Today Cloud Imperium Games released a brand-new update for its space simulator Star Citizen, numbered Alpha 4.0.2 and dubbed “Supply or Die.”
The update’s centerpiece is a new event that continues the storyline centered on the Pyro system showcased in yesterday’s video.
Dubbed “Supply or Die” like the update, it focuses on resupplying two different factions, the Citizens for Prosperity and the Headhunters. Players who participate will be able to earn a piece of furniture, the Ravager-212 “Outcast” Twin Shotgun, and a set of “Outcast” skins for the MISC Fortune, Drake Vultur,e and MISC Prospector.
To do so, they’ll have to deliver materials that they can acquire by fighting through PvPvE-focused depots, mining, or salvaging.
That being said, there’s a lot more, mostly focusing on quality-of-life, bug fixing, and overall improvements. It’s part of the new content-driven focus that will characterize Star Citizen throughout 2025, alongside polishing and fixing issues.
You can check out the trailer below.
Further patch notes are as follows:
Features and Gameplay
- Locations
– Planetary Night Brightness Polish Pass
– Biome Streaming Performance Optimizations
– Optimization Pass on Pyro Outposts
- Gameplay
– Greatly Increased Distortion Falloff Times for S4 Power Plants on the Polaris, Reclaimer, and 890j
– Max player look rotation scale for the dedicated tractor tool has been reduced to add a bit more of a weighty feel to heavier items
– Added new distance values to the spawning of salvage ships around rest stops to avoid clean up
- Ships & Vehicles
– Added: Zeus CL and ES (NewDeal Lorville)
– Added: Misc Starlancer MAX (NewDeal Lorville and AstroArmada Area18)
– Flight Markers: Better sorting of essential markers and prioritizing ones closer to center screen
– Added new ship compass with performance improvements
– Retuned the camera shake and vibration effects for spaceships flight while in first person
– Restricted Heartseeker Weapon and Gimbal to only work on the Heartseeker mount
– MISC Fortune: LOD and Art Polish Pass
– Mirai Guardian: LOD Transition Polish.
– Mirai Guardian QI: Insurance Claim Timer and Cost adjustments (12 minutes base – 6180 aUEC 3 minutes expedited)
– MISC Starfarer: Moved the MFDs down to avoid intersecting with Advanced HUD
- Core Tech
– Updated Warning/Info popups in menus to building blocks and adjusted styling, coded colors, and error code wording for more accurate and clear information.
– Further Networking Changes to help reduce long load times
– AI Planet Navigation Performance Polish
– Instance Hangar Performance Optimizations
– Further Lighting and Rogue Entity Performance Polish Pass for Stanton Landing Zones
– Added new distance values to the spawning of salvage ships around rest stops to avoid clean up
– Updated Loading Screen Images
- Arena Commander
– Updated Crew & AI Scoring
– Further Game Mode Specific Fixes
Bug Fixes and Technical Updates
4.0.2 Contains well over 100 Bug and Crash fixes that were occurring in 4.0.1-LIVE, 62 of which originated from the Issue Council.
- Fixed 9 Client Crashes
- Fixed 15 Server Crashes
- Fixed 2 Hybrid Crashes
- Fixed a Client Deadlock
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 that has been in development for over a decade and in alpha for several years. It will be released exclusively for PC at some point in the future.
The crowdfunding total has recently passed $789 million and it’s currently at $789,450,255. The game also has 5,549,964 registered users, albeit not all of them are paid customers. Many simply create an account to enjoy the occasional free-to-play periods.
Incidentally, 2024 was the second-best year ever for Star Citizen’s crowdfunding campaign, missing the record only by roughly one million.
A few months ago, Cloud Imperium Games showcased plenty of features and tech coming to Star Citizen, 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.
A single-player campaign titled Squadron 42 is also in development, 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.
