Greetings Citizens,

We’ve hit $45 million in crowd funding, so I think it’s safe to say that the Freelancer is a winner! I think the Freelancer is a great microcosm of the Star Citizen experience. Backers chose the original design during the initial campaign, they petitioned us to update the cockpit… and now here it is, beautifully finished in your Hangars with a full set of variants. This isn’t just a ship you helped pay for: it’s a ship you helped create.

At $45 million, you’ve unlocked one of our backer-selected rewards, the mysterious Hadesian artifact. We have some cool plans for exactly what this will kick off in the Persistent Universe… but you’ll have to explore that aspect of the game yourself! Here are the details:

Hadesian Artifact – The mystery of what happened in Hades has been one of the great archeological puzzles ever since the system was discovered in the early 26th Century. The evidence suggests that the Hadesians nearly erased their entire civilization in devastating civil war that left a planet cracked in half, but so many questions remained. Who were these Hadesians? How did the war get started? Over the centuries, even the public became enamored by the mystery of this system. This curiosity was inflamed when scientists recently discovered a lone Hadesian artifact on the black market of all places. Trinket manufacturers quickly tried to capitalize on the resurgence of interest by building exact copies of the artifact for sale to the public, even replicating the unidentified symbols along the base…

For your final ‘flare’ reward, you’ve voted for the “Engine Tuning Kit.” Here’s the newly-unlocked official description:

Engine Tuning Kit – Wilkes & Federman MaxTune Kit has become one of the best-selling starter kits for the discerning home enthusiast. Featured in Whitley’s latest Steal of the Year issue, this kit comes with everything the fledgling engineer needs to take a deeper look into the mechanics of their engine. With a Tap Analyzer, you will be able to view your engine’s current output and energy draw numbers in an easy and comprehensible way. Use the thirty-eight piece omnitool to access your engine to start tweaking. Wilkes & Federman is not responsible for damage incurred after tuning your engine. Please consult with manufacturer’s warranty before performing work.

I hope you’re enjoying your Freelancers, and that you like today’s commercial. As you know, our initial plan was to produce brochures and commercials for the first set of pledge ships. You’ve seen the Aurora, 300i, Hornet and Freelancer now, and the Constellation and Cutlass are in production.

For the next ‘player reward’ stretch goal, I’d like to add another commercial to that lineup… and I’d like to leave the choice up to you! Please vote below to pick which of Star Citizen’s second wave of ships should be the focus of the next commercial we develop.

As always, thank you for your incredible support! Enjoy Arena Commander, and stay tuned as we perfect dogfighting and roll out even bigger parts of the Star Citizen universe.

— Chris Roberts