Welcome to the first Monthly Report of 2026! As usual, we’re starting by looking back at the final two months of the outgoing year, during which teams across CIG finalized features and progressed with content for Alpha 4.5, 4.6, and beyond. We’ll be back before you know it with January’s report, giving you a glimpse into how the Star Citizen devs began 2026.
AI Content
AI Content closed out the year working toward the Alpha 4.5 release. With the addition of Nyx, the team revisited the social behaviors in Levski to ensure they were utilizing all the usables available to them.
They also implemented new Nyx-specific voice packs, representing a new approach to ambient dynamic conversations. While the initial sets were designed to be used anywhere, the team is developing targeted voice packs so that conversations provide a unique narrative experience depending on the location. AI Content also worked alongside the Missions team to support the setup of new mission reps and story-based content for upcoming releases.
AI (Tech & Features)
Through November and December, AI Tech & Features worked on the valakkar, improving its ability to utilize submerge positions while avoiding hills. They also ‘unrotted’ the ChaseTarget behaviour and removed the movement hearing filter concept. The valakkar can now also attack inanimate objects. Furthermore, new placeholder behaviors were implemented and further developed.
For the creature pipeline, known as Star Paws, work was done on the AI Triggered Actor State, radial formations were ported from SQ42, and the AI Skill Extender was refactored and renamed ‘AI Motive.’ The team also added a ‘health lost this phase’ boss motive condition.
Updates were then made to the anti-personnel turret, with the devs fixing an issue that caused the guns to fire above the target's head. Numerous missing hints were added to Subsumption activity tasks, while general bug fixing was done across the board, including to navigational links and traversal behaviors.
AI planetary navigation improvements were made to allow easier changes to physics terrain patch resolution. Although currently only available on the valakkar, this update is planned for release in the Alpha 4.6 patch.
AI (Game Intelligence Development)
In November and December, the Game Intelligence Development (GID) team mostly worked toward the next milestone for Mission System v2.
This involved prototype validation before MVP fine-tuning. The next step was to integrate the UX script before building the prototype infrastructure. The mission system dashboard prototype also received a visual update.
In addition, the team worked on a reactive expression prototype, specifically the design and visual interface with icons for each category. This will be the base template for other tools that enable the designers to easily create triggerable expressions.
GID also supported the integration of Tiny Machine into the Starscript UX, which will allow the tools to use the same visual language.
As usual, bugs were fixed and Starscript features were developed as suggested by the game designers.
Animation
November saw Facial Animation back on set for their final performance-capture shoot of the year alongside the Narrative team. They captured content for two new characters alongside two new voice packs that will populate the NPCs found in the Nyx system.
Off-set, they completed animation tasks for ArcCorp's Ella Tieno, who players will be able to see during comms calls. Going into December, the team began processing the content captured in November, starting with one of the new named characters who will be seen in an upcoming release.
On the gameplay side, the Animators worked toward finalizing the spec-ops AI Combat set as well as two other Human sets. Progress was also made on melee and mechanized enemy types, player swimming and navigation, new weapon animations, and creature improvements for the kopion-type enemy. Development continued on the background-life AI too.
Art (Characters)
The Character Art team closed out the year by finalizing event rewards and promotion items while progressing with new gangs for 2026.
The Concept Art team began exploring ideas for new armors and finalized hand-off sheets for Subscriber flair items.
Art (Ships)
November and December were extremely busy months, with the Ships teams completing the Perseus, Clipper, Golem OX, MDC, L-22 Alpha Wolf, and Salvation for IAE, alongside supporting the push for the first release of Engineering.
“A big shout out to virtually the whole Vehicle Content, Design, and QA teams, who undertook the herculean effort of multiple sweeps across the entire fleet of vehicles to validate and make changes to support fire, dynamic room atmosphere, resource network, and engineering features, as well as the artists who helped spot-fix the most egregious errors!” Ships Team
In the UK, progress was also made on numerous vehicles coming later this year, including the Gatac Railen, which entered production in mid-November, with the initial artist building on the pre-production work done during the whitebox phase.
Gold-standard work on the Aegis Hammerhead continued. Areas were refined across the ship, as well as breaking out various parts into an Aegis kit for use across future ships as per MISC, RSI, and Drake.
The MISC Hull B passed its whitebox review and moved into greybox, while the Drake Ironclad, Ironclad Assault, and Command Module progressed toward their greybox reviews. In December, the Ironclad Assault received particular focus after the base ship resolved a lot of the required core setup. The first playable review gate of the Command Module’s functionality was completed in mid-December.
The Greycat UTV also continued through development, including updates to the dashboard after discussions with UI on how to best integrate the required screens, as well as a motion capture session to add a new enter/exit animation.
The third in the series of larger RSI ships, the Galaxy, entered pre-production.
Four currently unannounced vehicles progressed through the pipeline too. The ship closest to release passed both its whitebox and greybox reviews, with only a few minor technical details needing further iteration. The second is progressing quickly due to the availability of its existing brand kit, the third passed whitebox following a hugely successful concept stage, and the fourth (from a manufacturer that hasn’t been worked on for a while) entered production after the initial concept phases resolved issues with its interior components.
