What’s New in Star Citizen 3.8
Welcome to some more Star Citizen with a What’s New in 3.8 & Quick Start Tips Guide. I have a Start Here Star Citizen Tutorial that is appropriate for Alpha 3.8.0 & new players currently and I’ll link that below, this video should be watched if you know how to play star citizen already or directly after that tutorial video.
Quantum Travel Times are quicker in 3.8 BUT drives are a little different and can give you longer distantances with more fuel efficiency BUT you’ll be travelling slower OR travel quickly and you will be using a lot of fuel, smaller ships will need to stop at rest stops more regularly. Smaller drives (so smaller ships) will run out of quantum fuel much quicker.
This has made some 15 min journeys 3 – 4 mins.
Rest Stops are marked on your map as the CRU / HUR / L1-5 numbered locations around the Verse. There are also new Stations above each of the major landing zones.
Request landing then use your mobiGlas Station Service App when landed on the appropriate pad to fuel up.
If you are having problems refueling Hover before landing and request services just above the pad. It’s also worth buying a upgraded QD for your ship for distance and fuel efficiency.
Close Combat allows you to fight with your fists out, press ZERO (0) when you are on foot. You cannot ready your fists in an armistice zone, though you can punch away in GrimHex. Click L/R Mouse for light hits, hold for heavy, mix a chain of 3 attacks and crouches for various combos. Hold both buttons to block, double tap a direction to dodge.
You can buy knives in weapon shops and equip them in a utility slot then bring them out by pressing 5.
When behind a target with your fists out or knife holding middle mouse button should initiate a takedown.
Middle Mouse when you have a gun out will punt someone with it, it seems to be lethal damage and much more damaging than standard CC.
Randomly Punching people when not in GrimHex is a Crime Battery if detected.
Close combat is fun BUT stealth and CC really at the moment are not going to win you any battles.
New Laws – Fines are no longer automatic, you’ll have to pay them off at fine kiosks found at major landing zones, with floating holograms of scales above them. Failure to pay these off will lead to more fines and criminal ratings.
When Hacking Down your Criminal Rating you’ll now have to individually remove crimes from the Interface and choose why they were removed. I recommend removing the most important fines and criminal ratings first!
Impounding is a parking violation, that impounds ships that failed to park correctly and you’ll have to wait or pay a fine to be able to release your ship from the impound.
New Missions that are mega relevant are:
Take the Call to Arms Mission this is an open bounty mission available to anyone lawful and you get rewarded for taking out NPCs and Players with criminal ratings, it’s free money while playing the game. I take it at the start of any of my sessions.
Mission Giver’s moved – Wallace Klim to GrimHex & Miles Eckhart to the Bar at Lorville.
microTech doesn’t have much Gameplay there BUT does have the 890 Jump Mission and is also great as a tourist destination.
The 890 Jump Mission has you fighting ships then clearing the 890 Jump on foot of pirates. It’s intended to be a group coop mission too and has side quests that will have you earning more if you complete them.
Claim Jumper Missions are meant for a coop group OR at least a ship that has some tanking ability Constellation and up. It has hard hitting turrets and lots of Prospectors which in droves can be very damaging to dogfighters and shorter range ships.
There are Economy Changes the values of some items and commodities as well as their buying and selling locations have changed.
Item, Components & Equipment have been part of this and also been Rebalanced stats wise, so ship components are more focused towards their manufacturer, brand and quality. There is far too much to go over on this topic for a quick start BUT I’ll link a few resources down below, the HumanGerm has made a solid database on quick stats at a glance and where to buy, sell and trade in game, an amazing resource.
erkul.games has DPS calculator that shows all the different weapons and components if you want something to check your ship fittings with a UI.
Mineable Rebalance – Rock Stats, Mass and Make up have all been changed in 3.8. Smaller chunks now have less inert materials or at least the inert materials will break off in separate chunks, so that can make extracting previously less profitable materials profitable.
With Rocks past 4-5k mass you need a new mining head OR more lasers working on the Rock.
There are new Mining Heads, basically mining lasers that focus on a particular task, reducing the instability or resistance of a rock or giving more power. Power is what you want for cracking those larger rocks.
The Aaron Halo is a location that is in game currently BUT it’s reasonably bear atm.
It’s a massive ring of Asteroids and minables that follows the orbit of Delamar/Levski currently (tho Delamar will be removed in a future patch). To get there you just have to turn off your power / QD when you are over the route, the easiest way to do this is Travelling between ArcCorp to Hurston and then 13.5 mill km away, turn off your engine.
Other Stuff
The Animus Missile Launcher is actually pretty good against ships and vehicles, make sure you are locked on before firing.
Deselecting a target when in a ship or vehicle can now be done by pressing ZERO (0)
There is No Platform Persistence YET – this is basically them saving aUEC and aUEC Purchases like ships bought in game between patches more frequently. They plan to have Platform persistence in a 3.8.x patch.
No Starting aUEC – The current default starting aUEC for all players has been set to zero aUEC, plus any bonus UEC that is on your RSI account, it’s not a bug. If you want monies do missions! Players that have the 5k UEC for signing up or UEC for referrals or UEC purchased will start with that in the Game.
3.8 has bugs and CIG will address them in 3.8.x patches.
They released a hotfix increasing the Argo Mole’s Fuel Tank by 40% and fixing crashes.
The Cutlass Red will be release in Jan 2020, the Carrack in Feb and Prowler in March.
There were issues with FPS weapons not firing, if this happens try to melee with them OR pull out your fists then your weapon again.
During the Holidays there are Present Boxes you can find around the Verse that you can sell. Also under the Large Landmark Building at microTech you can fly under it and there is a Christmas scene Easter Egg.
If you are looking to make money quickly in the game and you have a starter ship, take bounty, mercenary and clear out SPK missions, these should give you easy quick rewards. You can then use that money to rent a Prospector, Cargo OR Combat ship and leverage that to make a lot more money within a few hours of play. You can rent ships at the Space Ports at Lorville and Area 18.