Star Citizen Alpha 3.17.4 & IAE 2952 Incoming MASSIVE Ship Sale
Star Citizen Alpha 3.17.4 is going to be coming out soon and will bring with it content for the IAE 2952 as well as tiding us over until Alpha 3.18 is released.
Alpha 3.18 has been delayed as CI are fixing some PES bits and there isn’t enough time to get it out for the IAE in November. CI do however plan to release 3.18 to live early December at least that’s the current plans.
What are we getting for the Alpha 3.17.4 patch and the 2952 IAE this year though?
Tyler Witkin confirmed a couple of things in a Tweet:
The most likely Date for the Start of the IAE is Friday the 18th November and it will continue for 2 weeks.
Where is the Expo Hall this year? I’d expect it to be at Orison this year. Tho it’s not CONFIRMED yet.
The 2952 IAE should follow at least some of the basics of previous IAE’s
Expo – There is a visitable Expo Hall where each day a new ship (and/or vehicle) manufacturer will take to the floor and show off its various ships and vehicles. Sometimes it may be multiple manufacturers that are highlighted, typically there are 2 floors to the expo hall so the previous days manufacturers are also available.
You can go round the expo hall and walk around the internals of the ships there; you can also rent most of the ships that are on the show floor. Some of the ships might be things like the F7A Mil Spec Hornet or F8 Lightning Heavy Fighter which will not be flyable.
The Vulture won’t be flyable at the IAE but it may well be on display and “explorable” like it was previously.
There are holosuites that show off ships & vehicles in various levels of development too.
Between the show floor and holosuites we could see some surprises.
Also mirroring what manufacturers are highlighted on a particular day there is a Ship Sale on the RSI Website where you will be able to purchase both the flyable and concept ships from that manufacturer.
Limited Hulls like the Mighty Javelin & Idris are Sold off In Waves on their appropriate manufacturer days in small numbers every few hours but you can also get your hands on an 890J, Kraken / Privateer, Connie Pheonix and other “rare ships” too.
You can expect there to be New Ships & Vehicles that are straight to flyable too.
We know the Corsair will be a feature of the IAE and flyable.
There is likely going to be some form of Concept Sale too.
There have been some leaks which I won’t cover here as they were Evocati in nature.
All ships bought as part of the IAE will come with at least 120 months (10 years) insurance.
In the last few days of the Expo, you can use terminals to rent any of the previous day’s ships. They might have like an FPS arms and armour day too.
There are some new & limited-edition paints available typically for your ships.
And the winners of the Ship Showdown should have their Best in Show skins / items done and we will be able to see those at the Expo too. The Carrack won this year and the rest of the top 4 are the MSR, Scorpius and C8X Pisces. There are also challenge coins for owners of those ships and the Carrack is getting an in-game model made of it too.
FreeFly – Throughout the whole of the IAE Star Citizen is free-to-play and players will be given a selection of ships to use but also will be able to rent anything they want from the Expo Hall too.
You can expect some discount starter packages for Players that want to buy the game.
And it’s also very likely that there will be recruitment drives… where if someone uses your referral code during the IAE and buys a game package both of you will get a free vehicle on your accounts.
Now something that excites me is the Jax McCleary… Top Gear styled shorts that CIG normally do during the event.
At the end of last year’s IAE we saw them show off the new ships and vehicles in some silly sketches, the Anvil Spartan being put thru its paces on New Babbage.
The Updated Redeemer trying to do some painting.
The Ares Inferno & Ion blowing up and Idris.
They teased the MISC Odyssey and then Jax went off to the Pyro System maybe?
So, we are keenly awaiting to see what antics and new ships he will show off this year!
Anything Else New This Time?
Maybe BUT it’s more about the ships, expo and freefly…
We could see tours like the Javelin Tour they do during Fleet week or some new missions…
Some little bits of 3.18 might turn up… so that could be… The GreyCat PTV Racetrack at the Vision Centre at Orison on Crusader… we know that was nearly done.
What else could an Alpha 3.17.4 Patch have in it?
You can probably expect it to also have some bug & crash fixes and some other minor tweaks but it’s mostly going to be new ships, vehicles and the IAE content that it covers.