{"data":{"id":19848,"title":"Letter From the Chairman","rsi_url":"https:\/\/robertsspaceindustries.com\/comm-link\/SCW\/19848-API","api_url":"https:\/\/api.star-citizen.wiki\/api\/comm-links\/19848","api_public_url":"https:\/\/api.star-citizen.wiki\/comm-links\/19848","channel":"Undefined","category":"Undefined","series":"None","images":[{"id":34439,"name":"headshot-chris.webp","rsi_url":"https:\/\/robertsspaceindustries.com\/i\/9046da20eb12874bb589934b67ddab34f95e7744\/62PdCouTvNPDqfyRhxEr2pxkwxVhsSL1S5o1M4Ubewhb2W1XaKSAicbxZDzPJ5ZvqJP16LcuwAXZtUv6DJv2xLFG1E3LTBrsJK6rAXfRZGZ4BUA\/headshot-chris.webp","alt":"g-illustration","size":77194,"mime_type":"image\/webp","last_modified":"2024-03-14T19:30:48+00:00","api_url":"https:\/\/api.star-citizen.wiki\/api\/comm-link-images\/34439","similar_url":"https:\/\/api.star-citizen.wiki\/api\/comm-link-images\/34439\/similar"},{"id":34440,"name":"rewind-2023-16-9-4k.jpg","rsi_url":"https:\/\/robertsspaceindustries.com\/i\/9a1add3f5f061874803dd2d28df5a37d7a00643c\/3W72119s5BjWMLzhaqndVmMTkw529w6dnpSMwP77vCvCKnXohaQQLUJPhHoLMYxX89HmrM8CN67F6p6H4HQLuhDwka2pMaR2kUZeoPQuRWMW57bBNbuovE\/rewind-2023-16-9-4k.jpg","alt":"g-trailer","size":6259848,"mime_type":"image\/jpeg","last_modified":"2024-03-14T19:30:49+00:00","api_url":"https:\/\/api.star-citizen.wiki\/api\/comm-link-images\/34440","similar_url":"https:\/\/api.star-citizen.wiki\/api\/comm-link-images\/34440\/similar"},{"id":34444,"name":"star-citizen-top-banner.jpg","rsi_url":"https:\/\/robertsspaceindustries.com\/i\/d66c16c894bb573dc7c3f8c0ce46c5643139e108\/HNWT6DgoBc183wHzVFMvKff5AuEvosYTe1pofMVJwN4ScxEdVFiiiUDZBE1GquRaybcS7khUPEQ5h2m6M8fViiokYePCHx5bnL3mvPbwtfQZCfAemDTkcMCUpva\/star-citizen-top-banner.jpg","alt":"g-banner-advanced","size":2797047,"mime_type":"image\/jpeg","last_modified":"2024-03-14T19:30:52+00:00","api_url":"https:\/\/api.star-citizen.wiki\/api\/comm-link-images\/34444","similar_url":"https:\/\/api.star-citizen.wiki\/api\/comm-link-images\/34444\/similar"},{"id":34447,"name":"dividing-lines-top.webp","rsi_url":"https:\/\/robertsspaceindustries.com\/i\/a787b456289a9044184a92550c1df49d77d8b63b\/Zskj9C56UoncskS48t7ujg5FV7MCYHgbrGGAbv3UTiWJQ1BafP4voWma2BQXcf91ULBQiK4WMpxEQ4e9iE4GkFKj8QmgbKckXxcWvDJ5ibKPYvxa22kn\/dividing-lines-top.webp","alt":"g-banner-advanced","size":6296,"mime_type":"image\/webp","last_modified":"2024-03-14T19:30:53+00:00","api_url":"https:\/\/api.star-citizen.wiki\/api\/comm-link-images\/34447","similar_url":"https:\/\/api.star-citizen.wiki\/api\/comm-link-images\/34447\/similar"},{"id":34449,"name":"dividing-lines-bottom.webp","rsi_url":"https:\/\/robertsspaceindustries.com\/i\/b2a837dfe426afe458c8057918e1c37fc0d33be5\/qjrE4yyfw5pPuM9mhXActu8au5PbCxM3P83qB3vhM7WZxCn2iJze2jXxUfwNEA1fbVxdGkVhSrPWY3nNjQ5TpnQPbM3wEcF3rgvqLhMbLMnpTNNcKNiCFAwg\/dividing-lines-bottom.webp","alt":"g-banner-advanced","size":6274,"mime_type":"image\/webp","last_modified":"2024-03-14T19:30:54+00:00","api_url":"https:\/\/api.star-citizen.wiki\/api\/comm-link-images\/34449","similar_url":"https:\/\/api.star-citizen.wiki\/api\/comm-link-images\/34449\/similar"},{"id":34451,"name":"headshot-benoit.webp","rsi_url":"https:\/\/robertsspaceindustries.com\/i\/0855257db014165677ce753aa29a99faedba00b8\/PB8ro82ZpZP5fq243kp7R4h6yZwhPcntuiA4XYLoxUS9Bd3Kx4N5tg9JHB5nmixfiEwJD7qosFvrogdA354zgMxSnsWGww25WDXfY7jXaS3HRHQr\/headshot-benoit.webp","alt":"g-banner-advanced","size":68374,"mime_type":"image\/webp","last_modified":"2024-03-14T19:30:55+00:00","api_url":"https:\/\/api.star-citizen.wiki\/api\/comm-link-images\/34451","similar_url":"https:\/\/api.star-citizen.wiki\/api\/comm-link-images\/34451\/similar"}],"images_count":29,"translations":{"en_EN":"\u201cAs the new Chief Technology Officer at Cloud Imperium, I'm thrilled to join the CIG family and lead our technology group. We're dedicated to pushing\nboundaries, and I'm honored to represent and care for this team of pioneers and trailblazers.\n\nOne of my first initiatives as CTO was establishing the Technology Preview channel. It's a space where developers can fearlessly test large technology\nchanges with players way before they go live, fostering the spirit of open development with our community.\n\nIn 2024, our Server Meshing journey is hitting its stride after years of dedication. We're closing in on the original vision we set out to achieve.\n\nThis journey started long ago with the introduction of streaming capabilities to StarEngine like Client-side Object Container Streaming (OCS) followed\nby Server-side Object Container Streaming (SOCS), and progressing to Persistent Entity Streaming (PES) to maintain the entire game world; every step\nhas been building toward our goal: To support MMO-level player populations in a high fidelity game environment of large magnitude.\n\nWe are gearing up to release the replication layer in 3.23. This is a big deal\u2014it's the foundation we build the mesh on. As a player you should perceive\nthis specifically when dealing with server crashes (30k) as those will no longer cause immediate disconnection but \u201cgracefully\u201d recover allowing you to\ncontinue to play. For developers, this milestone marks the true separation between the simulation and the replication, a humongous achievement for the\ngame and for StarEngine.\n\nBut hey, we're not hitting pause there. We're charging full steam ahead towards launching our first multi-server mesh in 4.0. For this, multiple servers work together to simulate parts of the universe. As a player, this will enable you to visit Pyro through the Jump Gate, where the jump tunnels transition seamlessly between game servers. Game shards will also host more players so you should encounter more friends (or foes) along the way.\n\nThis will mark a new beginning for our game architecture. In the coming weeks and months, get ready for more Technical Preview tests with various mesh configurations: multiple game servers per solar system and seamless transitions without gates. We're talking about layouts where servers are dedicated to\nentire planets and moons, others focused solely on Landing Zones or other key locations, with plenty of higher player count experiments.\n\nI'm genuinely proud to be part of this team. While we face challenges ahead, I'm filled with relentless optimism knowing that amazing successes are waiting for us.\n\nO7!\"\n\n- Benoit Beausejour, CTO\n\n\u201cFirstly, I\u2019d like to take this opportunity to say how great it is to be back working on Star Citizen. Some of you may already know me but I was the\nCore Gameplay Pillar Director before I moved over to become the Game Director on SQ42 a few years back. With this new role I will be coming on\nboard to help push Star Citizen to the next stage of its development, ultimately culminating in leaving early access and releasing the 1.0 version\nof the game.\n\nThis begins with identifying what features and content are required to create a fully realised space MMO while laying the foundations for future\nupdates. To be 100% clear though, this doesn\u2019t mean going back to the drawing board or totally changing the vision of what SC currently is. With\nthis aim, Chris and I have overseen the creation of a roadmap that takes us all the way up to 1.0 and outlines all the features and content we need,\nand just as crucially, the ones that will come post full release.