CIG’s global studio returned from the break firing on all cylinders, ready to work on the wealth of content coming in Alpha 4.6 and throughout the whole year. Read on for how some teams began 2026, from AI Features and Tech to Online Technology.
AI Content
After the winter break, AI Content immediately began to close out the Alpha 4.6 patch. This included adding new Spectrum content for the Stanton system and working alongside the Environment team to install screens around Levski for use by the People’s Alliance.
As with any release, the team tackled various bugs affecting the social AI and mission providers.
Elsewhere, the team walked through their general plan for the year and outlined the goals they would like to achieve, alongside the supporting teams that would be needed to assist. The rest of the month was spent continuing tasks for initiatives started in the previous year.
AI (Features & Tech)
AI Features and Tech began the year fixing a blocker that caused NPCs to incorrectly break out of combat and investigate. This led to Human combatants not firing across various missions in Stanton, Pyro, and Nyx. Another issue was fixed that caused NPCs to be stuck in the cowering position.
The team then improved firing validation and reworked the way NPC trigger-switch logic is used to give the devs more control over its utilization. For example, NPCs using burst-fire-capable weapons will always switch to burst fire if desired. Improvements were also made to aim-direction handling when targets are no longer visible to eliminate NPCs occasionally aiming through walls.
For creatures, updates were made to the adult valakkar, which will no longer try to close in on targets. The apex valakkar is no longer able to hear while traversing underground. The ‘BurrowToPosition’ behavior was also updated to a string instead of a fixed type. This will directly pass animation fragment tags, improving iteration time.
The team also ensured that the apex valakkar can freely move around planetary nav-mesh, allowing for more profound underground movement. Essentially, the algorithm has been improved to allow large creatures to find paths and travel large distances, as they are not always close to players.
Improvements were also made to tactical point generation inside boxes that overlap multiple navigation meshes or action areas, giving the team a new way to determine whether tactical points are too expensive. Improvements were also made to the Cone TPS Generator, including to the apex-motive port and overall movement of the apex valakkar, which are still ongoing.
Support for Star Paws is also planned for development in the near future.
The team then refactored serialized debug variables to no longer propagate on release builds for the PU. NPCs are now also able to play different jump animations based on the ledge height they’re traversing. The team can also restrict the jump height of individual NPCs, too, without having to change the navigation link. For example, in a situation where a navigation link of 4m high is used, only NPCs capable of jumping this height will use it.
Finally, the team are now in the process of merging the 3D Voxel Grid pathfinder into the PU.
Animation
The Facial Animation team worked through the remaining motion-capture content that was recorded toward the end of last year. As part of this, another new voicepack will be released in Alpha 4.7, as well as additional content for James Herriman, who will be returning with a new (but somewhat familiar) design.
Art (Characters)
The Character Art team began the year finalizing new gang outfits and progressing with combat armors for the coming year.
The Concept Art team iterated on an upcoming variant and explored ideas for new armors.
Art (Ships)
The UK-based Ship team began the year progressing with five unannounced vehicles. The first had its final reviews, with the downstream teams adding their final touches ahead of its release. The team also updated some of the chassis geometry it shares with another vehicle to bring it up to a higher standard.
Following the completion of Hammerhead gold-standard tasks, some of the team began laying the groundwork for the second new vehicle, while the third passed its whitebox gate review with flying colors.
The fourth upcoming ship had its whitebox gate review in January, which flagged some issues with its main gameplay feature not behaving as expected. Upon investigation, the team identified and resolved the issue, allowing the ship to pass its review.
The UK team’s final unannounced vehicle approached its whitebox review, with the devs reviewing the scope of work and the available timeframe to make the process smoother for all teams.
Elsewhere, the Gatac Railen progressed through the whitebox phase toward its gate review in February.
The Greycat UTV continued development. Its planned mo-cap session was delayed until February due to external factors, though it will still make its gate review early in the month.
The MISC Hull B passed its greybox review with no issues and is now well into the LOD0 phase, with the artists currently adding additional details throughout.
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Drake’s Ironclad, Ironclad Assault, and Command Module continued development, making heavy use of the brand’s modular kit. This helps the team make sweeping updates throughout the ships, leading to much faster progress than prior ships.
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The North American team continued to work on an as-yet-unannounced ship, which progressed through the whitebox phase. Last month saw its variants blocked out to ensure there are no surprises when they go into development at a later date. The team also adjusted some of the interior spaces to add more windows between rooms based on feedback.
