Alpha 4.10 and Beyond
Siege of Orison returns, super-heavy armour changes the firefight, and the Kruger Stingray takes flight. A look at Alpha 4.10 and the plans that followed.
Alpha 4.10 arrived some time ago, and for those of you that are out of the loop it introduces some surprisingly major changes to the game. The newly remade Siege of Orison and the Kruger Stingray are definitely the highlights, but there have also been expansions to a number of missions and a major game mechanic addition in the form of instanced gameplay spaces.
There were also substantial balance changes to the ship armor system, fuel and refueling mechanics, and several ballistic ship weapons.
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Siege of Orison Round 2
The long awaited return of the Siege of Orison dynamic event is the centerpiece of 4.10. Perhaps one of the most impressive pieces of FPS content added to Star Citizen to date, Siege of Orison V2 puts you and up to 3 other players up against the Ninetails Gang.
This mission is particularly noteworthy as it also serves as the testbed for instanced content in Star Citizen – when you enter the event area, you and your party members are given a private instance of the event that no one else can access.
So you are free to loot and shoot away without the fear of getting shot in the back by other players!
Siege of Orison is intended to be a permanent addition to the game, with plenty of enemies to loot in addition to a nearly 1 Million aUEC mission reward (split between all participants) and a blueprint of the new Super-Heavy Combat Armor.
This is not a short or easy mission however – bring your favorite gun and plenty of ammo for it.
The Big Gun – Super Heavy Armor and Heavy Machine Guns
Alpha 4.10 brings the official addition of a new class of armor and weapon – the Super Heavy Armor (SHA) and Heavy Machine Gun (HMG).
Boasting an absurd 87.5% damage reduction (compare to heavy armor at only 40%!) it offers unparalleled durability and absurd levels of firepower in combat – with some major drawbacks.
Most notably, a near total lack of storage. The only storage available to SHA wearers is a measly 4000 uSCU, barely enough for a couple medpens.
The dedicated backpack carries up to a whopping 4000 rounds of ammo for the HMG in 4 dedicated 1000 round ammo slots, but offers no storage for other items or attachment points for weapons other than the HMG.
Squads with other players handling medical and looting duties will find these additions to provide a substantial bump in combat effectiveness, while many solo players will find the drawbacks acceptable in return for the massive bump in combat effectiveness.
Recco Battaglia Expanded
Recco Battaglia received a new set of 3 story missions meant to introduce players to Nyx. These ease players into her existing missions, which offer some unique rewards.
If you weren't already familiar with Recco's missions, up for grabs are special ‘Hazard’ CF series repeaters, a set of Levski edition Strata armor, and a People’s Alliance edition jumpsuit and hat without too much time invested.
Industry focused players can earn custom People’s Alliance editions of the Drake Golem, MISC Prospector, and Argo MOLE in return for committing to working their way up her reputation ladder.
Kruger’s Time to Shine
Kruger Intergalactic has earned a reputation for 2 things among the SC community – shiny, unique looking ships and an equally unique weapon selection. The new S-65 Stingray Medium Fighter is no exception to this, bringing a total of 6 weapon hardpoints that can only utilize Kruger weapons to bear on your foes.
Alongside the Stingray, a new Size 2 Kruger Laser Repeater debuted, and P-52 owners rejoice – it is not only cross compatible with the S2 mount in the Merlin, the Merlin's centerline gun now has a gimbal!
The Stingray is also notable for being the first ship in SC to feature 3 different transformation states – it has a landed mode, a flight mode with the wings fully extended, and a combat mode where the wings tuck in and rudders extend out the top for greater maneuverability.
This mode also features a lower RCS signature for those of you interested in having a smaller footprint. This feature is expected to roll out to a few other ships in the future, most notably the Aegis Eclipse.
Rebalancing, Tweaking, and Fixing
4.10 also contained a massive number of much-needed bugfixes, and the game is considered to be in an overall much better state than it was in 4.8 and 4.9 in terms of stability and playability.
4.10.1
Looking into the near future, 4.10.1 is looking like it will bring a set of tie-in missions to the Siege of Orison centering around disaster relief contracts. Called the Orison Relief Support event, it appears to be similar to the earlier Alliance Aid event, albeit smaller in scale.
Offering a mix of small-scale ship and FPS combat missions alongside delivery and even crafting missions, it looks like it will be an interesting little limited time event.
As of the time this article was written, rewards appear to be pledge-bound items. These include special SecondWind variants of the S-38 Pistol, P4-AR Rifle, and Lumin V SMG, along with full sets of FBL-8a, ORC-mkX, and ADP-mk4 armors.
This is some solid gear to have permanently attributed to your account!
And Beyond...
Looking further out, 4.11 promises the long-awaited addition of the planets of Nyx and the latest iteration of Star Citizen’s planet tech.
Laying the foundation for the later addition of base building, this promises major improvements to terrain and procedural generation that will make locations in Star Citizen look better, play better, and perform better.
The new Starchitect tool allows for much better distribution of items, obstacles, and locations within game, while Planet Tech V5 allows for major improvements in how planets are detailed and rendered. This will include everything from more realistic distribution of rocks and plants to improvements to game performance by shifting more load from the CPU to the GPU.
A mission pack containing a variety of missions occurring on Nyx’s planets is also planned, but no further details are known at this time.
This feature retains its original publication context. Star Citizen remains in development; balance, rewards and release plans may change. Artwork: Cloud Imperium Games / Roberts Space Industries.