\n\nWith my role now overseeing both projects with Chris, and the fact that SQ42 has hit its Feature Complete milestone, it has provided an opportunity\nto reshuffle the teams. This should see a large contingent of gameplay teams now coming back to focus on SC. We\u2019ve also taken the opportunity to\nmove away from heavily specialised teams like Actor Feature and Vehicle Feature to more generic gameplay teams that should allow us to be a lot\nmore flexible and shoulder some of the heavier burdens those teams used to carry.\n\nWhile these teams will still be instrumental in shipping SQ42, they will now be focussed on bringing all the existing features over to SC, as well as\nworking on brand-new features like Base Building and Crafting to help round out the 1.0 experience.\n\nWith every release going forward, the intention is to move ourselves closer to that end goal \u2013 so you should expect to see large updates each quarter\nwith many changes to systems that have not been touched in a long time like Economy, Insurance, etc., alongside a whole suite of quality-of-life\nimprovements to things like Inventory, Missions, mobiGlas, etc. coupled with totally brand-new features and content.\n\nWe have set very ambitious goals for ourselves internally both for the game and technology teams, but Chris and I truly believe they are achievable, and\nhopefully you can start to see that progress starting with 3.23 and beyond.\n\n\u25ba Rich Tyrer, Senior Game Director\n\n\u201cWhat we do now echoes in eternity\u201d\n- Marcus Aurelius\n\n\n\n\n2023 marked the beginning of a transformative chapter for Cloud Imperium and both of our games.\n\nWith Alpha 3.18, our first release of 2023, the team delivered Persistent Entity Streaming (PES), the foundational tech that is necessary for Server Meshing (SM). As we mentioned in the last letter, PES is the hardest part of the work needed for SM and is the one that required the most engineering, so overcoming the challenges with this release last year was mission critical. The launch of Alpha 3.18 was far more challenging than we anticipated, and we discovered some issues with our backend database that only were visible at the scale we see on a live release as opposed to the Persistent Test Universe (PTU). Outside of this, we uncovered a lot of little issues that come from a truly persistent universe; while it is amazing to come across a wreck from a player combat a week ago, it is not so fun to try and land at a hangar where the last three ships crashed and left debris laying around, blocking your landing pad. We slowly worked through these issues, and others, but it was a challenging time both for the development team and the community. These obstacles not only tested our skills and determination but also demonstrated our resilience as we overcame them.\n\nBeyond PES, 2023 welcomed the long-awaited implementation of Salvage, encompassing hull stripping, structural, component, and repair, accompanied by relevant missions. Traders reaped the benefits of an overhauled (no pun intended) and physicalized cargo system, while players across the board enjoyed many new missions spanning both PVE and PVP scenarios.\n\nOur development journey reached a series of significant milestones last year, all of which took center stage at CitizenCon 2953. The magnitude of this event for everyone at CIG cannot be overstated, especially considering it marked our first in-person CitizenCon in over four years! We have been powered by all of your excitement since the very beginning of the journey, and we\u2019ve missed the energy that comes from spending time together sharing our mutual excitement about what we\u2019re building.\n\nThe show was an incredible affirmation of all our hard work both on Star Citizen and Squadron 42 in 2023, and kicked off our best Q4 ever in terms of player logins and engagements. Thanks to all of you, and a huge wave in Q4, 2023 was our best year ever, with record highs in daily active players, monthly active players, unique logins, and hours played for the year. More than 1.1 million of you set foot into the Persistent Universe in 2023!\n\nThe other major milestone in 2023 was welcoming the team at Turbulent fully into the CIG family. Our partners since the end of 2012, Turbulent have been responsible for large parts of our online infrastructure, and have greatly contributed to our growth and success. This acquisition allows us to streamline our efforts and formally gives us a significant presence in Montreal, Canada, which is a hot bed of video game talent. As part of this acquisition, we gained two key senior executives; Benoit Beausejour, the Chief Technical Officer of Turbulent, who now becomes the CTO of Cloud Imperium and the head of our Core Technology Group (CTG). You already will know Benoit from his presentations on our Server Meshing plans at the last two CitizenCons. The second key executive to join our ranks is Marc Beaudet, who was the CEO of Turbulent and becomes our Senior Vice President, Studio Operations, in charge of the operations and welfare of the thousand plus people working on Star Citizen and Squadron 42, spread between our five offices in Austin, Texas, Los Angeles, California, Manchester, England, Frankfurt, Germany, and now Montreal, Canada.\n\nAs I look back on 2023, with a few months now to reflect and appreciate the hard work of the team around me, I can say that our experience at CitizenCon 2953, and the excitement from our community both at the show and in the game as they logged into Star Citizen in record numbers last year, left me feeling not only proud, but also deeply grateful and reinvigorated for the year ahead.\n\nAnd what a year it is shaping up to be!\nOn Squadron 42 that is taking the game from Feature Complete to Content Complete, ensuring the game has the necessary polish and feels worthy of being the spiritual successor to Wing Commander. To this end the team is hard at work, heads down, driving towards the finish line. I am incredibly excited about how the game is shaping up and we will have more to share with you at this year\u2019s CitizenCon, which will be held in Manchester, England.\n\nOn the Star Citizen front, the teams are preparing to deliver Server Meshing and expanding the universe of Star Citizen to multiple Star Systems.\n\nOne of the key milestones of human achievement in the lore of Star Citizen is \u201cFirst Jump Day,\u201d when legendary Human astrophysicist and pilot, Nick Croshaw, discovered and navigated the first Jump Point, on 10th April 2271, and became the first Human to visit a planetary system beyond Sol.\n\nEventually that system was named Croshaw in his honor - his journey was described as \u201cthe Jump that changed the course of Humanity\u201d - and led to the star-faring future we depict in Star Citizen and Squadron 42.