospect that they had been attempting to terraform a developing world. Carteyna was immediately placed under the Fair Chance Act. Unfortunately, Humans had been living here for almost over three hundred years and the families that had been here for generations felt that they had earned rights as residents. After years of debate in the political and scientific community, the population was allowed to stay, but only under certain conditions: future terraforming attempts have been outlawed and the Human population has been consolidated to a single arcology to minimize their impact on their environment and the development of whatever species is growing in the deep.

 

Be sure and vote for the penultimate backer-decided system in the poll located below. Remember, these options just represent a small portion of what the additional budget allows us to do with Star Citizen!

 

Thank you for your continued support.

 

In honor of this accomplishment, I’d like to share the result of an aspect of Star Citizen that I think makes us special compared to the normal game development process – involving the community during development to get user feedback early to shape a better game. Here’s the result of a lot Freelancer pilot’s requests now they’ve had some time to get a feel for their ship in the Hangar: a revised design for an updated Freelancer cockpit featuring the greater visibility! And get ready: you’ll be seeing more of the Freelancer in the New Year.

 

— Chris Roberts

 

[Luft]

You’ve pushed Star Citizen to $37 million in crowd funding! And that amount is only one of the numbers I’m having trouble believing today. Let me share another one with you: 4,924. That’s the number of Organizations that have been created since the new system went online less than twelve hours ago. The breadth of the Star Citizen community continues to astonish: you’ve taken up our charge and are creating something truly unique.

 

At $37 million, you’ve unlocked a new star system at the center of a nebula:

 

Tanga System – At the heart of an unusual rectangular planetary nebula, lies Tanga System. The inner planets were engulfed as the star entered the red giant phase. The expanded habitable zone unfroze a small world on the former outer ring and for several hundred million years made it habitable. Life began to emerge and was just reaching a primitive state when the star collapsed into a white dwarf, throwing the planet back into a deep freeze, then blasting the atmosphere away with the resulting planetary nebula. That’s how the system was found: Only two worlds (speculation that there could have been three to four more) but both are dead planets with no atmosphere.

 

The last poll was a hard-fought contest, but it looks like the explorers continue to have an advantage: the winning selection is an “unexplored natural wonder.†As a result, we’re adding a new system (based on a recent, real-world discovery) for you to discover. We intend to stock it with some impressive surprises for the explorers who manage to locate it! Here’s the description:

 

UDS-2943-01-22 System – Breaking news: UEE astrophysicists based at the famed Klavs observatory station have utilized advanced telescopy and other remote sensing technologies to identified a truly unusual star system on the fringes of know space. The object, once thought to be a single massive star, is actually a trinary star consisting of two white dwarfs and an active pulsar orbiting one another. Because of the complex gravitic factors at work, it is now believed that a jump point leading to the system likely exists in or near explored human space. Beyond the bizarre stellar makeup, the composition of the system is all but unknown. Could planets exist in this carefully balanced web? What else might have been drawn there? One thing is certain: the first Citizen to travel to UDS-2943-01-22 will have one hell of a view!

 

Now it’s time to vote for the final system stretch goal, which will be unlocked at $39 million. If past polls are an indication, it should be a close race between the three options. We have some interesting ideas for developing each one, so you can rest assured that whatever you select it will add a cool new facet to the Star Citizen world!

 

Thank you for your continued support. Whether you’re part of a thousand-person Organization or planning to explore the galaxy on your own, 2014 is going to be the biggest year yet for Star Citizen.

 

— Chris Roberts

[Luft]

We’ve done it again! The Star Citizen community has pushed us to another incredible crowd funding goal: $40 million, a number that would have been an impossible dream at the start of the game’s development. I’m constantly amazed by the continued support we receive and how this community manages to grow every day. Since the last milestone we’ve added over 10,000 new citizens! Some say that space sims are niche. I’m not so sure!

 

At $40 million, you unlocked the last of the backer-voted star systems. Since the results of the last poll were so close, we decided to include both of the top two options:

 

Kabal System – The discovery of a new system is always an exciting time. Even the most jaded NavJumpers can’t help entertaining the possibilities for scientific understanding or new species or even a new home that could await them on the other side of a new jump point. The discovery of Kabal was certainly something new. By all outward appearances, the system seemed empty. It was only during when a UEE Surveying team began to assess Kabal III, did they find something disturbing; old uninhabited Tevarin cities. How could an entire Tevarin system escape detection all these years? Did the Tevarin that were assimilated into the UEE know about it? How was it kept a secret? The questions multiplied when a detachment of Marines, sent to secure the planet ended up discovering a cache of old Tevarin war machines. Among the rows and rows of weapons, they made an even more disturbing discovery; some of the technology was made in the last ten years…

 

Oretani System – Oretani was just one of many systems that were being discovered during the rapid Expansion era of the 25th century. The surveyors noticed nothing in the system’s six worlds of immediate importance. Only one planet seemed to be a viable candidate for terraforming. The terraforming Corp that won the bid sent a mid-level team (and their families) into the system to start processing when the only jump point into the system collapsed. Scientists scrambled to figure out a solution, but it was the first time an incident like this had occurred. As years stretched into decades, people studied the area around the former jump point, hoping for a sign that it had reopened, but after time they gave up. After all this time, Oretani is only ever debated among select number of historians. Most believe that without support, the initial terraformers probably died out, but no one really knows what to expect on the other side if that jump point ever reopens.

