Star Citizen 3.17 Alpha Fueling Fortunes expands economic possibilities and offers a lot of polish

StarCitizenThe 3.17 Alpha update released today, Fueling Fortunes, is designed to expand both economic and professional opportunities, along with new locations, new ships, new NPC trader features and shopfronts to facilitate sales, and other ways to earn credits.

The update also introduces the first interactive river that includes crops and harvestable resources. Overall, the update is intended to change and improve functions in the economic system. This extends to mining equipment, ship-to-ship refueling so you can replenish your ships in space, and if you’re enterprising enough, refuel other people’s ships and charge them for convenience. This new feature only works with certain ships, and the fuel source is the Starfarer, which has six fuel canisters that can be used to offer fuel of your choice.

General performance has also been updated, including ship-to-ship desync reduction and the GPU particle performance pass. Other parts of this update build on previous versions, including the addition of a new hospital, Lorville Maria Pure of Heart, where you can patch up your character, regenerate, and purchase medical supplies. This and the new space station clinic module options in 3.17 expand on the first medical gameplay update from a few months ago, which added additional features and allowed the construction of hospitals and clinics.

Of course, every major update will have its share of bug fixes and improvements, and 3.17 has plenty of them. From additional polish and balance tweaks, to things like hunger and thirst, to fixing bugs with incorrect damage, accidental instant deaths, repair services that actually fix wrecked engines, and making sure reloads and medical systems work as expected.

A new AI coffee shop provider has also been added to Area18 for those who like their virtual coffee style. It may be useful for those affected by the following fix: “Players should no longer experience being teleported back to bed shortly after waking up”.

For the full patch notes, see StarCitizen.