The North American teams continued work on the Kraken. Drake’s capital ship continued through whitebox with the goal now set for its whitebox review in February. The team made changes to the interior to aid navigation throughout, as well as simplifying methods of moving vehicles and cargo, especially with the latter traversing through the ship. A lot of work was done to ensure changes have no impact on the Privateer variant when that goes into production in the future. The team also held a walkthrough meeting to show the ship ahead of the formal gate review, preparing the downstream teams for the sheer scope of work required.
Two unannounced vehicles were also worked on. The first ended 2025 with a review gate in preparation for its early-2026 release, while the second moved through whitebox, with the team focusing on its unique ‘hero’ rooms.
Community
The Community team began November preparing players for the Nyx system with a Traveler's Guide to the Galaxy. Following the release, they published a catch-all post to support the patch. To celebrate the system's arrival, they launched Star Citizen's first-ever Twitch Drops campaign. They also partnered with CLX Gaming to give away a custom PC, which was built during a live stream alongside its twin, together forming a panoramic tribute to Nyx, with one half inspired by Levski and the other by the Vanduul.
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The Intergalactic Aerospace Expo (IAE) 2955 also arrived in November. The team delivered extensive event support, including a Save the Date announcement, IAE 2955 FAQ, and the manufacturer and Free Fly schedule. When the event began, they launched the IAE Showtime contest and the IAE Referral Bonus comm-link, which brought back the Dragonfly Star Kitten for the first time since 2017. Following ship reveals throughout IAE, the team prepared Q&A posts for all six new vessels: the RSI Perseus, RSI Salvation, Drake Clipper, Drake Golem OX, Kruger Alpha Wolf, and Greycat MDC. They also updated the Salvage & Repair Guide to reflect the latest gameplay updates and announced the IAE Best in Show prizes.
December brought Alpha 4.5: Dawn of Engineering, introducing engineering gameplay to the Persistent Universe. To help players prepare for this major evolution in ship management, the team published a detailed Engineering Gameplay Guide, alongside a catch-all post supporting the patch release. The team also embraced the tradition of Luminalia 2955, spreading holiday cheer with a catch-all post, the 13 Days of Luminalia calendar of daily gifts, and the return of the beloved Luminalia Greeting Card Contest.
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The Bar Citizen World Tour 2025 made its final stop in Prague, Czech Republic, on November 8. The team had a great time meeting passionate community members in person and reconnecting with the spirit that makes these gatherings so special. Looking ahead to 2026, they published a post inviting the community to suggest cities and regions for next year’s tour, ensuring the tradition of bringing citizens together continues worldwide.
Throughout both months, the team supported a range of evergreen tasks, including This Week in Star Citizen, bi-weekly Roadmap Updates and Roundups, Monthly Reports, Arena Commander schedule updates, and continued updates to the New Player Guide and Welcome Back, Pilot pages to reflect the latest in-game content and events. They also continued coordinating feedback across multiple development teams, ensuring community voices were heard.
"From the arrival of Nyx to the introduction of engineering gameplay, this year brought some truly significant milestones. Your feedback and engagement have been essential every step of the way. Thank you for helping us build the 'verse together. Here's to 2026!" Community Team
Core Gameplay
During November and December, the Core Gameplay teams supported multiple releases, progressed toward the release of a variety of features, and supported the remaining development team across multiple initiatives.
For Alpha 4.4, the team collaborated on the release of the Boomtube rocket launcher and fixed various weapon-related issues. As part of the ongoing initiative to significantly improve weapon handling, a variety of changes were made to tighten up weapon feel, such as ADS control, and expose more controls to the designers.
Engineering gameplay went through multiple Tech Preview publishes and was ultimately released in its first iteration in Alpha 4.5. This included an extensive list of changes based on internal and external feedback. For example, MFDs will now enter an emergency state instead of turning off when out of power. The devs updated the relay behavior to no longer break the resource network when fuses are destroyed but instead limit the effectiveness of connected items.
The automatic re-assignment of Power Pips is now optional via the game options so that, by default, players have to first unassign power to reassign it. Ship light states were also tweaked for better audio and visual feedback during emergencies.
The first version of Ship Armor and Life Support was also implemented, providing multi-crew gameplay with additional dynamism and depth. Alongside Player Experience, Core Gameplay identified critical feedback that was either addressed in time for the Alpha 4.5 release or has been added to a future iteration of Engineering.
“We’re thankful for the feedback provided by the community. Getting Engineering released was no small feat, and seeing players really push the system to its limits has exposed areas of the feature that needed more refinement. We’re looking forward to improving the feature over the next few releases.” Core Gameplay Team
Throughout November and December, the team progressed its next major feature, Crafting, to Tech Preview readiness, which enabled a limited round of Evocati testing conducted yesterday. The initial preview included the core loop of creating various items and adjusting their stats based on material quality. Additional recent work on the feature includes shop support for material quality and the ability to sell partially full or mixed containers.
Progress was also made on the main Crafting UI, including the queue screen, selecting the delivery destination for crafted items, refunding materials, and functionality to dismantle previously crafted items. At this stage, the core functionality is present; the devs are preparing to review player feedback before polishing the feature ahead of its eventual release.
