Star Citizen wraps up its first star system with the game's own cloud city

Star Citizen's perpetual development continues with the release of Alpha 3.14, which finally completes the Stanton system with a floating factory-turned-luxury city in the skies.

Rounding up the game's first star system (which, to the best of my knowledge, has nothing to do with PC Gamer news editor Rich Stanton), Orison completes the set with a floating network of stations, hangars, and hotels in low orbit around the gas giant Crusader.

Alongside a new high-class destination full of new shops and facilities to peruse, Crusader gives Cloud Imperium a chance to show off Star Citizen's new volumetric cloud tech. There's a blatant Bespin vibe to watching the sunset hit the tops of clouds from your Orison balcony—but hey, what's a sci-fi setting without at least one Cloud City?

Alpha 3.14 also adds new UI elements for missile control, introduces power management and radar scanning features, and adds the "Taurus" cargo variation of the Constellation line of ships to the game. A new PVP dynamic event pitting pirates against station security has also been added to Stanton Station.

Despite almost a decade of continuous crowdfunding, Star Citizen is still a long way away from any kind of definitive completion date. But that hasn't stopped the lumbering project from bringing in record figures, with 2020 being Star Citizen's most profitable year so far. Cloud Imperium recently used those funds to add another studio to development efforts, with UK-based Firesprite Games now working on a Battlefield-style 40 vs 40 mode called Theatres of War.

Natalie Clayton
Features Producer

20 years ago, Nat played Jet Set Radio Future for the first time, and she's not stopped thinking about games since. Joining PC Gamer in 2020, she comes from three years of freelance reporting at Rock Paper Shotgun, Waypoint, VG247 and more. Embedded in the European indie scene and a part-time game developer herself, Nat is always looking for a new curiosity to scream about—whether it's the next best indie darling, or simply someone modding a Scotmid into Black Mesa. She also unofficially appears in Apex Legends under the pseudonym Horizon.