I realize that this is rapidly becoming a “Star Citizen blog with some deviations” which isn’t going to really earn me too many readers from my usual haunts, but it’s all just the written word in an age of video, so I’m certainly not doing any of this to elevate my celebrity. Anywho…

I jumped into the public test universe last night, and this is just some of what I saw, combined with upcoming releases in Alpha 4.8 due out next week.

Improved Transit

4.8 is supposed to present the transit system rework. This system governs things like elevators and the trains that take us between LZ centers and spaceports. I didn’t have any issues with transit on the PTU, but I rarely have issues with transit on the PU (except today when I fell through the planet for the first time in a long time after stepping into an elevator).

Return of Delivery Missions

I logged into the PTU because I wanted to try the delivery missions. We had these back in early 4.x, I think, and then they went away for Reasons Beyond Our Mortal Understanding ™. The gist is simple: I am contracted to pick up a handheld box at point A, and I need to deliver it to point B. Literal profit. These missions are fantastic for new players to grind because:

• They are dead-simple as the pickup and drop-off locations are generally lawful when taken within Stanton, at least at the “novice” rep level.
• They pay out 20k aUEC per mission to start. Once the next rep level has been reached, it might generate more.
• There are a lot of them.
• They can easily be chained to pick up and drop off in rapid succession.
• They can be done with absolutely any ship in the game, although they are perfectly suited to smaller, starter ships.

What I didn’t expect was to get blueprints. In fact, I did two delivery missions and got two BPs. The first was for a size 1 industrial grade B power plant. The second was for an industrial size 2 grade B quantum drive. 4.8 includes more BPs, specifically ship components and weapons, so I was interested. When I examined the BPs, though, I was heartened: although the components aren’t awe-inspiring, they used common materials like Beryl, Titanium, ,and Aslarite, things I could easily find in Stanton. Now I’m excited. Getting BPs for arms and armor is nice. Getting them for ship weapons is also nice. But getting ship components is a massive perk because I (and others, I am certain) almost always consider what components I can swap to in order to get better performance from my ship. Now, not only can I get better components, but I can make better components…assuming I can get good quality materials.

Material Quality Updates

Later, I swapped to the Prospector and hit up a local asteroid belt just to see the new material quality allotment in action. I scanned down some of the aforementioned Aslarite and found 4 rocks which — get this — had Aslarite of 2 qualities, Titanium, and other materials that I recognized from examining those new BPs I had gotten from the delivery missions! The two qualities of Aslarite fell into the 0-399 band and the 400-599 band. This produced something like a 281 quality rock, and a 572 quality rock (values approximate). The good new was that all of the Aslarite that I found that fell within the 0-399 band had the 281 quality, and all of the Aslarite I found that fell within the 400-599 band had the 572 quality. No more random quality values for the same material. While the qualities weren’t top-shelf, not having to decide whether to take the 572, the 573, or skip them both is an improvement in my book.

Ships Debut

CIG has done away with “concept sales” which was putting unfinished ships on the pledge store with no delivery date attached. Now, ships go straight to flyable and are released to the pledge store with the next patch. In 4.8, we have a few new ones.

Origin M80

This is a heavy fighter from a company which is well known for their sleek racing ships. I like the top-down silhouette, but overall the Origin ships are hit or miss for me. I really don’t like the nose on this. I think it looks dumb. Also, the wheels are performative; Star Citizen does not allow taxiing ships, but it really should if it’s going to offer wheeled landing gear.

Drake Pitbull

Drake ships are notorious for their industrial aesthetic and the fact that CIG officially unofficially deems Drake ships as “the pirate’s choice” because pirates are all rabid psychos who have no love of sexy contours or hidden pipes and wires, I guess. The Pitbull is considered a light fighter, but is carrying a lot of weapons. The fact that the wings fold up like that will play a part later in the article.

Aegis Tiburon

Aegis is a military contractor, and one of their signature ships is the Hammerhead. It’s so-called because it has four stubby ballistic turrets on the port and starboard sides, and the fore-configuration makes the ship look like a hammerhead shark, or traditional representations of “Thor’s hammer”. In keeping with the theme, Aegis is delivering a ship similar to the Hammerhead called the Tiburon, but without the hammer shape and with energy weapons instead of ballistics.

MISC Starlite

MISC makes industrial ships and since 4.8 is bringing refueling gameplay to the game, CIG is adding another fuel ship to the lineup with the MISC Starlite. This is much smaller than the current in-game refueling ship, the MISC Starfarer, so it’s poised to fill a gap which currently exists in the ship pantheon at a time when it is relevant, which is another new development from CIG who had frequently released useless ships in the past (which are still useless, by the way).

Drake Ironclad

The Ironclad is a concept ship which is finally being released (to the PTU on 5/11/26, even!) It’s a very big boi and comes in two varieties: the cargo hauler, and the assault variant.

The assault variant was popular with the combat crowd, but after today’s ISC provided the slide shown above — an Ironclad Assault packed with folded-up Pitbulls — I think we’ll end up seeing a metric shit-tonne of this version flying around. The reason being is that in 4.8, CIG is allowing “parasite” craft to refuel, rearm, and repair in certain vehicles like the Idris, Carrack, and 890 Jump (assuming the carriers have the materials to perform those operations in their inventory). The “IronChad” as it’s called is also going to allow for smaller ships to park inside its hangar, and receive these same services.

I have a stock Ironclad — the “Fatterpillar”, playing on the name of another Drake cargo ship, the Caterpillar — but am considering CCUing/upgrading to the IronChad. I assume that the wide-open space inside the ship can be used for either smaller ships or cargo, but I’ll have to check them both out during Drake’s DefenseCon that starts next Wednesday before I commit to a decision.