Star Citizen Update Alpha 4.5 Adds Much-Awaited Engineering Gameplay and More

Cloud Imperium Games released Update Alpha 4.5 of the growing space simulator Star Citizen, adding a highly-anticipated feature.

The update, which is now available on the live servers, includes the introduction of engineering, which is a vital component of the multi-crew promise of the game.

Basically, players will be able to monitior, repair, and replace components of their ship in flight, adding survivability. On the other hand, said components can also be targeted by enemies, for an additional layer of tactical gameplay.

The addition of Armor is a crucial part of this equation, with the resilience of a ship not just represented by hit points anymore, but by physical armor protecting its components and acting against weapons with different levels of armor penetration.

Further parts of this massive new gameplay features include firefighting, energy management, heat management, and more.

Interestingly, the update also adds an experimental implementation of VR gameplay, on top of improved graphics settings, and much more.

You can check out a trailer below.

Here are the patch notes.

Engineering Gameplay

Resource Network & Engineering Terminal

Ships now feature an engineering terminal providing comprehensive oversight of all ship systems through an interactive 3D schematic.

• Interactive 3D ship schematic with rotatable view and zoom controls
• Color-coded component health indicators:
• Real-time room atmospheric conditions including oxygen levels and temperature Fire alert system with visual indicators and audio warnings
• Door state visualization (open/closed status) with lock controls
• Component search functionality for quick navigation
• Armor health bar displaying overall hull integrity

Power Management System

Ships now operate on a finite power budget distributed from power plants across all major systems.

• Power distribution controls for Shields, Weapons, Thrusters, and Life Support
• Three capacitor types affecting system performance:
• Weapon Capacitor: Affects weapon fire rate
• Shield Capacitor: Affects shield regeneration speed
• Thruster Capacitor: Affects boost capacity and recovery
• Preset system allowing saved power configurations
• Presets can be shared between players via local configuration files
• Status warnings combine low power alerts with critical system warnings

Fuse & Relay System

Fuses are a vital part of the power pips system in most vehicles. When fuses fail, components lose power until replacements are installed.

• Relay boxes distributed throughout ships (1-2 for small ships, 3-4+ for medium/large)
• Damaged fuses visible on engineering screen and physically within relay boxes
• Manual replacement required by accessing relay boxes and physically swapping fuses
• Loss of all fuses in a relay causes power pip loss
• Fuses now available at ship component shops

Component Repair and Replacement System

Damaged components can now be repaired during flight using the handheld repair tools with RMC (Repair Material Composite) attachment.

• Point repair tool beam at damaged components to restore health
• Multiple players can combine repair beams for faster restoration
• Shops now sell fully-filled RMC canisters with New Cambio Lite SRT and Cambio SRT canisters available

Component health affects performance at various thresholds: 100-75% (full performance), 75-50% (minor degradation), 50-25% (significant reduction), 25-10% (severely impaired), 10-1% (critical), 0% (destroyed/non-functional).

Physical components can be removed and replaced during flight on physicalized ships.

• Size 1-2 components replaceable in-flight via component access bays
• Size 3+ components require docking at a station for replacement
• Removed components transfer to player inventory or drop if inventory full
• Non-physicalized ships use Vehicle Loadout Manager at stations

Fire Hazards

Dynamic fire propagation threatens ship integrity and crew safety, requiring active management.

• Fires are triggered by component damage, overheating, electrical shorts, and external weapon ignition
• Fire will propagate between connected rooms with realistic smoke generation
• Fire extinguishers available aboard ships with limited charges that can be refilled by placing back onto their ship
• Room venting removes oxygen to suppress fires (seal room first)
• Life support filters smoke from atmosphere (processing time varies)

Heat Management

Thermal systems now play a critical role in ship operations.

• Components generate heat during operation based on activity level
• Coolers dissipate heat from weapons, thrusters, and other systems
• Damaged coolers reduce heat dissipation proportionally to damage
• Overheating triggers thermal shutdown until temperature normalizes
• High operating temperatures accelerate component wear

Critical Systems & Self-Destruct

Power plant failure now has catastrophic consequences.

• Power plants reaching 0% health have a chance to trigger a self-destruct countdown
• The power plant will receive damage when ship hull goes critical with zero health
• Critical power plants can be repaired with multi-tool to cancel countdown

Ship Armor and Shield System

Ships now feature an armor health pool that reduces incoming damage and weapon penetration.

• Armor percentage modifies weapon penetration linearly (100% armor = no penetration, 0% = maximum)
• Energy weapons deal more damage against armor while ballistic weapons send more damage through armor
• Penetration uses cone-based checking affecting components within impact area
• Penetration damage scales radially from hull impact point
• Armor health bar added to engineering screen UI
• Armor health slightly reduced across all ships for balance
• Unique armor values for military variant differentiation

Loot Refresh & Collector Updates

Major redistribution of rare items across dungeon content with new exclusive rewards for each activity type.