\n\nYou might wonder why I am telling you this story \u2013 well, a little ahead of the historic date of April 10th, we had our own First Jump Day celebration on Star Citizen\u2019s Tech Preview Channel this weekend! For this test of our progress on Server Meshing and the Replication layer technology, we opened our first functioning Jump Gates, and allowed players to test travelling between our 2 systems for the first time in our history! Players were able to travel between Stanton and Pyro via wormholes, with each system streaming in and out seamlessly. For those of you interested, our \u2018verse\u2019s own Nick Croshaw honor goes to an Evocati member called \u201cMrTrash,\u201d who we believe was the first in the community to successfully jump! During the test, it is worth highlighting that we also achieved 350 concurrent players in a single shard (e.g. a Replication Layer with two connected servers), setting a new record for concurrent players in a single instance in Star Citizen!\n\nAfter many hard years of work towards a goal many thought was impossible, we are on the cusp of delivering one of the final pieces of technology that will enable a connected, shared universe that thousands of people can experience together at the same time.\n\nI invited Benoit, who oversaw this historic test as our new CTO, to share a few thoughts about this monumental milestone he helped bring to fruition:\n\nAs we set our sights on the year ahead, the team remains focused and committed to ushering the community into uncharted territories with the release of Pyro and Star Citizen Alpha 4.0. I cannot stress how much this is an inflection point, as it will allow many more people to play together, but also to seamlessly travel to different Star Systems.\n\nAll of this points towards 2024 being our biggest and best year yet in the universe of Star Citizen. But Star Citizen Alpha 4.0 is not our final destination! And with that I have more exciting news to share.\n\nAs we revealed at CitizenCon with Squadron 42 achieving the Feature Complete milestone, we are now able to bring features developed for Squadron 42 to the persistent universe at an accelerated rate.\n\nAs part of this, towards the end of last year we decided to re-organize the Star Citizen and Squadron 42 teams to be more integrated, to facilitate bringing several years\u2019 worth of feature work and polish to Star Citizen, and finally set our sail out for Star Citizen\u2019s own finish line.\n\nWhile we recognize that there is no definitive finish line in an online MMO, and that we will always be adding new features and content for many, many years to come, Star Citizen 1.0 is what we consider the features and content set to represent \u201ccommercial\u201d release. This means that the game is welcoming to new players, stable, and polished with enough gameplay and content to engage players continuously. In other words, it is no longer Alpha or Early Access.\n\nMuch like we planned out Squadron 42\u2019s drive to Feature Complete and the upcoming Content Complete status, we spent significant time looking at what Star Citizen 1.0 means and what it would take to get there.\n\nTo facilitate this, I am pleased to share that our very own Rich Tyrer will be taking on a new role as Senior Game Director, overseeing both the development of Star Citizen and Squadron 42 alongside me. With this change, you\u2019ll start to see a more rapid expansion of features and content coming from Squadron 42 to Star Citizen, starting with Alpha 3.23, which is shaping up to be one of our biggest releases to date in terms of new features getting into player\u2019s hands. When we announced at CitizenCon that we would start bringing across feature work that we had developed and refined in the push to feature complete for Squadron 42, we were not kidding!\n\nAs Game Director on Squadron 42, Rich played a crucial role in helping steer Squadron 42 to its current Feature Complete status. Under his stewardship, Squadron 42 experienced a significant surge of progress, a momentum we fully anticipate will continue to carry us towards Content Complete, Beta, and release.\n\nWorking in tandem, Rich and I will continue to establish the strategic vision to bring to life the intended Star Citizen gameplay experience. As Rich said, over the past few months, our teams have been busily planning the upcoming major milestones for the Persistent Universe, culminating in what we refer to as \"Star Citizen 1.0.\" As that roadmap comes together and becomes validated, we look forward to sharing with you both its vision and executional plan later this year.\n\nAs part of this development re-organization, we have made a few significant changes. From a personal standpoint I have moved to Austin, Texas from Los Angeles to be closer in time zone to our main development operations in Manchester, Frankfurt, and Montreal. I am spending significant time at our largest studio in Manchester with almost 600 staff, as I sit with Rich and the teams, working towards completion on Squadron 42 and Star Citizen. As part of this, we made the difficult decision to ask the Los Angeles development team, which had increasingly been providing support for the main development teams based in Manchester, to relocate to join other teams, primarily in Manchester, but also in Austin and Montreal. Los Angeles, while shrinking, will still be an important office for the company, but one focusing on a business support role with Marketing, Finance, Legal and HR. As part of this reorganization, we sadly waved goodbye to the Persistent Universe Live Director, Todd Papy as he had moved back to the US from the UK last year for family reasons, and after much soul searching, I determined that we cannot afford to have this role remote from the main team in Manchester for a good portion of the year. It is a sad moment, as Todd worked diligently for the last 9 years on Star Citizen, making many important contributions and providing excellent leadership of his teams. I wish him the best of luck and look forward to seeing what he does next.\n\nI will miss the sunny skies and beaches of Los Angeles, but Star Citizen and Squadron 42 take precedence. The journey is longer and more difficult than I anticipated 11 \u00bd years ago, but the final destination is so much more exciting and fulfilling. I would have never in my dreams expected to have the opportunity to build something on the scale and ambition of Star Citizen, and because of this feel incredibly blessed by all of your support, and I am determined to finish strong.\n\nIn a marathon, they say the last mile is the hardest, but to quote the Roman emperor Marcus Aurelius, \u201cWhat we do now echoes in eternity!\u201d\n\nI am looking forward to you getting your hands on Star Citizen Alpha 3.23 soon, where you will finally be able to experience many features we have been hard at work on for the past couple of years, which will then lead into Invictus Launch Week in May. As a lead up to Invictus, we have prepared a series of missions to earn your UEE Civilian Defense Force Stripes, and potentially earn an (incredibly powerful and unprecedented) in-game upgrade if you complete all of them, so you are ready to face XenoThreat in a more personal manner!\n\nThe Power of Community\nThe driving force behind our success is our extended team \u2013 each and every one of you. Together, we have built a community that not only plays a crucial role in our development, but also embodies our shared passion for the Star Citizen universe. It is you who has propelled us forward. Without your passion, your willingness to test, to be undeterred by bugs and crashes, to be vocal with your thoughts, and stamina for the long and windy road, there would be no Star Citizen or CIG.