The pledgers at Kickstarter just hit $1.5M and unlocked the Drake Interplanetary Caterpillar, a pirate-oriented armored transport! You can find the specifications below.

Pirate Ships

In other big news, we’ve added a special tier and add-on to appeal to players who’d like to start the game as a pirate! You can now add a Drake Cutlass fighter to your existing pledge or you can pick up a new copy of Star Citizen that includes the Cutlass. The package includes a tractor beam and a docking collar so you can start raiding commerce right off the bat! And if you live outside the law, you must look awesome: we also have two $5 pirate skin options, which you can preview right here on the Cutlass! You can pick them up here on RSI or by adding the appropriate funds to your Kickstarter pledge. This package is available only through the end of the pledge drive, so if you’d like a Cutlass with free lifetime insurance, pick it up now!

 

Subscriptions

Over the past month we’ve had a lot of requests from users who simply want to support the game. Some can’t afford to spend $250 on a higher pledge tier right now but would like to help out every month for a small amount. Then there are those that have already backed for a good amount but believe so strongly in the project that they want help make sure we can deliver as much content and functionality as possible by adding a monthly contribution.  We’re honored and humbled by this.

We welcome the support as every extra dollar allows us to flesh out the world with more ships, locations and features. If just 10% of the community helps out in this manner, we would be able to afford 6 additional team members. This would mean more artists to build ships and systems, game designers to flesh out missions and an additional person or two to service the community more effectively.

But we needed to sit back and figure out how to do this in a way that doesn’t violate our core principals. To that end, we want to make clear that there will NEVER be a subscription needed to play Star Citizen. Once you have backed you should not have to spend extra money to play the game. Similarly, Star Citizen will never be ‘pay to win,’ so we are not going to offer a subscription plan that gives some users special equipment or additional money or any kind of edge in combat. We feel strongly that everything that affects gameplay can be earned in game via your actions.

The only thing left is telling our story: letting you follow the development of the game. But here’s the thing: we’re already doing that. It was part of the promise we made when you pledged for your copy of Star Citizen in the first place and, again, we aren’t going to change any of our plans because it might mean more money. If you’ve paid for the game, everything at the site is yours for the next two years: the Comm-Link, the Spectrum Dispatches, the RSI Museum, the forums and the live chat… as is everything we haven’t rolled out yet, but will: engineering updates about the game mechanics, “holovids” of the gameplay as it takes shape, access to the Alpha and Beta and much more.

Instead, we’ve created an extra set of rewards and ways to follow our development for interested subscribers, divided into two levels: Centurion ($10/month) and Imperator ($20/month.) These are things that we’re confident we wouldn’t have done without the extra money and the time it allows us. Here’s the rundown:

Centurion:

• The ability to participate in the live monthly team “show and tell.” We will answer twenty questions from subscribers (selected via voting system.) Subscribers will watch the update live as it is being recorded.
• Jump Point, the monthly digital magazine of Star Citizen. A 4-6 page monthly newsletter which includes updates from the team and new in-universe Star Citizen fiction from the writing team.
• Access to “The Vault,” a collection of Star Citizen artwork that would otherwise never be seen, including ‘paths not taken’ discarded concept art for the true collector.
• An exclusive catalog of Star Citizen subscriber merchandise.
• Your name in the game. We can’t tell you where you’ll find it, but if you subscribe for at least 12 months your name will be located somewhere in the Star Citizen world!
• Centurion decal for your ship

Imperator:

• Everything listed above, plus…
• Visit Cloud Imperium and see how the game is made! Imperator-level subscribers will be allowed one visit per year (scheduled in advance) to the Star Citizen development offices in Austin or Los Angeles.
• Three wishes – Chris Roberts will personally reply to three of your questions a year.
• Your name on the wall-of-honor at Cloud Imperium HQ if you subscribe for at least 12 months.
• Jump Point: Year One, a printed collection of Jump Point issues provided to anyone who subscribes for the entire first year of development.
• Imperator decal for your Ship.

We’re excited about making these two development subscriptions available immediately, but once again our ambitions are a little bit ahead of our site’s capabilities. As such, we’re asking interested subscribers to purchase the Centurion or Imperator pledge from our main page. This will bill you for the first month. Once the crowd funding phase has ended we will then spend the time needed to properly implement a recurring charge through all our supported payment methods, which we will have up and running in time for your second month’s subscription payment.

We are eternally grateful for all the amazing support you’ve given us so far and we don’t expect any more from any of you.  This is completely optional and is all about your desire to see that Star Citizen is the richest game possible from the outset.

 

 

Caterpillar

Builder: Drake Intergalactic

Crew (max): 5

Mass (empty): 68,000 Kg (heavier due to armor)

Focus: Heavy Mercantile (Pirate)

Drake maintains that the Caterpillar, a sprawling, modular spacecraft which appears at least somewhat like its namesake, is for legitimate commerce and extended search and rescue missions… but at the end of the day, the Caterpillar is truly the evil twin of the Freelancer.

Designed for supporting pirate operations, the Caterpillar features a large cargo hold for carrying loot, heavier armor than other freighters in its class and room for five crew able to serve in boarding operations. Despite its heavier armor, the Caterpillar isn’t a bulldog… a succesful operation will require a fighter escort.

Upgrade Capacity: 8

Cargo Capacity: 20 tonnes

Engine-

Modifiers: 2

Max. Class: Anti-Matter

Thrusters: 2x TR5, 8 x TR2

Hardpoints-

4 x Class 2: Equipped 2 x Behring M2A Laser Cannon

2 x Class 3: Non Equipped

2 x Class 4: Equipped 2x Behring M5A Laser Cannon (turret), 1x L-Sys Mark III Tractor Beam