Today Star Citizen developer Cloud Imperium Games released a new video with an interesting discussion about the much-debated Master Modes, while the game’s crowdfunding has now passed three-quarters of a billion.
We hear that two big implementations that are going to influence Master Modes are going to be crafting and Quantum Boost.
The modes are going to be converted to operator modes with a mode dedicated to fighting and one dedicated to Quantum travel, but some of the restrictions are going to be removed.
The developers intend to move toward one cohesive speed for all operator modes more akin to the current SCM speeds, but crafting will allow to upgrade and specialize ships to achieve higher speeds.
Quantum Boost will content flight speeds with Quantum Travel letting ships fly as fast as 1/10th of Quantum Travel speed.
Basically, the combat side of Master Modes will “broadly stay the same,” but the navigation side will change with the addition of Quantum Boost.
The only limitation that is being retained is that it won’t be possible to retain the shields while with the Quantum Drive active. The operator modes will also be customizable, and weapons will always be active as opposed to the previous solution in which weapons and countermeasures were deactivated while in Nav mode.
Of course, players who don’t want to engage with crafting won’t need to in order to specialize and customize their ships, since they can simply trade with crafters.
The video also explains why the Drake Corsair was nerfed, and mentions that the Crusader Starliner will come after 1.0. The Drake Ironclad is also in production and the twin-engine Hornet seen in Squadron 42 might come to the persistent universe at some point. It’s called the STF7X.
You can watch the full video below. Incidentally, we also see an interesting pair of Katana.
We also get a trailer showing the recently released RSI Polaris.
As mentioned above, there is news from the funding side. Star Citizen has just passed $750 million in crowdfunding ($750,410,250 at the moment of this writing) and counts 5,436,736 registered users.
Of course, many of them aren’t paying customers, as they register accounts to enjoy Free Fly Events like the one that is currently active to celebrate the Intergalactic Aerospace Expo 2954, and you can try the game without spending any money until December 5.
If you’re unfamiliar with Star Citizen, it’s a crowdfunded project directed by Chris Roberts of Wing Commander fame. It’s a multiplayer sandbox space simulator exclusive for PC.
A few weeks ago, we also got to see plenty of features and tech coming to the game, on top of the overall vision for version 1.0, which will be the full release of the game, albeit it doesn’t yet have a date.
The game will also have a single-player campaign titled Squadron 42, starring an exceptional cast of famous actors including Mark Hamill, Henry Cavill, Gary Oldman, Liam Cunningham, Gillian Anderson, and more. Recently we saw plenty of gameplay and learned that it’ll release in 2026.
Since the project has been in development for over a decade, you can also see how Squadron 42 evolved since its first reveals.
Full disclosure: the author of this article has backed Star Citizen’s crowdfunding campaign.
