Cloud Imperium Games is once again opening Star Citizen to everyone for the Intergalactic Aerospace Expo 2956: From November 13 to 27, a Free Fly event will run, allowing players to borrow more than 200 ships and ground vehicles for free. The space game has been in development since 2012 and remains in Alpha.
When does the Star Citizen Free Fly for IAE 2956 run?
The event begins on November 13 at 4 PM UTC, which is 5 PM CET. It concludes on November 27 at 9 PM CET. Ship rentals will be available at kiosks in the Tobin Expo Center in New Babbage on the planet microTech in the Stanton system. All you need is a free RSI account and the launcher. New players will receive a basic ship to travel to the expo.
Manufacturers will occupy the halls for two days each, with the selection changing daily. On November 22, the four finalists of the Ship Showdown 2956 will be featured, including the RSI Perseus and Drake Ironclad Assault. Starting November 23, all IAE vehicles will be available simultaneously. CIG has not yet specified how long a rental period lasts. During DefenseCon 2956 in May, it was 48 hours.
What are the system requirements for the Free Fly?
- Minimum 16 GiB RAM, 32 GiB recommended
- 150 GiB free SSD storage
- Graphics card with 4 GiB VRAM, DirectX 12 with 8 GiB recommended
- Quad-core CPU with AVX, AVX2, and FMA3
- Officially only Windows 10 and 11 (64 Bit)
The full details are available in the official system requirements. According to PCGH, in practice, the CPU often bottlenecks performance more than the graphics card.
New ships and context: What to expect
For comparison: The Foundation Festival in the summer only offered five test ships, while the IAE 2955 last year featured almost 200, according to CIG. PCGH reports that two new ships, the Anvil Liberator and the RSI Galaxy, are nearing release. It is uncertain if they will be flight-ready on the first day. CIG has not clarified which new models will actually be playable.
Our assessment: The Free Fly is a good opportunity to get a taste of the game, but it's not the time to expect a finished product. For DefenseCon, CIG postponed free access from May 14 to May 18 due to performance issues. If many newcomers crowd into New Babbage, there might be stuttering again. Therefore, plan for several evenings of play, not just the opening day.
After 15 days, the event concludes: Players without a game package cannot continue playing, and borrowed ships will expire. Earned aUEC remained in accounts during previous events, but this is a test currency that CIG can reset with major updates. This last happened in May with Alpha 4.8. The live servers currently run Alpha 4.10.2, with Alpha 4.10.3 being tested in the PTU. It is unclear which version the IAE will launch with.
The official announcement can be found in the Countdown to IAE 2956 on RSI.
Source: PC Games Hardware, Roberts Space Industries (Comm-Link 21389)
Will you be checking out IAE 2956, and which ship do you want to borrow first?
Comments (0)
No comments yet — be the first to share your take.