Update: CIG removed the Grav Royale mode from EPTU for now, as Mirai Pulse was not supposed to be released before the announcement.
Original Story: Star Citizen 3.23 EPTU testers recently received access to the latest product from Mirai: Pulse and Pulse LX. These new grav-lev vehicles are built for traversal on the planet surface, and can be tested in the Arena Commander of the EPTU build.
If you choose to try out the Grav Royale mode in Arena Commander, you will spot Mirai Pulse and Mirai Pulse LX as new options to pick up.
While both vehicles share almost the same design language, Mirai Pulse comes with a Size-2 laser-powered mini-gun in front, which could come in handy in certain scenarios. Pulse LX, on the other hand, sacrifices that front weapon for higher speed, acceleration, and boost.
Similar to most previous grav-lev vehicles, the Mirai Pulse series also comes with a single pilot seat with no capacity to carry a passenger or cargo, still leaving Dragonfly as the only grav-lev vehicle built for a duo.
As the new vehicles are not fully available yet, we have no information to share about the in-game or pledge prices, but we do know that the new Mirai products will be officially announced this week, and right after the announcement, the pledge will go live.
Regarding the fact that there have been no plans to release a new ship in Alpha 3.23, the Mirai Pulse series becomes the upcoming patch’s flagship traversal means, though grav-lev vehicles are not popular enough in Star Citizen at the moment due to their clunky handling.
Dying while flying with a grav-lev vehicle in Star Citizen is one of the very well-known risks of planet traversal, which is why the community calls these vehicles Death Traps!
There won’t be any changes on the grav-lev handling this patch, but this is something that the community has wanted from the devs for a long time as it will make flying with hover-quads more fun and less risky.
Although Cloud Imperium Games made some adjustments to the handling of wheeled ground vehicles in previous patches, that didn’t change anything about grav-lev ones.
Star Citizen Alpha 3.23 is still in the EPTU stage, and recently the gates opened up for Wave 3 testers to try out the new features, taking us closer to the PTU and Live versions of the patch.
Last but not least, some Star Citizen developers will go live this Friday on Twitch to answer all your burning questions about Alpha 3.23. In case you have anything to ask from them, make sure to submit your question here.