Updated Loot Distribution

DC Delving

• 6 unique weapon attachments

Contested Zones

• 4 unique weapon attachments
• 2 unique weapons + 1 shared weapon
• 3 armor pieces
• Executive Hangar ship rewards

Align and Mine

• 6 shared attachments (with Storm Breaker)
• 3 weapons
• 6 armor tints

Storm Breaker

• 6 shared attachments (with Align and Mine)
• 3 weapons
• 10 armor pieces/tints

Onyx Facilities and Jorrit’s Lab

• 6 shared attachments (Parts 1 & 2)
• Part 1: 3 weapons, 6 armor pieces
• Part 2: 3 weapons, 4 armor pieces

Wikelo Collector Recipe Updates

• 7 New weapons available
• 6 New armor pieces
• Approximately 40 Wikelo variant ships available

Ore Refining Economic Balance

Refining of ores has undergone changes to a smaller volume of yield output (From ~85% to ~45%) while significantly increasing the refined sale price to compensate. Effectively, you can now transport more value of refined ore with smaller SCU space with this latest update. 

The base prices of nearly all commodities have been significantly increased across the board. This affects all major brackets of sandbox commodities. (32/24s, 16s, 8s, and 2s). Price differences within brackets have been pressed closer together in order for dynamic pricing to better influence which goods are optimal. 

Additional Gameplay Updates

• Players can now filter ships using the new ship terminal search bar
• Caves and harvestables now appear via scanning
• Removed empty salvage canisters from loot tables
• Default harvestable interaction changed to “Store” instead of “Carry”
• Increased FPS mineable detection range with new marker configuration

Snub Fighters & Interceptors

Comprehensive rebalancing of small, agile craft for improved combat dynamics.

Affected Ships: MIRAI Fury variants, ORIGIN 85X, KRUGER P-52/P-72, MIRAI Razor variants, ORIGIN M50, AEGIS Avenger variants, ORIGIN 300i series

• SCM and NAV speed values rebalanced for each class
• Linear acceleration (Gs) adjusted to match new performance profiles
• Angular rotation and acceleration values updated
• Critical HP rebalanced with reduced overall durability
• All snub fighters and interceptors receive +10% damage taken from all sources

Racing Ship Flight Adjustments

Dedicated racing variants receive additional modifications to differentiate from combat configurations.

• +20% emissions compared to combat variants
• +5 second Master Mode spool-up time
• +25% boost capacity for extended racing maneuvers

Ship-Specific Adjustments

• MISC Freelancer MIS: Shield Health increased (3720 → 3900)
• MISC Starlancer TAC: Shield Health increased (22800 → 24000)
• 890 Jump: Slight shield health decrease
• Polaris: Slight shield health increase
• Talon: Thruster output increased
• Perseus: Increased weapons and PDT capacitor output, fixed missile controller priorities

Ship Weapon Systems

• S8 Weapons: Damage reduced (8500 → 5400), Ammo reduced (2700 → 900)
• S7 Weapons: Damage reduced (6750 → 4000), Ammo reduced (951 → 800)
• Size 1 BEHR Ballistic Gatling PDC overheat rebalanced
• PDCs now target bombs even when bombs are not flagged as hostile
• Weapon fire rate and ammo balanced to match 4.4.0 baseline
• Shield energy weapon resistances updated (shields take slightly more energy damage)

Physicalized Helmets

Helmets now exist as physical items in the game world with full interaction support and are no longer represented as a box. Helmets can be picked up, rotated, inspected, and carried, attached to your armor hip point when not wearing, or thrown as physical objects.

New Weapon Attachments

Klaus and Werner Optics

• 1x, 1.5x, 2x, and 3x Red Dot Sights
• 2-5x Variable Telescopic Sights (S2)

Volt Optics (50% closer to camera mounting)

• 1x, 2x, and 3x Holographic Sights
• A high intensity VOLT Flashlight is now always on and unable to be turned off

ARMA Barrel Attachments

• 3 Compensator types with S1-S3 sizes
• 2 Suppressor types with S1-S3 sizes
• New Barrel Compensator

FPS Weapon Balance

Prism Volt Shotguns

• Fire rate reduced (450 → 385 RPM)
• Slug firing mode unchanged

Pulverizer

• Damage reduced (31 → 27)
• Aim time increased (0.4s → 0.46s)
• Magazine mass increased (1.6 → 2.2)
• Weapon mass increased (12 → 18)
• Aim recoil adjusted for more consistent fall pattern
• Increased vertical recoil

Custodian

• Reworked spread pattern (reduced minimum spread, adjusted maximum)
• Fixed burst mode recoil behavior when aiming down sights
• Charged burst shots increased (6 → 8)

General FPS Fixes

• Fixed weapon dropping when using medical pen
• Fixed ADS jumping pose on pistols and SMGs

New Player Hairstyles

We have added 3 new hairstyle options to character customization. This includes new mullet and a new triple line mohawk styles and a new “Huckaby” clean cut.

