Greetings Citizens,
Star Citizen Alpha 1.1.1 is now available via the launcher! Today’s update adds a variety of bug fixes, balance changes and general updates intended to improve the Arena Commander experience. Additional bomber pilots can also man their planes: the Anvil Gladiator is now flyable! 1.1.1 adds manned turrets to three of our spacecraft and introduces a new type of large missile; further information about both of these systems is included below. Please let us know about your experiences with 1.1.1 below or on the forums; your feedback, experience with game balance and bug reporting helps us improve Star Citizen as we build the final game!

You can find the complete Star Citizen Alpha 1.1.1 patch notes here.

In honor of this release, we’ve made a significant update to the Arena Commander Pilot’s Guide! You can download the 1.1a version here.

Turrets Active
One major focus for the Star Citizen team is adding multi-crew ships to Arena Commander. This is a significant engineering challenge, but it’s something we’re already making great strides with. With Star Citizen Alpha 1.1.1, you can get a very early sneak peek of what’s to come. Starting today, three of our ships, the Super Hornet, the Cutlass Black and the newly released Gladiator, now feature basic turrets which can be manned by a second player.

Turret seats can’t be accessed via a menu yet, but pilots eager to experiment with the system can still use them. Simply have two players land in multiplayer Free Flight mode and then board a turret-equipped ship together! There’s a LOT more to come when it comes to multi-crew systems, but we hope you enjoy your very first taste of manning a ship together.

We’re putting the Gladiator and Super Hornet back on sale today for anyone interested in trying out the multi-seat capability. Both will also be available using REC.

Anvil Gladiator
Anvil F7C-M Super Hornet
Drake Cutlass Black
Bombs Away
You may notice that the Gladiator has something new: a quartet of very large (size 5) Stalker V missiles. We wanted to introduce this weapon in Arena Commander as we continue to develop the mechanics for our bombers.

The goal for the Gladiator is for it to fly like its inspiration: World War II dive bombers such as the SBD Dauntless and Aichi Val. Star Citizen will feature both large class torpedoes (like those on the Retaliator) that will require careful planning and nerve-wracking ranged attack runs AND large, high explosive missiles. The Gladiator’s job is to get in close. Where the Retaliator fires from a distance, the Gladiator is part of the delivery mechanism. You’ll line up your attack run, fight your way through the fighter screens and aim your ‘bomb’ where you want to hit a ship, swooping in close to fire it. These munitions punch through shields to hit the armour of a ship directly and once fired they’re very difficult to stop. If you’re on the opposing side, your job is to shoot down a Gladiator before it can release a payload.

There are no capital ships to attack in Arena Commander just yet, so we’ve provided a set of Stalkers for Gladiator pilots to experiment in Arena Commander before these new capital ship busters are introduced. After all, it never hurt anyone to have an especially large missile to experiment with! As no other currently available ships can mount a size 5 missile, they are not yet available separately in the REC store or Voyager Direct.

--- Sat Apr 11 2015 00:00:00 GMT+0200	
+++ Sat Apr 11 2015 00:00:00 GMT+0200	
@@ -9 +9 @@
-One major focus for the Star Citizen team is adding multi-crew ships to Arena Commander. This is a significant engineering challenge, but it’s something we’re already making great strides with. With Star Citizen Alpha 1.1.1, you can get a very early sneak peek of what’s to come. Starting today, three of our ships, the Super Hornet, the Cutlass Black and the newly released Gladiator, now feature basic turrets which can be manned by a second player. 
+One major focus for the Star Citizen team is adding multi-crew ships to Arena Commander. This is a significant engineering challenge, but it’s something we’re already making great strides with. With Star Citizen Alpha 1.1.1, you can get a very early sneak peek of what’s to come. Starting today, three of our ships, the Super Hornet, the Cutlass Black and the newly released Gladiator, now feature basic turrets which can be manned by a second player.