\n\nYou were there for the iconic helmet flip and the opening of the hangar doors for the first time in Alpha 0.8. Together, we explored the vast expanse of the Persistent Universe for the first time in Alpha 2.0, and you were onboard for the inaugural planetary landing in Alpha 3.0. And soon we will be leaving the Stanton System as we venture into the lawless wastelands of the Pyro system in Alpha 4.0 thanks to Server Meshing. And beyond this Star Citizen 1.0 twinkles on the horizon! The future has never been so bright!\n\nAnd I couldn\u2019t be happier taking this journey with all of you!","de_DE":"\"Was wir jetzt tun, hallt in der Ewigkeit wider\"\n- Marcus Aurelius\n\n\n\n\nDas Jahr 2023 markiert den Beginn eines transformativen Kapitels f\u00fcr Cloud Imperium und unsere beiden Spiele.\n\nMit Alpha 3.18, dem ersten Release von 2023, hat das Team Persistent Entity Streaming (PES) eingef\u00fchrt, die grundlegende Technologie, die f\u00fcr Server Meshing (SM) notwendig ist. Wie wir im letzten Brief erw\u00e4hnt haben, ist PES der schwierigste Teil der Arbeit, die f\u00fcr SM n\u00f6tig ist, und erforderte die meiste Entwicklungsarbeit, so dass die Bew\u00e4ltigung der Herausforderungen mit dieser Ver\u00f6ffentlichung im letzten Jahr entscheidend war. Der Start von Alpha 3.18 war weitaus schwieriger, als wir erwartet hatten, und wir entdeckten einige Probleme mit unserer Backend-Datenbank, die nur in der Gr\u00f6\u00dfenordnung sichtbar waren, die wir bei einer Live-Ver\u00f6ffentlichung im Gegensatz zum Persistent Test Universe (PTU) sehen. Abgesehen davon haben wir viele kleine Probleme entdeckt, die ein wirklich persistentes Universum mit sich bringt: Es ist zwar toll, auf ein Wrack eines Spielerkampfes von vor einer Woche zu sto\u00dfen, aber es macht nicht so viel Spa\u00df, in einem Hangar zu landen, in dem die letzten drei Schiffe abgest\u00fcrzt sind und Tr\u00fcmmer hinterlassen haben, die deinen Landeplatz blockieren. Wir arbeiteten uns langsam durch diese und andere Probleme, aber es war eine herausfordernde Zeit sowohl f\u00fcr das Entwicklerteam als auch f\u00fcr die Community. Diese Hindernisse stellten nicht nur unser K\u00f6nnen und unsere Entschlossenheit auf die Probe, sondern zeigten auch, dass wir sie \u00fcberwinden k\u00f6nnen.\n\nNeben den \u00f6ffentlichen Arbeitsverwaltungen wurde im Jahr 2023 auch die lang erwartete Bergungsfunktion eingef\u00fchrt, die das Abwracken des Schiffsrumpfes, die Reparatur von Bauteilen und Komponenten sowie entsprechende Missionen umfasst. H\u00e4ndler profitierten von einem \u00fcberarbeiteten (kein Wortspiel beabsichtigt) und physischen Frachtsystem, w\u00e4hrend sich Spieler\/innen \u00fcber viele neue Missionen freuen konnten, die sowohl PVE- als auch PVP-Szenarien umfassen.\n\nUnsere Entwicklung hat im letzten Jahr eine Reihe von wichtigen Meilensteinen erreicht, die alle auf der CitizenCon 2953 im Mittelpunkt standen. Die Bedeutung dieses Ereignisses f\u00fcr alle bei CIG kann gar nicht hoch genug eingesch\u00e4tzt werden, vor allem, wenn man bedenkt, dass es unsere erste CitizenCon in Person seit \u00fcber vier Jahren war! Wir haben uns von Anfang an von eurer Begeisterung anstecken lassen und wir haben die Energie vermisst, die entsteht, wenn wir Zeit miteinander verbringen und unsere gemeinsame Begeisterung \u00fcber das, was wir aufbauen, teilen.\n\nDie Show war eine unglaubliche Best\u00e4tigung f\u00fcr all unsere harte Arbeit sowohl an Star Citizen als auch an Squadron 42 in 2023 und bildete den Auftakt zu unserem bisher besten vierten Quartal in Bezug auf Spieleranmeldungen und -beteiligungen. Dank euch allen und einer riesigen Welle im vierten Quartal war 2023 unser bestes Jahr aller Zeiten, mit Rekordwerten bei den t\u00e4glich aktiven Spielern, den monatlich aktiven Spielern, den einmaligen Logins und den gespielten Stunden f\u00fcr das Jahr. Mehr als 1,1 Millionen von euch haben im Jahr 2023 einen Fu\u00df in das Persistent Universe gesetzt!\n\nDer andere gro\u00dfe Meilenstein im Jahr 2023 war die Aufnahme des Teams von Turbulent in die CIG-Familie. Turbulent ist seit Ende 2012 unser Partner und war f\u00fcr gro\u00dfe Teile unserer Online-Infrastruktur verantwortlich und hat wesentlich zu unserem Wachstum und Erfolg beigetragen. Diese \u00dcbernahme erm\u00f6glicht es uns, unsere Bem\u00fchungen zu straffen, und verschafft uns offiziell eine bedeutende Pr\u00e4senz in Montreal, Kanada, einer Hochburg f\u00fcr Videospieltalente. Als Teil dieser \u00dcbernahme haben wir zwei wichtige F\u00fchrungskr\u00e4fte gewonnen: Benoit Beausejour, den Chief Technical Officer von Turbulent, der nun CTO von Cloud Imperium und Leiter unserer Core Technology Group (CTG) wird. Du kennst Benoit bereits von seinen Pr\u00e4sentationen \u00fcber unsere Server-Meshing-Pl\u00e4ne auf den letzten beiden CitizenCons. Die zweite wichtige F\u00fchrungskraft, die zu uns st\u00f6\u00dft, ist Marc Beaudet. Er war CEO von Turbulent und wird unser Senior Vice President, Studio Operations, der f\u00fcr den Betrieb und das Wohlergehen der mehr als tausend Mitarbeiter verantwortlich ist, die an Star Citizen und Squadron 42 arbeiten und sich auf unsere f\u00fcnf B\u00fcros in Austin, Texas, Los Angeles, Kalifornien, Manchester, England, Frankfurt, Deutschland und jetzt Montreal, Kanada verteilen.\n\nWenn ich auf das Jahr 2023 zur\u00fcckblicke und ein paar Monate Zeit habe, die harte Arbeit des Teams um mich herum zu reflektieren und zu w\u00fcrdigen, kann ich sagen, dass unsere Erfahrungen auf der CitizenCon 2953 und die Begeisterung unserer Community, die sich im letzten Jahr in Rekordzahlen in Star Citizen eingeloggt hat, mich nicht nur stolz, sondern auch sehr dankbar und gest\u00e4rkt f\u00fcr das kommende Jahr gemacht haben.\n\nUnd was f\u00fcr ein Jahr wird das werden!\nBei Squadron 42 geht es darum, das Spiel von \"Feature Complete\" auf \"Content Complete\" zu bringen und sicherzustellen, dass das Spiel den n\u00f6tigen Schliff erh\u00e4lt und sich w\u00fcrdig anf\u00fchlt, der geistige Nachfolger von Wing Commander zu sein. Zu diesem Zweck arbeitet das Team hart und mit gesenktem Kopf auf die Ziellinie zu. Ich bin unglaublich gespannt darauf, wie sich das Spiel entwickelt, und wir werden auf der diesj\u00e4hrigen CitizenCon, die in Manchester, England, stattfinden wird, mehr mit euch teilen k\u00f6nnen.\n\nAn der Star Citizen-Front bereiten sich die Teams auf das Server Meshing und die Erweiterung des Universums von Star Citizen auf mehrere Sternensysteme vor.\n\nEiner der wichtigsten Meilensteine menschlicher Errungenschaften in der Geschichte von Star Citizen ist der \"Erste Sprungtag\", als der legend\u00e4re menschliche Astrophysiker und Pilot Nick Croshaw am 10. April 2271 den ersten Sprungpunkt entdeckte und navigierte und als erster Mensch ein Planetensystem jenseits von Sol besuchte.\n\nDas System wurde ihm zu Ehren Croshaw genannt - seine Reise wurde als \"der Sprung, der den Kurs der Menschheit ver\u00e4nderte\" bezeichnet - und f\u00fchrte zu der sternenklaren Zukunft, die wir in Star Citizen und Squadron 42 darstellen.