Alpha 4.8 Evocati Arrives, 4.7.2 soon, and Roadmap Roundup!

This week brings a TON of news, following a rather quiet period after the launch of Alpha 4.7.1. While 4.7.1 had very meaningful updates, the road to Alpha 4.8 is not so far in the distant horizon. All eyes are fixated on it, as this patch has been rumored to house a number of important features and gameplay updates to fall in line with the annual Invictus Launch Week ship expo. While people await the arrival of Alpha 4.8, the next interim patch Alpha 4.7.2 is posed to make landfall this Wednesday. Other events and development updates also take the spotlight, with a Star Citizen Live discussing gameplay systems, another Roadmap Roundup, and CIG takes a seat at the LVL UP EXPO entering the weekend. Lots to unpack, so let’s get to it!

Alpha 4.8 Evocati Begins

Alpha 4.8 just made its way into the hands of Evocati players tonight. So you can expect a flurry of new features and updates to the Persisten Universe to be had in preparation for its deployment mid next month. Invictus Launch Week, Star Citizen’s annual military ship expo, headlines the patch with a showcasing of the UEE’s military might, its send-off of new recruits to basic training, and ship manufacturers from throughout UEE space displaying their offerings to the military machine for civilian use. That is to say it isn’t interrupted like previous years… but that will yet to be discovered. The Aegis Hammerhead is set to debut its “gold standard” update, giving it a refreshed look and modern take with today’s gameplay mechanics and engine.

The Drake Command Module is also listed among the patch notes for testing, with the Drake Caterpillar being the only ship capable of utilizing it for now until the presumptive release of the Ironclad’s later next month. The Novia Ultiflex Crossbow also snuck into the notes, a long-awaited FPS semi-automatic crossbow that has been mentioned early in development.Tactical Strike Groups, a massively interactive military siege/rescue activity aimed for large group gameplay, makes its debut in 4.8 as well. Highly awaited, this activity provides groups of players a dynamic environment with strategic tasks to complete in succession in order to fulfill the mission requirements. This includes destroying a QV Extraction Base’s defenses, cutting power, rescuing hostages, and defeating an unknown threat… with the Vanduul making an appearance as well to throw players into chaos.Having been included into the Evocati clan myself, you can expect to see a separate Evocati post soon after this. Stay tuned!

**Edit: got to play tonight briefly, and while Tactical Strike Groups were the main focus the mission was limited to one instance for the server. So only one group was running it at a time, bottlenecking the entire server to one mission contract. Others got to see that the Drake Caterpillar had its updated Command Module, and heard it was very nice looking despite not having full functionality in for testing focus.

LVL UP EXPO, Roadmap, and 4.7.2 This Week

CIG makes its first appearance to the three-day expo LVL UP, providing the chance for CIG to show face to a wider gaming audience (at least, that’s to be expexted). LVL UP is a 72-hour immersive gaming and pop culture convention in Las Vegas celebrating fans through esports tournaments, cosplay, art, and live entertainment. Find out more about it here!

The Roadmap Roundup will be expected to drop on Wednesday alongside Alpha 4.7.2, so you can expect to see a post on that later this week as well.With much to cover throughout this next week, you’ll see a few more posts to follow! I wanted to provide an update to the coming events, as well as insight to the now-released Evocati playtest. So stay tuned for updates on all that is to come! You can take a peek at This Week in Star Citizen here.

Keep yourself informed here at the Citizen’s Blog, and be sure to take a look at the various guides and walkthroughs here at Star Bulletin!

For now… cheers!

– Snoochy Boochy