For flight gameplay, the team continued their efforts towards the improved Flight Model, including various adjustments to Control Surfaces. This also included exposing more options to Design to allow for more control over atmospheric flight behaviors.
The team also continued their tasks for the Command Module, used by the Drake Caterpillar and Ironclad. The first playable version of the feature was presented, showcasing seamless handover of the controls from the host ship to the Command Module and vice versa. This work also allowed them to address various docking-related issues and improve the debug tools.
Toward the end of the year, time was dedicated to addressing issues with the existing transit and freight elevator system, which were either reported by players using the Issue Council, the Player Experience team, or internal QA staff as major issues affecting various gameplay loops. Working with the QA team, Core Gameplay addressed bugs with very high reproductions or issues that had the tendency to manifest permanently. However, there are still many issues present that continue to be addressed.
For the Mission System, the designers now have the ability to specify conditional mission completions. For instance, Alpha 4.6 includes missions that can be completed by fulfilling one objective or an alternative objective. The team also investigated some of the root issues behind drop-off lockers that caused courier missions to be disabled. They also provided support for the various new missions and content deliverables, such as improvements to the progress tracker used for various events.
Work continued on the Inventory Rework, with internal reviews and bug-hunting sessions. Early steps were also established on capital-ship refueling, leading to a task breakdown and scheduling.
Finally, Core Gameplay delivered a feature-complete version of ‘cockpit light amplification,’ which enables players to better see their surroundings in low-light conditions.
Economy
Based on community feedback, the Economy team overhauled Wikelo’s rewards. Most recipes now require fewer of each ingredient, some items were redistributed into the loot pool, and the Idris and Wolf were added as rewards over the holiday period.
The commodity price boost generated a wide range of feedback, with the strongest responses tied to the increased profitability of previously undervalued free‑trade resources. These insights are already being factored into future balance adjustments. Contested zones also received a few new vehicles as possible drops.
The team spent time in December on the Nyx social station that will populate the system with safe trading zones and economic incentives.
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The devs are also looking into vehicle ballistic weapons to give them the proper caliber designations and operational costs associated with their size and type.
Mission Design
Mission Design ended the year focusing on quality-of-life fixes for Alpha 4.5, alongside bringing the derelict space station missions back to Stanton. Work then continued on content planned for 2026.
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Narrative
The end of the year was a busy time for the Narrative team as they worked toward the momentous release of Star Citizen’s third star system, Nyx. A complex undertaking, the team wrote dozens of new missions, helped bring the new Shattered Blade outlaw faction to life, and oversaw the return of some classic characters to Levski.
Additionally, the team supported the new content shown at IAE and the introduction of system-to-system hauling missions.
In December, the team focused on setting themselves up for success in the new year with the PTU launch of Alpha 4.6.
The team also wrote several NPC scripts in support of upcoming gameplay mechanics and missions.
“2956 is going to be an exciting year in the empire!” Narrative Team
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Online Technology
Last month, the Online Services team shared an internal tech demo, demonstrating what will be coming with Item Recovery T1. With this, they were able to properly establish the priority needs of downstream teams.
Work also continued on instancing, with the Instance Manager working as the cornerstone to validate the feature’s inner workings.
The Live Tools team successfully launched the new error-reporting pipeline. Development of the WebApp tool continued, with the team expanding its scope beyond the initial crash ownership rules functionality. The tool will now incorporate additional capabilities to automate ticket assignment workflows, replacing existing manual and difficult-to-maintain processes for routing tickets to users.
The audit-logs feature for Hex is now live in production too, providing enhanced tracking and monitoring capabilities for the team.
R&D
In November, the R&D team’s PU focus remained on optimization. Texture streaming support was added for volumetric cloud and ground fog, including support for streaming 3D volume textures.
Various optimizations were done to allow the inlining of C++ lambdas and to prevent allocations in situations where they must be captured as functions. This, among other things, improves the runtime of IFCS thruster updates, Subsumption mission updates, and item resource generation and consumption.
Read access to voxel trees can now be made concurrently, which helps with CPU gas cloud reads for radiation volumes, atmospheric flight data, door hazard state updates, and more. Also, lowercase CRC32 computations were optimized significantly. Threading-related OS call overheads were removed when updating vehicle parts and when checking for active impacts in damage maps.
Overheads in evaluating AI tactical queries were fixed, while the refactor of gas cloud light updates to remove the need for temporary memory allocations and significantly optimize CPU processing cost was brought to the PU.
In December, more code was optimized for both projects. Among other things, context capture for immediately executed lambdas in various systems was improved to avoid unnecessary allocations.
Priority and deferred action queues were cleaned up and optimized to allow directly emplacing passed lambdas and to avoid unnecessary temporary copies. Entity classes are now also stored more compactly in the registry and allow for more efficient lookups.
AI local variables no longer cause excessive allocations and locking cost. The time slicing of monitored zone updates (mission updates) is now handled more efficiently. Finding the closest shadow region node is now executed more efficiently, and work is also underway to speed up projected decal rendering, saving interpolators.