Today, Cloud Imperium Games released update Alpha 4.3 of its growing space game Star Citizen, titled “Dark Territory.”
The poster boy of the patch is the ASD Onyx Facilities, which includes 100 new and abandoned research locations around the Stanton System.
These facilities were once owned by Associated Sciences and Development, and their first two wings are introduced in the patch. Players will be given missions to infiltrate them to retrieve research data.
Not only are they dangerous, but they’re full of mystery and highly disturbing for the faint of heart.
A tech update to mission distribution should send players who take on the same missions to a much wider variety of locations, avoiding overcrowding.
The rewards one can find at Wikelo’s Emporium have been expanded, including new exclusive ships.
3 new hairstyles have been introduced for the fashionistas, on top of new weapons to wield.
Light fighters have been overhauled in several ways to give them more gameplay variety and balance, while the  Drake Golem, Misc Fortune, Mirai Guardian, and Anvil Hornet F7CS Mk II have been added to the in-game shops, alongside the Hornet F7A Ball Turrets.
Speaking of ships, the Kruger L-21 Wolf light fighter has also been implemented.
Dynamic snow has been implemented, while traversal using ladders has been overhauled. On top of that, you can decide to spawn in your personal hangar once again when you’re at you’re home location.
Of course, the patch also comes with a healthy dose of bug fixes and tweaks.
Below, you can check out a trailer introducing the patch. You can also read the full patch notes.
If you’re unfamiliar with Star Citizen, it’s a PC exclusive, 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.
In the meantime, the crowdfunding total continues to grow, and it has recently passed $855 million. To be precise, it’s currently at $855,415,558. The game also has
5,825,631 registered users, albeit not all of them are paying customers. Many simply create an account to enjoy the free-to-play periods.
A single-player campaign titled Squadron 42 is also in active development with a 2026 release window, starring an exceptional cast of famous actors, including Mark Hamill, Henry Cavill, Gary Oldman, Liam Cunningham, Gillian Anderson, and more.
Since the project has been in development for over a decade, you can see how Squadron 42 has evolved since its first reveal.
Full disclosure: the author of this article has backed Star Citizen’s crowdfunding campaign.
