The Invictus Launch Week 2955 celebration is continuing in Star Citizen, and two new ship variants have been released, covering two very different roles.
The first is the Mirai Guardian MX, a heavy fighter that sacrifices the living space within the standard Guardian to be fully dedicated to combat with four size-4 weapon hardpoints and additional armor and shields.
It’s also meaner-looking, which never hurts for a ship dedicated to combat. Basically, since the standard Guardian is a heavy fighter already, I suppose you can define the MX as a heavier fighter? Or perhaps a heavy fighter-er?
The second is the Starlancer TAC, which is defined as a patrol ship, but it’s heavily specialized toward ground attack and support, with the ability to drop troops and support them with ground-facing firepower.
Below, you can see a video focusing on the Guardian MX with developer commentary, and a full-fledged trailer for the Starlancer TAC.
Interestingly, the latter teases some features that are scheduled to come down the line in Star Citizen, like the combat-dedicated exoskeleton and the Quantum boost used to get away.
As usual, both ships can be purchased with real money for now (and can be rented for free for a limited time at Invictus Launch Week), but they will become purchasable with credits earned by playing the game in the near future.
If you’re unfamiliar with Star Citizen, it’s a PC exclusive crowdfunded project directed by Chris Roberts, who created the beloved Wing Commander series in the days of early PC gaming. 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 just passed $821 million. To be precise, it’s currently at $821,469,773. The game also has 5,672,247 registered users, albeit not all of them are paying customers. Many simply create an account to enjoy the occasional free-to-play periods like the one that is currently going on.
If you’re wondering, this means that the game has made over $11 million since the start of Invictus Launch Week less than a week ago.
The single-player campaign titled Squadron 42 is also in active development, 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.
