A pair of new Star Citizen trailers are now online, including another look at the sprawling game’s first-person shooter module, and patch notes for Star Citizen Alpha 2.6 reveal an astounding number of changes in the latest build of the game. The breakdown also confirms Star Citizen is now running on a (slightly) new game engine, swapping CryEngine for Amazon’s Lumberyard.
While swapping engines might initially sound like the sort of change that would significantly delay a game, a follow-up post from Cloud Imperium Games co-founder Chris Roberts says StarEngine -- the modified version of CryEngine that powers Star Citizen and Squadron 42 -- and Lumberyard were actually both forked from the same CryEngine build. So replacing CE, which served as the game’s “foundation” engine, only took a couple of days and two engineers. Roberts says the team will continue to use StarEngine for Star Citizen and Squadron 42. He also confirmed all of the engine changes that give Star Citizen a unique look/feel were retained. Going forward, Roberts says Cloud Imperium will rely on the Lumberyard features “that make sense for Star Citizen .”
Of course, while an engine swap might be the biggest change in Star Citizen Alpha 2.6, it’s not exactly the most exciting. Fortunately, patch notes for the latest build of Star Citizen confirm it includes new ships, social features and the long-awaited arrival of Star Marine. Only two maps and two game modes are currently available to the Star Citizen community; however, Cloud Imperium Games promises ongoing support for the game’s FPS module. Other features, like leaderboards, are also available. Complete details on Star Citizen Alpha 2.6 can be found on the Roberts Space Industries website.
For more on the changes in Alpha 2.6, head over to the Star Citizen forums for patch notes, known issues and player feedback. Or take a few minutes to watch the new Star Citizen Alpha 2.6 and Star Marine trailers. The former is embedded at the top of the page while the latter is below.
Star Citizen is in development for PC. The game is currently available in early access via the Cloud Imperium website.
Be sure to check back with iDigitalTimes.com and follow Scott on Twitter for more Star Citizen coverage throughout 2017 and however long Cloud Imperium Games continues to support Star Citizen in the years to come.
