As promised by Chris Roberts at Gamescon last week the much awaited Alpha 2.5 has hit Star Citizen. Prepare for a big patch and new areas to explore.

Being a major update to the persistent universe environment for the Crusader system this patch gives us the pirate base Grim HEX which also signals the start of the faction system that is slowly evolving, as well as bring the Reliant Kore and the ARGO MPUV’s in flyable condition. For a complete list of all changes, have a look at the complete patch notes.

The Grim HEX Outlaw Base

For the first time, those gentlemen of ambiguous morality now have a base of operations in the Crusader system, the Grim HEX outlaw base that is a nice home away from home for those who wish to make their own laws.There are plenty of things to discover at Grim Hex, starting off with the Skutters Gun and Armour store with a focus to energy based weaponry and the KC Trending clothing store with merchandise that you can only pick up at Grim Hex, the shopping area will be expanded in later patches.

Grim Hex is located deep in the Yela asteroid belt, and you’ll need to explore to find it, or just ask an outlaw, they are trustworthy enough.

Sidebar: Green Imperial Housing Exchange

Housing Exchanges (Known as HEX’s) are a popular style of cheap stations built into hollowed out asteroids in an effort to save on resources in undeveloped systems. HEXs offer affordable housing as well as shopping and entertainment options for temporary workers working on short-term contracts in the area. The simplicity of the design makes them easy to maintain and the signature hexagonal honeycombed structure pieces make them exceedingly durable. Originally designed and used by Everline Structures Inc. this style of station has been adopted and copied throughout the UEE by many companies due to how cheap it is to build and operate. You can find structures practically everywhere there has been a non-military UEE presence.

Landing System Cleared

As Star Citizen expands, the process of landing your ship in a variety of different environments will become more important, with Alpha 2.5 the first iteration of the new landing system will be trialed, allowing a simple and smooth landing, along with manual control. This system will be improved and grown in upcoming releases along with the ability to request landing through the Comms system.

With this patch players can enter Landing Mode by simply lowering their landing gear (Default double tap the N key) which reduces their speed and enables precision mode along with changing the AR display from regular flight to landing mode. This system will flag pads as valid in blue, invalid with red and recommended in green, by default valid pads are ones that are big enough for your ship and have no obstructions on them, with recommended being the closest of the valid pads. After touching down Landing Mode will be turned off and the AR returns to normal display, the reverse will be true for taking off, with Landing Mode being disabled when the gear is retracted.

Reliant Kore ready for flight testing

The 2946 MISC Relaint Kore is cleared for civilian use, featuring a distinct flying-wing shape and extensive cargo room, unique weapons mounts and Xi’an influenced technologies, this new addition to the MISC line-up is sure to be popular round the galaxy.

Planned as a starter ship for new pilots, the Kore variant is designed as a hauler with additional speed and dogfighting capabilities not found on a dedicated starter freighter. In fact, the Kore was designed by MISC to act as a balanced support in its Hull series. While the Hull line is solely dedicated to moving cargo around the Empire on secure trade routes, the Reliant series is ideal for journeys that might involve an engagement or two.

For more information and technical specifications, head on over to the MISC store page for a look.

ARGO MPUV now arriving

In a galaxy where everyone is flying a starfighter, impossibly complex exploration vessels, massive cargo ships and mining vessels, there is always the need for something so simple and reliable that it looks out of place. The team at ARGO Astronautics believes so, and have created the ARGO MPUV, it’s never going to be a fighter of any kind, it’s never going to be the first set down on an alien planet, or the first to map a new jump route, but it is the cheapest and most reliable way of hauling equipment to and from Capital ships and Stations throughout the galaxy, and a valuable tool for anyone who is building a mercantile empire.

The official name of MPUV is often replaced by ARGO after the manufacturer and consists of a universal cab attached to a variety of role-specific modules. The UEE Navy has been one of the biggest contractors of the MPUV with at least one being equipped on each one of the larger ships in the Navy with modules from Search and Rescue to Personnel transport and Munitions carrying. The ARGO is by all accounts, easy to pick up and fly, some new pilots in the military and civilian worlds are trained on this craft to understand the basics, and has proven to be a very effective system in the roles it has been given.

For more information and technical specifications, head on over to the ARGO store page for a look.

New and improved Items

For the past several 2.x patches elements of Item System 2.0 have been slowly introduced and improved upon, with 2.5 the process has begun converting player and ship items to the new system. As with previous updates to ship components this is largely back-end: implementing new component class systems, naming conventions and other needed functionality, as well as retrofitting existing armours and weapons to be compatible.

These changes will allow greater modularity to first-person items. This should not affect the functions of any in-game items and changes to player item stats should be minimal.

Reach out and touch someone

Alpha 2.5 also introduces the Behring M7A Laser Cannon a class 5 weapon to the Voyager Direct and in-game rental stores, this weapon is the largest introduced in game for the civilian market. This long range energy cannon is the latest in the Behring’s M-Series, designed to act as a high impact deterrent effective at medium to long range. The new AC8 lens system keeps the beam intensity and cohesion over distance making each shot equally effective at range.

The M7A comes as standard on the Starfarer Gemini in its primary turret slot by default, to purchase this gun for yourself, head on over to the Voyager Direct store.

So, get downloading, have fun and see you in the Verse.