\n\nDu fragst dich vielleicht, warum ich dir diese Geschichte erz\u00e4hle - nun, ein wenig vor dem historischen Datum des 10. April hatten wir dieses Wochenende unsere eigene Feier zum Tag des ersten Sprungs auf dem Tech Preview Channel von Star Citizen! Um unsere Fortschritte beim Server Meshing und der Replikationsschicht-Technologie zu testen, haben wir unsere ersten funktionierenden Sprungtore ge\u00f6ffnet und den Spielern die M\u00f6glichkeit gegeben, zum ersten Mal in unserer Geschichte zwischen unseren beiden Systemen zu reisen! Die Spielerinnen und Spieler konnten \u00fcber Wurml\u00f6cher zwischen Stanton und Pyro reisen, wobei beide Systeme nahtlos ineinander \u00fcbergingen. F\u00fcr alle, die es interessiert, sei gesagt, dass die Nick-Croshaw-Ehrung unseres Verses an ein Evocati-Mitglied namens \"MrTrash\" geht, der, wie wir glauben, der erste in der Community war, der erfolgreich gesprungen ist! Besonders erw\u00e4hnenswert ist, dass wir w\u00e4hrend des Tests 350 gleichzeitige Spieler auf einem einzigen Shard (d.h. einem Replikations-Layer mit zwei verbundenen Servern) erreicht haben, was einen neuen Rekord f\u00fcr gleichzeitige Spieler auf einer einzigen Instanz in Star Citizen darstellt!\n\nNach vielen Jahren harter Arbeit an einem Ziel, das viele f\u00fcr unm\u00f6glich hielten, stehen wir kurz davor, eines der letzten Teile der Technologie zu liefern, die ein vernetztes, gemeinsames Universum erm\u00f6glichen wird, das Tausende von Menschen gleichzeitig erleben k\u00f6nnen.\n\nIch habe Benoit, der diesen historischen Test als unser neuer CTO beaufsichtigt hat, eingeladen, ein paar Gedanken zu diesem monumentalen Meilenstein zu \u00e4u\u00dfern, an dessen Verwirklichung er beteiligt war:\n\nMit Blick auf das vor uns liegende Jahr konzentriert sich das Team weiterhin darauf, die Community mit der Ver\u00f6ffentlichung von Pyro und der Star Citizen Alpha 4.0 in unerforschte Gebiete zu f\u00fchren. Ich kann gar nicht genug betonen, wie wichtig dies ist, denn es wird viel mehr Menschen erm\u00f6glichen, zusammen zu spielen und nahtlos in verschiedene Sternensysteme zu reisen.\n\nAll das deutet darauf hin, dass 2024 unser bisher gr\u00f6\u00dftes und bestes Jahr im Universum von Star Citizen sein wird. Aber Star Citizen Alpha 4.0 ist nicht unser letztes Ziel! Und damit habe ich weitere aufregende Neuigkeiten zu verk\u00fcnden.\n\nWie wir auf der CitizenCon mit dem Erreichen des Meilensteins \"Feature Complete\" f\u00fcr Squadron 42 verk\u00fcndet haben, k\u00f6nnen wir nun die f\u00fcr Squadron 42 entwickelten Features schneller in das persistente Universum bringen.\n\nIn diesem Zusammenhang haben wir gegen Ende des letzten Jahres beschlossen, die Teams von Star Citizen und Squadron 42 neu zu organisieren, um sie besser zu integrieren, die Arbeit an den Features und den Feinschliff von mehreren Jahren in Star Citizen zu erleichtern und endlich die Segel in Richtung der Ziellinie von Star Citizen zu setzen.\n\nWir sind uns zwar bewusst, dass es in einem Online-MMO keine endg\u00fcltige Ziellinie gibt und dass wir noch viele, viele Jahre lang immer wieder neue Features und Inhalte hinzuf\u00fcgen werden, aber Star Citizen 1.0 ist das, was wir als \"kommerzielle\" Ver\u00f6ffentlichung betrachten. Das bedeutet, dass das Spiel neuen Spielern offensteht, stabil ist und genug Gameplay und Inhalte bietet, um die Spieler dauerhaft zu besch\u00e4ftigen. Mit anderen Worten, es ist nicht l\u00e4nger Alpha oder Early Access.\n\n\u00c4hnlich wie wir den Weg von Squadron 42 bis zum Status \"Feature Complete\" und den bevorstehenden Status \"Content Complete\" geplant haben, haben wir viel Zeit damit verbracht, herauszufinden, was Star Citizen 1.0 bedeutet und was es braucht, um dieses Ziel zu erreichen.\n\nUm dies zu erleichtern, freue ich mich, euch mitteilen zu k\u00f6nnen, dass Rich Tyrer eine neue Rolle als Senior Game Director \u00fcbernehmen wird und neben mir sowohl die Entwicklung von Star Citizen als auch von Squadron 42 beaufsichtigen wird. Mit dieser \u00c4nderung werdet ihr eine schnellere Ausweitung der Funktionen und Inhalte von Squadron 42 auf Star Citizen erleben, beginnend mit der Alpha 3.23, die sich zu einer unserer bisher gr\u00f6\u00dften Ver\u00f6ffentlichungen entwickelt, was die neuen Funktionen angeht, die den Spielern zur Verf\u00fcgung stehen. Als wir auf der CitizenCon ank\u00fcndigten, dass wir damit beginnen w\u00fcrden, die von uns entwickelten und verfeinerten Features f\u00fcr Squadron 42 zu ver\u00f6ffentlichen, haben wir nicht gescherzt!\n\nAls Game Director von Squadron 42 hat Rich eine entscheidende Rolle dabei gespielt, Squadron 42 zu seinem aktuellen Feature Complete-Status zu f\u00fchren. Unter seiner Leitung erlebte Squadron 42 einen bedeutenden Schub an Fortschritten, eine Dynamik, von der wir \u00fcberzeugt sind, dass sie uns weiter in Richtung Content Complete, Beta und Ver\u00f6ffentlichung tragen wird.\n\nGemeinsam werden Rich und ich weiterhin die strategische Vision entwickeln, um das geplante Star Citizen-Spielerlebnis zum Leben zu erwecken. Wie Rich schon sagte, haben unsere Teams in den letzten Monaten flei\u00dfig die kommenden wichtigen Meilensteine f\u00fcr das persistente Universum geplant, die in dem gipfeln, was wir als \"Star Citizen 1.0\" bezeichnen. Wir freuen uns darauf, euch im Laufe des Jahres sowohl die Vision als auch den Ausf\u00fchrungsplan vorzustellen, sobald diese Roadmap fertiggestellt und best\u00e4tigt ist.\n\nIm Rahmen dieser Umstrukturierung der Entwicklung haben wir einige wichtige \u00c4nderungen vorgenommen. Aus pers\u00f6nlicher Sicht bin ich von Los Angeles nach Austin, Texas, gezogen, um zeitlich n\u00e4her an unseren Hauptentwicklungsstandorten in Manchester, Frankfurt und Montreal zu sein. Ich verbringe viel Zeit in unserem gr\u00f6\u00dften Studio in Manchester mit fast 600 Mitarbeitern, wo ich mit Rich und den Teams zusammensitze und an der Fertigstellung von Squadron 42 und Star Citizen arbeite. In diesem Zusammenhang haben wir die schwierige Entscheidung getroffen, das Entwicklungsteam in Los Angeles, das die Hauptentwicklungsteams in Manchester zunehmend unterst\u00fctzt hat, zu bitten, zu anderen Teams umzuziehen, haupts\u00e4chlich nach Manchester, aber auch nach Austin und Montreal. Los Angeles wird zwar schrumpfen, aber immer noch ein wichtiger Standort f\u00fcr das Unternehmen sein, der sich jedoch auf die Unterst\u00fctzung der Bereiche Marketing, Finanzen, Recht und Personal konzentriert. Im Zuge dieser Umstrukturierung haben wir uns leider von Todd Papy, dem Live-Direktor von Persistent Universe, verabschiedet, da er letztes Jahr aus famili\u00e4ren Gr\u00fcnden von Gro\u00dfbritannien zur\u00fcck in die USA gezogen ist und ich nach reiflicher \u00dcberlegung zu dem Schluss gekommen bin, dass wir es uns nicht leisten k\u00f6nnen, diese Funktion f\u00fcr einen Gro\u00dfteil des Jahres vom Hauptteam in Manchester getrennt zu halten. Es ist ein trauriger Moment, denn Todd hat in den letzten 9 Jahren flei\u00dfig an Star Citizen gearbeitet, viele wichtige Beitr\u00e4ge geleistet und seine Teams hervorragend geleitet. Ich w\u00fcnsche ihm viel Gl\u00fcck und bin gespannt, was er als n\u00e4chstes macht.