Virtual Reality Support (Experimental)

Initial VR implementation allows players to experience Star Citizen in virtual reality. This feature is experimental and under active development.

Experience the entire Star Citizen universe in virtual reality, from the Main Menu to FPS gameplay to flying your ship and everything in between!

For more information on this experimental mode and further updates, check out our Spectrum thread to discuss this implementation.

• Full VR headset support for gameplay
• VR aim offsets for unlocked and slaved gimbals
• Auto-recenter option for FPS aiming down sights
• Dedicated VR graphics settings
• Multiple VR-specific stability improvements

Note: VR support is experimental. Players may encounter performance issues and bugs not present in standard play.

VR Theater Mode

Toggle between full VR and Theater Mode at any time, giving you the best of both worlds. Theater Mode projects a virtual screen in your headset with full game compatibility using the standard desktop pipeline.

Love flying in VR but prefer traditional controls for FPS? Just press a button to instantly switch between full immersion and Theater Mode, complete with head tracking support. Theater Mode mirrors your desktop resolution, so you can even play in ultra-widescreen in VR without ever removing your headset.

VR Dynamic Switch

Let the engine handle the VR switch automatically. Whenever you put on the headset VR will be enabled on its own. If you take it off you are back in desktop mode!

Note that not all headsets support this at the moment.

Default Keybinds

• Toggle VR on and off: “Numpad /”
• Toggle Theater Mode on and off: “LALT + Numpad 5”
• Recenter View: “Numpad 5”

All bindings can be customized under Advanced Controls/Keybinds → Comms, FOIP, VR & Headtracking.

VR specific settings

You will find a series of new settings in the options under Comms, FOIP, VR & Head Tracking. They will only show up when you have a VR headset connected:

• VR – Enabled: Enables and disables the headset (also available via keybind)
• VR – Theater Mode: Enables and disables Theater mode (also available via keybind)
• VR – Theater Mode Scale and Distance: Allows you to adjust Theater mode to your liking.
• VR – Automatic Switching: Automatically enables / disables VR based on headset detection if your headset supports it via a sensor (verified on Quest 3 – compatibility varies by headset)
• VR – Interpupillary Distance (IPD) Scale: This allows you to further scale the IPD distance that the VR headset is reporting. Effectively it means you can expand and contract the distance between your eyes.
• VR – Show Console: self explanatory
• VR – Monitor Mirror Mode: Allows you to set what your normal screen will show while you play. Useful specifically for streamers.
• VR – Actor Control Mode: Allows you to define how you want to play the game in VR during the FPS / on-foot sections using the default mouse and keyboard controls. Since we do not support normal VR locomotion yet there are two ways from you can pick:

1. Pitch-locked (default): The mouse yaw allows you to turn but aiming up and down will not move your head but just your gun pitch angle. You have to manually adjust your head to look along the aim line of your gun. This gives you a stable view (which causes less motion sickness) but a somewhat suboptimal aim experience.
2. Direct offset mode: The VR camera is directly offset from your normal game camera. Very easy to use but the camera will tilt while leaning or high pitch angles. It is faster to use in terms of normal SC gameplay but less stable and therefore more prone for motion sickness.

• VR – Vehicle HUD Projection Distance: Allows you to define at what distance infinity projected vehicle HUD elements are shown (e.g. gunnery PIPs, the Advanced HUD or the aiming crosshair). By default, it is set at 100m at which parallax effects should not be visible anymore.
• VR – Visor and Lens Aspect Ratio/Distance/Height/Scale: Allows you to tweak placement of the visor and lens elements.

Vulkan Graphics & Core Tech

• Improved stability across various hardware configurations
• Further HDR display support
• NVIDIA DLSS Transformer model integration

Graphics Option Updates

• Overhauled graphics settings interface
• New VRAM usage bar to help optimize settings for GPU capacity
• TSR and DLSS upscaling improvements

Performance Optimizations

• CPU to GPU particle system updates
• Client performance optimizations
• Shop inventory performance improvements
• Room System client performance enhancements
• General particle rendering optimizations

Audio

• Updated flight music system using improved flight/FPS distinction methods

Bug Fixes and Technical Updates

Star Citizen Alpha contains over 150 bug and crash fixes since 4.4.0. 39 of which came from the issue council.

