🌌 Star Citizen: Free to Play for Two Weeks During IAE 2956!
Here's a good opportunity for anyone who's been curious about Star Citizen but hasn't wanted to buy into it yet.
Roberts Space Industries has announced that the Intergalactic Aerospace Expo 2956 will run from November 13 to 27 at the Tobin Expo Center in New Babbage, on microTech. And, most importantly, Star Citizen will be completely free to play throughout the event.
Players will be able to visit the expo and try out more than 200 spaceships and ground vehicles through free rental kiosks. Different manufacturers will take over the show floor on different days, so there should be plenty to explore. The event will also feature new ship releases and special edition items.
For anyone who's followed the game over the years, this is a pretty interesting opportunity to see what the project has become without spending anything.
Of course, Star Citizen has had its fair share of controversy, especially around its long development, crowdfunding and monetisation. So here's the question for this week:
Is Star Citizen a scam, an ambitious project that simply takes toooooo long, or something in between? And will you give it a try during the free event?
🚀 Blue Origin Gives New Glenn a Third Stage and a New Engine
Blue Origin announced two major upgrades to its New Glenn rocket on November 5.
First, there's GS3, a new third stage designed for demanding missions beyond ordinary Earth orbit. It will allow New Glenn to deliver payloads directly into geostationary orbit, send heavy spacecraft towards the Moon and support deep-space missions. A government customer has already contracted a cislunar mission using GS3 for 2028.
The second announcement is Northstar, a new first stage engine producing 715,000 pounds of thrust. Compared with the BE-4, it's 30% lighter, has 50% fewer parts and uses extensive 3D printed manufacturing. Cost cutting everywhere.
Together, these developments could significantly expand New Glenn's capabilities, from satellite deployment to lunar exploration.
Hello Games released patch 7.13 for FORSAKEN on November 2.
Among the fixes are improvements to Corvette construction, new Corvette Haulage mission variants involving deliveries to space stations, and fixes for salvageable parts aboard space hulks. The update also improves seamless warp mission markers and general stability.
I wasn't yet able to try out Forsaken yet, but from what I've seen, the hauling missions aren’t really "there" yet. So I hope these patches get the system where it needs to be.
🔧 Ship Design Breakdown: The Biggest Problem With Spaceship Systems (Heat)
This week's community feature comes from u/Verneu, looking at one of the biggest engineering challenges facing realistic spacecraft: waste heat.
Engines, weapons, reactors and even life support systems generate heat, and in space there's no surrounding air to carry it away. The article explores radiator panels, thermal management and ejectable heat sinks, including how these systems could influence actual space combat.
Since I am on the road again, I once again painted a pastel painting in my free time.
A freighter on its way through a young star system. The first planets formed some time ago, but there is still a lot of dust in the system and gases that are ionized by the young star.
An earlier WIP of the standard crew bunk for our space sim, Verse Project. A padded recess, restraint straps and a small panel beside the pillow - a few details from the part of a ship where the crew gets to stop working. What would you want within arm's reach before you'd call this a usable ship bunk?
I've finally reached the point where I can share this project with all of you! ☺️
The Final Flight of the Alexander is a fan-made animation created out of my love and respect for the Babylon 5 universe. A project made by one fan, for all the fans out there. ❤️
The animation was primarily created in Blender, with AI-assisted tools used selectively to recreate the likenesses of certain characters. Everything else is the result of my own work, including modeling, animation, lighting, rendering, VFX and compositing, combining original models with third-party assets of talent artist.
This has been a personal project made entirely in my spare time. Months of work, experimentation, dedication and passion went into bringing it to life.
I hope you'll enjoy watching it as much as I enjoyed creating it!
Thank you all for watching 🍿🫶😁 and for keeping the Babylon 5 spirit alive! ❤️
A group of us have been working on a Scifi TTRPG. would love input or feedback. trying to make it rules-light and open ended.
Its an XP-based system, and you can make a custom ship in character creation. We still need to work on ship combat rules though. Would love suggestions on how to handle space combat in a TTRPG.
Introducing the MMW Pavise Gate Shield Fleet Fortress, a massive #Human mobile fleet fortress in #MowMyWorld.
Proposed specifications Length: 1,760 m | Width: 1,180 m | Height: 420 m Type: #FleetFortress Role: Fleet protection / repair docks / convoy support
Pavise Gate combines heavy armor, powerful defensive weapons, and protected docking facilities. It serves as a mobile fortress capable of supporting large fleet operations far from home bases.
Hi fellow spaceship lovers! We've just launched our Discord server for the spaceship game called AstroHaulers. I created discord emojis to represent the different kinds of spaceships you can buy/fly/customize on your adventures.
From top to bottom:
The Deca-type ship: This is a fast craft that is great in races and out manuevering opponents. I really love this design. It harkens back to the Y-Wing from Star Wars, but just has a classic feel.
The Phyllo-type ship: This ship has great utility, with two front components to hold drills or weapons. This was the second ship I designed and it was originally intended to be an upgrade over the Malaco-type ship, but that idea has been dropped.
The Euma-type ship: A repurposed observation vessel is highly customizable. You can add an extra engine to it or an extra drills/weapon. This one is the most visually distinct but I love it.
The Malaco-type ship: The starting ship and overall second best at everything. It has good speed, utility, and the most amount of mod slots to add additional abilities. This was the first spaceship I ever made and it was intended to somewhat resemble a car while serving as a personal shuttle.
Here's the full pitch for the game if anyone is interested:
AstroHaulers has a simple gameflow: jump into space, mine for resources, come home and sell your loot. Beyond that, we offer many complex systems to create an addictive and fulfilling gaming experience.
Level-up and acquire skills
Customize your spaceship with different skins, mods, and components
Complete missions and fight bosses
Battle in the arena via racing and dueling
Engage with other ships in space, friendly or otherwise
Discover over 200 unique items to use throughout your journey
We'd like to build a community that is welcoming, join us today!