\n\nIch werde den sonnigen Himmel und die Str\u00e4nde von Los Angeles vermissen, aber Star Citizen und Squadron 42 haben Vorrang. Die Reise ist l\u00e4nger und schwieriger, als ich vor 11 \u00bd Jahren erwartet habe, aber das Endziel ist so viel aufregender und erf\u00fcllender. Ich h\u00e4tte nie im Traum damit gerechnet, dass ich die M\u00f6glichkeit haben w\u00fcrde, etwas in der Gr\u00f6\u00dfenordnung und mit dem Ehrgeiz von Star Citizen aufzubauen, und deshalb f\u00fchle ich mich unglaublich gesegnet durch all eure Unterst\u00fctzung und bin entschlossen, es stark zu beenden.\n\nBeim Marathon hei\u00dft es, dass die letzte Meile die h\u00e4rteste ist, aber um den r\u00f6mischen Kaiser Marcus Aurelius zu zitieren: \"Was wir jetzt tun, hallt in der Ewigkeit wider!\"\n\nIch freue mich darauf, dass du bald die Star Citizen Alpha 3.23 in die H\u00e4nde bekommst, in der du endlich viele Features erleben kannst, an denen wir in den letzten Jahren hart gearbeitet haben, und die dann in die Invictus Launch Week im Mai m\u00fcnden wird. Als Vorbereitung auf Invictus haben wir eine Reihe von Missionen vorbereitet, in denen du dir deine UEE Civilian Defense Force Stripes verdienen kannst und m\u00f6glicherweise ein (unglaublich m\u00e4chtiges und noch nie dagewesenes) Upgrade im Spiel erh\u00e4ltst, wenn du alle Missionen abschlie\u00dft, damit du bereit bist, XenoThreat auf eine pers\u00f6nlichere Art zu begegnen!\n\nDie Macht der Gemeinschaft\nDie treibende Kraft hinter unserem Erfolg ist unser gro\u00dfes Team - jeder Einzelne von euch. Gemeinsam haben wir eine Community aufgebaut, die nicht nur eine entscheidende Rolle in unserer Entwicklung spielt, sondern auch unsere gemeinsame Leidenschaft f\u00fcr das Star Citizen Universum verk\u00f6rpert. Ihr seid es, die uns vorangebracht haben. Ohne eure Leidenschaft, eure Bereitschaft zu testen, euch von Bugs und Abst\u00fcrzen nicht abschrecken zu lassen, eure Gedanken zu \u00e4u\u00dfern und euer Durchhalteverm\u00f6gen auf dem langen und steinigen Weg, g\u00e4be es weder Star Citizen noch CIG.\n\nDu warst dabei, als in Alpha 0.8 zum ersten Mal der kultige Helm umgeschlagen und die Hangartore ge\u00f6ffnet wurden. Gemeinsam haben wir in Alpha 2.0 zum ersten Mal die unendlichen Weiten des persistenten Universums erkundet, und du warst bei der ersten Planetenlandung in Alpha 3.0 dabei. Und schon bald werden wir das Stanton-System verlassen und uns in Alpha 4.0 dank Server Meshing in die gesetzlose Ein\u00f6de des Pyro-Systems wagen. Und dar\u00fcber hinaus funkelt Star Citizen 1.0 am Horizont! Die Zukunft war noch nie so hell!\n\nUnd ich k\u00f6nnte nicht gl\u00fccklicher sein, diese Reise mit euch allen anzutreten!","zh_CN":"\u201cAs the new Chief Technology Officer at Cloud Imperium, I'm thrilled to join the CIG family and lead our technology group. We're dedicated to pushing\nboundaries, and I'm honored to represent and care for this team of pioneers and trailblazers.\n\nOne of my first initiatives as CTO was establishing the Technology Preview channel. It's a space where developers can fearlessly test large technology\nchanges with players way before they go live, fostering the spirit of open development with our community.\n\nIn 2024, our Server Meshing journey is hitting its stride after years of dedication. We're closing in on the original vision we set out to achieve.\n\nThis journey started long ago with the introduction of streaming capabilities to StarEngine like Client-side Object Container Streaming (OCS) followed\nby Server-side Object Container Streaming (SOCS), and progressing to Persistent Entity Streaming (PES) to maintain the entire game world; every step\nhas been building toward our goal: To support MMO-level player populations in a high fidelity game environment of large magnitude.\n\nWe are gearing up to release the replication layer in 3.23. This is a big deal\u2014it's the foundation we build the mesh on. As a player you should perceive\nthis specifically when dealing with server crashes (30k) as those will no longer cause immediate disconnection but \u201cgracefully\u201d recover allowing you to\ncontinue to play. For developers, this milestone marks the true separation between the simulation and the replication, a humongous achievement for the\ngame and for StarEngine.\n\nBut hey, we're not hitting pause there. We're charging full steam ahead towards launching our first multi-server mesh in 4.0. For this, multiple servers work together to simulate parts of the universe. As a player, this will enable you to visit Pyro through the Jump Gate, where the jump tunnels transition seamlessly between game servers. Game shards will also host more players so you should encounter more friends (or foes) along the way.\n\nThis will mark a new beginning for our game architecture. In the coming weeks and months, get ready for more Technical Preview tests with various mesh configurations: multiple game servers per solar system and seamless transitions without gates. We're talking about layouts where servers are dedicated to\nentire planets and moons, others focused solely on Landing Zones or other key locations, with plenty of higher player count experiments.\n\nI'm genuinely proud to be part of this team. While we face challenges ahead, I'm filled with relentless optimism knowing that amazing successes are waiting for us.\n\nO7!\"\n\n- Benoit Beausejour, CTO\n\n\u201cFirstly, I\u2019d like to take this opportunity to say how great it is to be back working on Star Citizen. Some of you may already know me but I was the\nCore Gameplay Pillar Director before I moved over to become the Game Director on SQ42 a few years back. With this new role I will be coming on\nboard to help push Star Citizen to the next stage of its development, ultimately culminating in leaving early access and releasing the 1.0 version\nof the game.\n\nThis begins with identifying what features and content are required to create a fully realised space MMO while laying the foundations for future\nupdates. To be 100% clear though, this doesn\u2019t mean going back to the drawing board or totally changing the vision of what SC currently is. With\nthis aim, Chris and I have overseen the creation of a roadmap that takes us all the way up to 1.0 and outlines all the features and content we need,\nand just as crucially, the ones that will come post full release.\n\nWith my role now overseeing both projects with Chris, and the fact that SQ42 has hit its Feature Complete milestone, it has provided an opportunity\nto reshuffle the teams. This should see a large contingent of gameplay teams now coming back to focus on SC. We\u2019ve also taken the opportunity to\nmove away from heavily specialised teams like Actor Feature and Vehicle Feature to more generic gameplay teams that should allow us to be a lot\nmore flexible and shoulder some of the heavier burdens those teams used to carry.\n\nWhile these teams will still be instrumental in shipping SQ42, they will now be focussed on bringing all the existing features over to SC, as well as\nworking on brand-new features like Base Building and Crafting to help round out the 1.0 experience.