Hi everyone,

With the release of Alpha 3.9.1 and the introduction of Invictus Launch Week (Star Citizen’s Fleet Week), we’re excited to introduce a number of changes to how you can make your ship your own. Many of you will likely remember our Q&A on ship customization, and we’d like to start off by confirming that our long-term goals remain the same. While you will eventually be able to visit both manufacturer and aftermarket shops in-game for a variety of customization options, we’ve set up a temporary system to satiate the desire to change the exterior appearance of your ship.

So, what does this mean exactly? All ships will come with their base skin, and the ability to equip additional skins via mobiGlas. We’ll start rolling this out in Alpha 3.9.1 for a variety of ships, with more to come. The skins are indeed swappable, meaning that once applied, they are not permanently affixed to the ship, and you will still have the option to remove or swap skins.

For Fleet Week, you’ll find a bevy of skins available on the pledge store, and we’re happy to share you’ll also be able to purchase them in-game for aUEC in an upcoming patch. In time, we’ll continue to roll out new skins, and it’s worth noting that in the future we plan on making a variety of exclusive skins that are only earnable in-game for aUEC. This is important to us because it gives pilots out there making their living among the stars the opportunity to show off their hard-earned work. In regard to pricing, skins that can be pledged for with real money outside of the game will be based on a percentage of the ship’s hull cost, but are subject to a plateau to avoid large ships from having skins that are overpriced.

Looking ahead, we’ll begin the gradual process of migrating older paints to this new system, so as an example, previously released skins such as the various Aurora skins will soon be swappable and useable for Aurora owners. It’s also worth noting that some skins, such as the Valkyrie Liberator from CitizenCon 2948 will not be made available as these were intended to be limited and exclusive skins. If you own these currently, rep them with pride!

We’re looking forward to sharing more information soon! For now, we’ll see you in the ‘verse!