The seemingly never-ending funding for 2015’s Star Citizen just keeps on ramping up! Last I checked about the status of Star Citizen was back in July, where the combined contributions of Star Citizen’s initial Kickstarter campaign and donations from would-be players amounted to just under $14 million to help forge the fictional universe that Cloud Imperium Games’ director Chris Roberts wants to create.
Today, it was announced on Cloud Imperium’s official in-universe Star Citizen website– Roberts Space Industries (RSI ) –that the crowdfunding for this title has reached a whopping $31 million, surpassing a huge stretch goal in the process. At the time of writing, yet another stretch goal is about to be breached, as the total amount of funds for Star Citizen has hit–again, at the time of writing–$31,892,439, coming up rapidly close to its next $32 million stretch goal.
The $31 million stretch goal unlocks the RSI Orion, a massive mining platform, for would-be Star Citizen players to use for…well, mining. The official description of the Orion touts the platform of having “high-grade turret-mounted tractor beam arrays, durable exterior-accessible ‘saddlebags’ for mineral storage.” As it’s the only frame of reference I have, I imagine it’ll be a similar procedure to how mining ships do their thing in EVE Online: mine, and wait–and keeping a look out for potential rats / pirates that may (will) cause you trouble.
“It’s exciting to see sales of the Starfarer tanker push us past another stretch goal,” Chris Roberts wrote in a post , commemorating the $31 million milestone. “To me, that says that backers understand that Star Citizen is going to be deeper than just a combat game… that we’re going to make unique experiences for all kinds of players, from pirates to refuelers.
Hitting $31 million means you unlock the first of the player-selected role ships, the RSI Orion! Like the Starfarer, the Orion is the kind of ship you probably wouldn’t have flown in Wing Commander…but we intend to make it just as interesting as a fighter or a bomber!”
When the funding for Star Citizen hits $32 million, another ship will be unlocked for the game’s future players to mess around with. Officially described as being a salvage ship, the Aegis Surveyor will come with a “reinforced cargo bay, a long-range jump drive and launch pods for unmanned drones,” along with, “tractor beams, floodlights, scanner options and docking ports.” Simply put, this vessel sounds like the go-to ship if you’re the sort of salvager to pick up the scrapings from the aftermath of a battle to make a profit from.
As a thank you for all the support they have been given, Cloud Imperium will be hosting a four-hour long anniversary stream directly from their headquarters in California at 11am PST tomorrow morning. Stay close to the RSI website for more details on that!
Source: Roberts Space Industries .