\n\nWith every release going forward, the intention is to move ourselves closer to that end goal \u2013 so you should expect to see large updates each quarter\nwith many changes to systems that have not been touched in a long time like Economy, Insurance, etc., alongside a whole suite of quality-of-life\nimprovements to things like Inventory, Missions, mobiGlas, etc. coupled with totally brand-new features and content.\n\nWe have set very ambitious goals for ourselves internally both for the game and technology teams, but Chris and I truly believe they are achievable, and\nhopefully you can start to see that progress starting with 3.23 and beyond.\n\n\u25ba Rich Tyrer, Senior Game Director\n\n\u201cWhat we do now echoes in eternity\u201d\n- Marcus Aurelius\n\n\n\n\n2023 marked the beginning of a transformative chapter for Cloud Imperium and both of our games.\n\nWith Alpha 3.18, our first release of 2023, the team delivered Persistent Entity Streaming (PES), the foundational tech that is necessary for Server Meshing (SM). As we mentioned in the last letter, PES is the hardest part of the work needed for SM and is the one that required the most engineering, so overcoming the challenges with this release last year was mission critical. The launch of Alpha 3.18 was far more challenging than we anticipated, and we discovered some issues with our backend database that only were visible at the scale we see on a live release as opposed to the Persistent Test Universe (PTU). Outside of this, we uncovered a lot of little issues that come from a truly persistent universe; while it is amazing to come across a wreck from a player combat a week ago, it is not so fun to try and land at a hangar where the last three ships crashed and left debris laying around, blocking your landing pad. We slowly worked through these issues, and others, but it was a challenging time both for the development team and the community. These obstacles not only tested our skills and determination but also demonstrated our resilience as we overcame them.\n\nBeyond PES, 2023 welcomed the long-awaited implementation of Salvage, encompassing hull stripping, structural, component, and repair, accompanied by relevant missions. Traders reaped the benefits of an overhauled (no pun intended) and physicalized cargo system, while players across the board enjoyed many new missions spanning both PVE and PVP scenarios.\n\nOur development journey reached a series of significant milestones last year, all of which took center stage at CitizenCon 2953. The magnitude of this event for everyone at CIG cannot be overstated, especially considering it marked our first in-person CitizenCon in over four years! We have been powered by all of your excitement since the very beginning of the journey, and we\u2019ve missed the energy that comes from spending time together sharing our mutual excitement about what we\u2019re building.\n\nThe show was an incredible affirmation of all our hard work both on Star Citizen and Squadron 42 in 2023, and kicked off our best Q4 ever in terms of player logins and engagements. Thanks to all of you, and a huge wave in Q4, 2023 was our best year ever, with record highs in daily active players, monthly active players, unique logins, and hours played for the year. More than 1.1 million of you set foot into the Persistent Universe in 2023!\n\nThe other major milestone in 2023 was welcoming the team at Turbulent fully into the CIG family. Our partners since the end of 2012, Turbulent have been responsible for large parts of our online infrastructure, and have greatly contributed to our growth and success. This acquisition allows us to streamline our efforts and formally gives us a significant presence in Montreal, Canada, which is a hot bed of video game talent. As part of this acquisition, we gained two key senior executives; Benoit Beausejour, the Chief Technical Officer of Turbulent, who now becomes the CTO of Cloud Imperium and the head of our Core Technology Group (CTG). You already will know Benoit from his presentations on our Server Meshing plans at the last two CitizenCons. The second key executive to join our ranks is Marc Beaudet, who was the CEO of Turbulent and becomes our Senior Vice President, Studio Operations, in charge of the operations and welfare of the thousand plus people working on Star Citizen and Squadron 42, spread between our five offices in Austin, Texas, Los Angeles, California, Manchester, England, Frankfurt, Germany, and now Montreal, Canada.\n\nAs I look back on 2023, with a few months now to reflect and appreciate the hard work of the team around me, I can say that our experience at CitizenCon 2953, and the excitement from our community both at the show and in the game as they logged into Star Citizen in record numbers last year, left me feeling not only proud, but also deeply grateful and reinvigorated for the year ahead.\n\nAnd what a year it is shaping up to be!\nOn Squadron 42 that is taking the game from Feature Complete to Content Complete, ensuring the game has the necessary polish and feels worthy of being the spiritual successor to Wing Commander. To this end the team is hard at work, heads down, driving towards the finish line. I am incredibly excited about how the game is shaping up and we will have more to share with you at this year\u2019s CitizenCon, which will be held in Manchester, England.\n\nOn the Star Citizen front, the teams are preparing to deliver Server Meshing and expanding the universe of Star Citizen to multiple Star Systems.\n\nOne of the key milestones of human achievement in the lore of Star Citizen is \u201cFirst Jump Day,\u201d when legendary Human astrophysicist and pilot, Nick Croshaw, discovered and navigated the first Jump Point, on 10th April 2271, and became the first Human to visit a planetary system beyond Sol.\n\nEventually that system was named Croshaw in his honor - his journey was described as \u201cthe Jump that changed the course of Humanity\u201d - and led to the star-faring future we depict in Star Citizen and Squadron 42.\n\nYou might wonder why I am telling you this story \u2013 well, a little ahead of the historic date of April 10th, we had our own First Jump Day celebration on Star Citizen\u2019s Tech Preview Channel this weekend! For this test of our progress on Server Meshing and the Replication layer technology, we opened our first functioning Jump Gates, and allowed players to test travelling between our 2 systems for the first time in our history! Players were able to travel between Stanton and Pyro via wormholes, with each system streaming in and out seamlessly. For those of you interested, our \u2018verse\u2019s own Nick Croshaw honor goes to an Evocati member called \u201cMrTrash,\u201d who we believe was the first in the community to successfully jump! During the test, it is worth highlighting that we also achieved 350 concurrent players in a single shard (e.g. a Replication Layer with two connected servers), setting a new record for concurrent players in a single instance in Star Citizen!\n\nAfter many hard years of work towards a goal many thought was impossible, we are on the cusp of delivering one of the final pieces of technology that will enable a connected, shared universe that thousands of people can experience together at the same time.