 

Per tradition, we are announcing the $42 million stretch goal today. 42 is a celebrated number for Star Citizen. Before the crowd funding campaign launched, I teased the game to my oldest fans with the RSI website. To enter you had to guess the password. The hint was “Life, the Universe and Everythingâ€. We expected most Sci-Fans to get the reference to Douglas Adams “Hitch Hikers Guide to the Galaxyâ€. We planned to launch the teaser site 42 days out from the announcement however the realities of web development intervened but we did manage to work in a lasting reference to the project’s humble beginnings by using 42 in the name of the legendary fighter squadron you aspire to join in the single-player adventure, Squadron 42!

WIP Storyboard for mobiGlas DesignWIP Storyboard for mobiGlas Design

 

It’s only appropriate for the $42 million stretch goal that we do something that recognizes the role that the answer to “Life, The Universe and Everything†has played in this amazing journey.

 

Star Citizen’s equivalent of “The Hitch Hikers Guide†is the Observist section of Star Citizen’s Galactapedia.

 

The Galactapedia isn’t a simple wiki or a static how-to guide: it’s going to integrate directly into the game universe and respond in real time as players steer the course of Star Citizen’s world. We envision making the news with an impressive feat in the Galactapedia as a major goal for many players: if you’re the one who finally defeats the Dread Pirate Roberts, charts a new Jump Point or makes the Advocacy’s Most Wanted list, your actions will become memorialized for all time in the Galactapedia! What’s more, the Galactapedia will be available both inside Star Citizen and through the RSI website.

With all of this in mind, we have a few additions to the game and some rewards for our loyal backers at the $42 million level! Read on:

 

Updated Observist Guide – Additional funding from the $42 million level will go to expanding the website area of the Galactapedia: expect to see holographic ships, items and navigation interface in 3D! Imagine admiring your ships or planning your loadouts right here at the RSI website.

 

Explorer-class mobiGlas Rig – Every player who backs before we hit $42 million will start the game with their own, visually distinctive mobiGlas “ExoGlas†rig which can be used to access the Observist at any time. I’ve charged the mobiGlas team with a very difficult task: creating a realistic interface that will help keep your affairs in order in an expansive galaxy that we hope players will expand in unknown directions. It’s almost like building our own in fiction operating system for an imagined future, and it’s very different task than building spaceships. This backer-exclusive mobiGlas kit will come pre-loaded with additional galactic information that new players would ordinarily need to explore or barter to fill out; it’s our way of honoring the information you’ve collected about the Star Citizen universe through the RSI site and community over the past year!

 

Gladius – The Squadron 42 team will develop an additional fighter for the game, the Aegis Dynamics Gladius-class light fighter. The Gladius will be the first fighter built entirely from concept to CryEngine in the UK! Here’s the official description: The Aegis Gladius is the UEE’s reigning light short-range patrol fighter. A single-seat ship with no room for expansion, the Gladius is fast, maneuverable and capable of punching far above its weight. The main advantage to the design is simplicity: cheap to produce, easy to repair and outfit and quick to train new pilots on. The Gladius is an aging design nearing the end of its life-cycle, although iterative updates have kept it the most nimble fighter in the active fleet.

 

Towel – And of course, everyone who backs before we hit $42 million will also receive a towel for their hangar. Don’t explore the galaxy without it!

 

Remember that our stretch goals are examples, ways of showing you how we are improving the game with the additional funding and ways to thank you for your early support. The full impact of each additional dollar is actually felt across the board: the project currently employs over 200 people. As a result, every dollar allows us to support this large team and helps improve Star Citizen in both scope and scale.

 

Thank you for your support, for making this possible. I can’t wait to show you what we have in store for Star Citizen; stay tuned!

 

— Chris Roberts

 

P.S., A number of Citizens have asked why we stopped giving out stretch goal rewards to backers (like the repair bot and the space suit offered early in the campaign.) The truth is, we had so many new features we wanted to discuss that the practice slipped our mind. For the next set of stretch goals, we’re going to give you in-game rewards… and we’re letting you pick what you want. Please vote in the poll below to pick the $43 million unlock reward. The winner will be described in the next Chairman post and the option with the lowest votes will be eliminated from contention!