Star Citizen Alpha 4.0 launches, adds Pyro star system with five new planets

It was 2019 when Cloud Imperium Games showed off the Pyro system, the next solar system it was building inside the crowd-funded sci-fi RPG Star Citizen. After years of development, the Pyro system is now available for any backer to jump into, offering fresh planets to explore, unique resources to mine, a new herd animal, and much more.

To get to the new star system, players will have to use the game's first ever Jump Point that connects Stanton and Pyro systems together. As seen in the trailer above, this even involves maneuvering through a two-minute long space tunnel with obstacles in the way before players pass through to the other side of the universe.

Once at Pyro, players will find the following planets waiting for them:

• Pyro I - The first planet from the sun of the Pyro system. Its thick, high-pressure atmosphere hides a strange landscape beset by powerful winds and lightning strikes. Under the clouds, there is an ecosystem of plants and animals that endure its extremely high temperatures, even during powerful stellar flares.
• Pyro II - Monox: Monox is the second planet from the sun of the Pyro system. Nicknamed "Monox" for the deadly carbon monoxide in its atmosphere, it has a temperate climate, and was seen as a viable candidate for terraforming shortly after its discovery. However, its proximity to the system's volatile sun made it dangerous for Human habitation, and the United Nations of Earth (UNE) refused to clear it for terraformation, instead allowing corporations to harvest its natural resources. Undeterred by the potential risk, outlaws eventually took up residence on the planet when the last corporations pulled out of Pyro in the 26th century.
• Pyro III - Bloom: Bloom is the third planet from the sun of the Pyro system. Cold but naturally habitable, it became the epicenter of mining endeavors in Pyro. Pyrotechnic Amalgamated and other corporations constructed multiple staging sites, employees barracks, and processing centers that were in use until the cost of their maintenance could no longer be offset by mining profits. Abandoned when the last active corporations in Pyro ceased operations there in the late 26th century, they were claimed by squatters, outlaws, and former miners who lacked the means to return to the United Empire of Earth.
• Pyro V: Pyro V is the fourth planet from the sun of the Pyro system. It was given the classification of "Pyro V" when researchers came across strong evidence that its outermost moon once maintained a stable orbit around the system's star between Pyro III and Pyro V. When it was struck by an unknown celestial body, it was knocked into Pyro V's gravitational sphere of influence. Residents of and travelers through the Pyro system are known to harvest hydrogen from Pyro V's green and yellow atmosphere.
• Pyro VI - Terminus: Terminus (Pyro VI) is the outermost world of the Pyro system. Its nitrogen-oxygen atmosphere is technically breathable, but contains high enough amounts of methane and carbon dioxide that it has a negative effect on one's health after extended exposure. Pyrotechnic Amalgamated placed their main hub of operations in orbit around Terminus, later abandoning the station when they left the system.

Another massive advancement of this release is the inclusion of Server Meshing V1. This hugely-anticipated feature enables clusters of servers to work together to populate a stable universe in the title, and it currently supports 500 players on a "shard".

"This means that server performance, playability, and overall health are now local to each of the nodes in the server mesh," says Cloud Imperium Games founder and CEO Chris Roberts. "Even dreaded server crashes are now localized to those regions, with players in other areas of space or on planets unaffected. It also means improved performance, as each server is simulating fewer entities, resulting in more responsiveness and allowing the game we are striving to create to finally shine through its content."

The complete change log for this long-awaited Star Citizen Alpha 4.0 update can be found here, which also details an economy overhaul, instanced hangers, an Advanced Flight HUD for highly-skilled pilots, and other features. The game has gone through a full wipe as well, resetting all accounts to 20,000 aUEC (before bonuses) and no earned ships.

This release of the alpha build of Pyro is a unique one though. The studio is keeping the previous release, Alpha 3.24.3, available for play via the launcher, letting players finish missions and gameplay loops with their remaining money and ships. On the plus side, the studio plans to have no more wipes like this following the 4.0 launch.

The Star Citizen Launcher now offers both the 4.0 Preview — containing Pyro system, server meshing and other features — as well as the older version for download as options.

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