Among other items, the Murray Cup map has been added to the Alpha, heralding the arrival of space ship racing to Star Citizen. Players will be able to race their available ships on the map as soon as the team completes its final “blocker” bug resolution.
Adding to this, Star Citizen has updated its Vanduul Swarm players vs. AI combat mode to include co-operative play, allowing friends to group-up to fight the Vanduul. The M50 and 350R ships will be included alongside the existing lineup of flyable craft in V0.9.
The official announcement stated:
Even if you aren’t looking forward to comparing scores with friends, getting the back end of Star Citizen to talk to the backend of the Star Citizen website is a huge deal. What we’re hooking up today is also going to allow features like the Galactapedia, Interactive Star Map and the Star Citizen mobile app to communicate with the game. Our goal with Star Citizen is to build a universe with a highly connected community at its core and Leaderboards, along with the stat tracking and backend infrastructure that allow for leaderboards, are a significant step in building that experience. Allowing backers to get the first taste of a larger persistence in the ‘Verse is something we feel is very important.
We know that it is disappointing that we’re not quite ready to share our progress with the community, but today’s build is just not yet to a state where it achieves our vision. We will be working around the globe through the holiday weekend to deliver on the promise of V0.9.
Stay tuned to our Twitter, Facebook, and (especially) YouTube pages for interviews as they are posted tonight and tomorrow.
- Steve "Lelldorianx" Burke.
