Greetings Citizens,

To be perfectly honest, I didn’t expect to have to write another letter so quickly. Damn you all for being the best, most supportive community in gaming! Hopefully you can forgive me for waiting until after the livestream for this post! The alien ships are a hit; we can’t wait to share more as they come together. Flying a Xi’An scout or a Banu merchantman will be a different experience than their human counterparts, and we’re dedicated to making it worthwhile. At the $32 million level, you’ve unlocked the Aegis Surveyor, a ship dedicated to salvage that also offers some emergent gameplay opportunities:

• Aegis Surveyor – The Surveyor, from noted military contractor Aegis, is an industrial-quality salvage ship. Equipped with a reinforced cargo bay, a long-range jump drive and launch pods for unmanned drones, the Surveyor is an ideal ship for taking advantage of deep space wrecks. Tractor beams, floodlights, scanner options and docking ports round out the tool chest on this capable, utilitarian spacecraft.

The winner of the $34 million ship role poll, in a photo finish, is smuggling! There are two typical paths for smuggling ships: fast, armored ships adapted to run blockades and escape the authorities when necessary and totally innocuous ships that keep their cargo hidden from prying scanners. Several of our existing ships, including the Banu Merchantman, are well-equipped for the former job and so we’ve going for the latter.

• MISC Hull C (Discreet) – Scaling from small “box trucks” to massive supertankers, the MISC range of cargo hulls (A-D) are the standard goods transporter in human space. Extremely configurable, MISC Hulls can be adapted for most any type of transport job: from standard bulk shipping on the patrolled spacelanes to armored cargo hauling on the frontier. While these pre-configured hulls are primarily used for legitimate purposes, the MISC Hull Cs have recently become the favorite for criminals who modify the ship with advanced sensor shadow technology, quick-decompress holds and a variety of hidden compartments without modifying the ship’s body so it will appear to onlookers as standard everyday transports.

Thank you for your incredible support; I hope you enjoyed the chance to interact with the team in today’s livestream. And don’t forget to vote: next up is the last phase of the fan ship role selection poll. By the process of elimination, you can expect to be choosing a new ship from Drake Interplanetary, maker of the Cutlass and Caterpillar. Choose wisely!

— Chris Roberts