Finally, the Drake Kraken continued through whitebox, with the first of its gate reviews set for mid-February, which is a major milestone for the team and the ship. Further work from the Concept team was scheduled to help the Production team refine some of the areas that have evolved since the original concept or that weren’t as well refined during the original concept phase.
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Community
The Community team kicked off 2026 by publishing the November and December PU Monthly Report, detailing the development that closed out 2025.
Throughout January, Community provided support for Alpha 4.6: Lifeline for Levski. This included publishing an FAQ for the Clearing The Air event, guiding players on how to participate, where to go, and what rewards they could earn for their efforts. They also published a catch-all post highlighting the major features of Alpha 4.6 and a detailed Q&A for the new RSI Hermes. To ensure players had the most current information, the team updated the Cargo Hauling Guide and refreshed both the New Player Guide and Welcome Back, Pilot pages with details on current in-game content and events.
As with every release, the Community team continued to serve as a vital bridge between players and development. They delivered player feedback from Spectrum and social media to the appropriate channels through detailed sentiment reports and analysis, allowing disparate teams to stay informed of ground-level community feedback. Whether highlighting player-reported issues as they emerge or simply relaying what players are saying about the current state of the game, the team ensured development branches remain connected to the community's voice.
Additionally, they planned and published this year’s Bar Citizen World Tour, highlighting events CIG staff plan to attend throughout 2026, with further additions planned as new events are confirmed. The team also supported ATMO esports’ Daymar Rally 2956.
“Congratulations to the Daymar Rally winners and to every pilot who participated! Events like this are what make Star Citizen special, and it’s always great to see everyone come together to create such memorable moments. Thank you for your passion and creativity - We can’t wait to see what you come up with next!"
The Community team also published a Comm-Link showcasing the major events coming to the ‘verse in February. Evergreen tasks continued as well, including This Week in Star Citizen, alongside bi-weekly updates to the Roadmap and Roundups. Lastly, they announced the winners of the Luminalia 2955 Greeting Card Contest from among the many creative submissions, wrapping up the festivities from a memorable holiday season.
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Mission Design
Coming back from the holidays, the Mission team continued with their work for content coming this year.
This began with Industrial Collections missions, which will also add reputation to mining-based factions and expand on Salvage gameplay. For mining, these missions will complement existing gameplay. For example, while a mission may ask for a specific amount of iron, mining could produce more than required, which can be stored for use later, used for another mission, or sold for profit elsewhere.
The salvage missions task players with retrieving components, weapons, CM, and RM, which can be twinned with the salvage rights players can already buy, allowing for profit maximization.
The team also supported the Clearing the Air event, providing varied mission types that allow players to work for a chosen company (or all of them) and earn rewards.
Looking forward, design work was completed on the revival of Siege of Orison. This was followed by a phase of rapid iteration to ensure this first instanced content is a great step forward.
Additional missions are also underway for Nyx, including the return of courier and delivery missions as part of the ladder toward hauling.
Narrative
After the holidays, Narrative hit the ground running, supporting the final closeout for Alpha 4.6. This included writing the usual array of mission, objective, item, and vehicle descriptions as well as dealing with any bugs that arose during testing. Much of the work revolved around upcoming missions, events, and characters that will require further Narrative input throughout the year.
The team also started outlining their first performance-capture shoot for the new year, so scripts were written and reviewed with Design to ensure the correct content is captured.
Narrative and Tech Design discussed the Location Scattering tool detailed in the CitizenCon 2954 presentation, helping them understand how to theme these generated settlements in a way that feels scalable but specific.
Online Technology
The Network team began the year changing the DGS manager class so that it’s aware of DGSs that no longer have groups streamed in. This provides buffer time between a DGS having its last group streamed out before it can be considered for release back to Fleet. The team also created a class that will change as they transition from static meshing and instancing to quasi-DSM and then to full DSM.
Besides this, the team tested various in-development technologies along with maintaining and improving tasks.
The Live Tools team continued surveying users of Bootstrap, the local game environment tool, to make it more stable, faster, and easier to use for testing and development work.
Development of the ticket assignment workflow web-app tool continued with delivery targeted for the end of February.
Finally, the validated UI design for Hex is currently being implemented, with modern navigation and improved layout to enhance workflow efficiency.
R&D
After the optimization push at the end of 2025, January saw the revival of the new and improved ground prototype, with work beginning to make it production-ready for both the PU and SQ42. Once complete, ground details will be cheaper to evaluate and render, ground fog modelling will be improved, and lighting will self-shadow and cast shadows like rain volumes and clouds. Part of this work also includes various optimizations for the atmosphere raymarcher.