Stability & Performance

• Fixed 20 Client Crashes
• Error 41013 no longer appears upon logging in after restarting the game
• Many Performance Levski Performance Improvements

Gameplay Bug Fixes

Missions

• Cargo hauling on the Hull C now correctly transfers cargo during automated loading
• Delivery missions in Nyx now properly complete when turning in packages
• Retrieve Run delivery missions now complete when delivering packages via freight elevator
• Defend Ship missions now correctly spawn the ship you need to protect
• Escort missions now progress properly upon reaching the mission location
• Patrol missions now update objectives after reaching location markers
• Salvage mission objectives now update correctly after reaching the mission area
• Eliminate All missions now complete after defeating all enemies
• Storm Breaker Specimen Cache doors now open correctly during the Egg Procedure
• Hauling Interstellar missions now accept all appropriate cargo types
• Recover Item missions in Nyx now have proper “Place Item” interaction prompts
• Hostile NPC ships in Nyx missions no longer remain stationary after spawning

Vehicles & Ships

• Hull C automated cargo loading no longer freezes mid-transfer
• F8C Lightning invulnerable spots on top and bottom of ship have been fixed
• Wolf L22 invulnerable spots on the bottom of the ship have been fixed
• Constellation Taurus bridge cargo bay now has proper collision
• MOLE mining laser heads can now be changed in the Vehicle Manager App
• ATLS GEO mining scanner HUD now functions correctly
• Carrack medical bed screens now deploy when a player lies down
• MFDs no longer incorrectly default to target selection/self status instead of engineering power
• Quantum travel no longer stops shortly after starting in certain situations
• Radar and MFD elements no longer disappear based on head movement position

Nyx System & Levski

• Mission locations in Nyx no longer lack collision upon arrival
• Levski elevator carriages now face the correct direction on arrival
• Levski hangar elevators no longer cause players to bounce or fall through gaps
• Levski docking collar UI alignment fixed, allowing capital ships to dock properly
• EVA external collision holes allowing entry into Levski interior have been fixed
• Window collision exploits at Levski have been fixed
• Missing interior map layouts for Levski docking ports have been addressed
• ATC voice lines no longer all play simultaneously when requesting takeoff
• Pyro-Nyx Gateway instanced hangars now open correctly when first hailed
• Ships delivered to Levski docking ports no longer require claims at Jump Point Stations
• External freight elevator tractor beam range issues at Levski fixed

Law & Security

• Players no longer receive 100+ “Escaped Custody” charges when killed by guards while waiting for rescue
• Hacking and disabling comm arrays now properly removes monitored space
• Station defense turrets now properly return fire when attacked
• Turrets and AI now engage hostile players without requiring the player to fire first
• Anti-Personnel turrets now target multiple body areas instead of only waist level

Inventory & Cargo

• Ammunition repooling no longer incorrectly repositions ammo into new slots
• Items purchased with aUEC liveries now persist between major patches
• Contested Zone items now persist correctly between patches
• “Move All” from legacy inventory screen now properly transfers all loot from AI
• Item duplication that occurred after new patches has been fixed
• Freight elevators now properly unstow entities instead of causing “Elevator Overloaded” errors

Event Content

• Yormandi creature now spawns correctly when the lever is pulled
• Warehouse Passcode Disks in Welcome to Nyx Tech Smuggler now respawn
• AAA grade Valakkar pearls now spawn correctly during Storm Breaker
• Vanduul now trigger appropriate voice lines during Welcome to Nyx

UI & Quality of Life

• Placeholder text removed from Hockrow Agency Dossier in Rep app
• Boomtube Rocket Launcher sight alignment corrected when aiming
• Freight Elevator terminal search function now works with localized item names
• Shopping kiosks now show if Cambio-Lite SRT Canisters are full or empty
• Refinery Kiosk now properly detects stored salvaging vehicles as material locations
• Collector missions now show correct recipe items (More Than A Max, Fun Military Tooth Gun, Hide Snow Suit)

Miscellaneous

• Quantum interdiction effects no longer persist after crash recovery when no Mantis is present
• External freight elevators now present at all stations
• New Player Experience contract offers no longer appear while NPE tutorial is active

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. It just received version 4.4 with the third star system, Nyx.

The crowdfunding total for the game just passed $924 million today, and it’s currently sitting at $924,654,813. The game currently has 6,165,492 registered accounts, but we know that not all are paying customers.

Some are alt accounts, while others are simply created to enjoy the “Free Fly” periods in which the game is available for free without requiring a purchase for a limited time.

It’s notable that Star Citizen’s funding tally for 2025 has already passed the previous yearly record, and it’s still November.

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.