Star Citizen's latest alpha patch adds 385 asteroid defence missions, but players are reporting problems with broken hangar doors and exploding pilots

Amid all the chatter about when Star Citizen will launch and how much money it has raised in player funding, what you can actually do in Cloud Imperium Games' space MMO often gets lost. Star Citizen may not be finished, but it is playable in an alpha that gets updated relatively regularly. Only last month, patch 4.8 added a massive new mission type that involved players embarking on a combined space and ground assault on a heavily fortified asteroid.

Alpha 4.8.1 continues with the asteroid theme, as a fleet of mysterious raiders besiege mining stations through the systems of Stanton and Pyro. As such, the law-abiding security group Foxwell Enforcement, alongside the criminal organisation Headhunters, are both enlisting pilots to help defend the beleaguered mining operations.

According to the patch notes, there are 385 missions in total. These missions will see players "defend asteroid bases throughout the systems, prevent the attackers from destroying key resources, and escort escaping workers to safety as needed". Successful completion of missions will earn participating pilots "credits, reputation gains, and unique blueprints available here for the first time"—though CIG doesn't specify what these new blueprints might be.

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(Image credit: Cloud Imperium Games)

They sound fun enough, although players over on the Star Citizen subreddit are reporting some slight teething problems with the missions. "Failed every one so far because the pilot you're supposed to escort flies into the hangar and the doors never open so he just explodes," writes Zealousideal-Ad2695. Poordutchguy points out that this is not a new issue: "That happened when these missions were active in the past. I did 13 missions. 1 succeeded."

Obviously, Star Citizen is still heavily in alpha. But after 14 years and $1 billion in funding, I don't think it's entirely unreasonable to expect a mission type that has apparently been in the game before to be playable when re-added to the experience.

Then again, if reports are accurate, the bulk of CIG's attention may currently be on the single-player campaign Squadron 42. Chris Roberts recently said that CIG's solo space adventure was in the "closing stages" of development, and there's rumours that Squadron 42 may show up at Summer Games Fest, albeit with the possible announcement of yet another delay.

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