\n\nI invited Benoit, who oversaw this historic test as our new CTO, to share a few thoughts about this monumental milestone he helped bring to fruition:\n\nAs we set our sights on the year ahead, the team remains focused and committed to ushering the community into uncharted territories with the release of Pyro and Star Citizen Alpha 4.0. I cannot stress how much this is an inflection point, as it will allow many more people to play together, but also to seamlessly travel to different Star Systems.\n\nAll of this points towards 2024 being our biggest and best year yet in the universe of Star Citizen. But Star Citizen Alpha 4.0 is not our final destination! And with that I have more exciting news to share.\n\nAs we revealed at CitizenCon with Squadron 42 achieving the Feature Complete milestone, we are now able to bring features developed for Squadron 42 to the persistent universe at an accelerated rate.\n\nAs part of this, towards the end of last year we decided to re-organize the Star Citizen and Squadron 42 teams to be more integrated, to facilitate bringing several years\u2019 worth of feature work and polish to Star Citizen, and finally set our sail out for Star Citizen\u2019s own finish line.\n\nWhile we recognize that there is no definitive finish line in an online MMO, and that we will always be adding new features and content for many, many years to come, Star Citizen 1.0 is what we consider the features and content set to represent \u201ccommercial\u201d release. This means that the game is welcoming to new players, stable, and polished with enough gameplay and content to engage players continuously. In other words, it is no longer Alpha or Early Access.\n\nMuch like we planned out Squadron 42\u2019s drive to Feature Complete and the upcoming Content Complete status, we spent significant time looking at what Star Citizen 1.0 means and what it would take to get there.\n\nTo facilitate this, I am pleased to share that our very own Rich Tyrer will be taking on a new role as Senior Game Director, overseeing both the development of Star Citizen and Squadron 42 alongside me. With this change, you\u2019ll start to see a more rapid expansion of features and content coming from Squadron 42 to Star Citizen, starting with Alpha 3.23, which is shaping up to be one of our biggest releases to date in terms of new features getting into player\u2019s hands. When we announced at CitizenCon that we would start bringing across feature work that we had developed and refined in the push to feature complete for Squadron 42, we were not kidding!\n\nAs Game Director on Squadron 42, Rich played a crucial role in helping steer Squadron 42 to its current Feature Complete status. Under his stewardship, Squadron 42 experienced a significant surge of progress, a momentum we fully anticipate will continue to carry us towards Content Complete, Beta, and release.\n\nWorking in tandem, Rich and I will continue to establish the strategic vision to bring to life the intended Star Citizen gameplay experience. As Rich said, over the past few months, our teams have been busily planning the upcoming major milestones for the Persistent Universe, culminating in what we refer to as \"Star Citizen 1.0.\" As that roadmap comes together and becomes validated, we look forward to sharing with you both its vision and executional plan later this year.\n\nAs part of this development re-organization, we have made a few significant changes. From a personal standpoint I have moved to Austin, Texas from Los Angeles to be closer in time zone to our main development operations in Manchester, Frankfurt, and Montreal. I am spending significant time at our largest studio in Manchester with almost 600 staff, as I sit with Rich and the teams, working towards completion on Squadron 42 and Star Citizen. As part of this, we made the difficult decision to ask the Los Angeles development team, which had increasingly been providing support for the main development teams based in Manchester, to relocate to join other teams, primarily in Manchester, but also in Austin and Montreal. Los Angeles, while shrinking, will still be an important office for the company, but one focusing on a business support role with Marketing, Finance, Legal and HR. As part of this reorganization, we sadly waved goodbye to the Persistent Universe Live Director, Todd Papy as he had moved back to the US from the UK last year for family reasons, and after much soul searching, I determined that we cannot afford to have this role remote from the main team in Manchester for a good portion of the year. It is a sad moment, as Todd worked diligently for the last 9 years on Star Citizen, making many important contributions and providing excellent leadership of his teams. I wish him the best of luck and look forward to seeing what he does next.\n\nI will miss the sunny skies and beaches of Los Angeles, but Star Citizen and Squadron 42 take precedence. The journey is longer and more difficult than I anticipated 11 \u00bd years ago, but the final destination is so much more exciting and fulfilling. I would have never in my dreams expected to have the opportunity to build something on the scale and ambition of Star Citizen, and because of this feel incredibly blessed by all of your support, and I am determined to finish strong.\n\nIn a marathon, they say the last mile is the hardest, but to quote the Roman emperor Marcus Aurelius, \u201cWhat we do now echoes in eternity!\u201d\n\nI am looking forward to you getting your hands on Star Citizen Alpha 3.23 soon, where you will finally be able to experience many features we have been hard at work on for the past couple of years, which will then lead into Invictus Launch Week in May. As a lead up to Invictus, we have prepared a series of missions to earn your UEE Civilian Defense Force Stripes, and potentially earn an (incredibly powerful and unprecedented) in-game upgrade if you complete all of them, so you are ready to face XenoThreat in a more personal manner!\n\nThe Power of Community\nThe driving force behind our success is our extended team \u2013 each and every one of you. Together, we have built a community that not only plays a crucial role in our development, but also embodies our shared passion for the Star Citizen universe. It is you who has propelled us forward. Without your passion, your willingness to test, to be undeterred by bugs and crashes, to be vocal with your thoughts, and stamina for the long and windy road, there would be no Star Citizen or CIG.\n\nYou were there for the iconic helmet flip and the opening of the hangar doors for the first time in Alpha 0.8. Together, we explored the vast expanse of the Persistent Universe for the first time in Alpha 2.0, and you were onboard for the inaugural planetary landing in Alpha 3.0. And soon we will be leaving the Stanton System as we venture into the lawless wastelands of the Pyro system in Alpha 4.0 thanks to Server Meshing. And beyond this Star Citizen 1.0 twinkles on the horizon! The future has never been so bright!\n\nAnd I couldn\u2019t be happier taking this journey with all of you!"},"links_count":0,"comment_count":0,"created_at":"2024-03-14T19:00:00+00:00","created_at_human":"2 years ago"},"meta":{"processed_at":"2026-05-10 00:37:53","valid_relations":["images","links"],"prev_id":19847,"next_id":19849}}