Star Citizen’s ships get ‘Free Fly’ days as part of CitizenCon event

If you still don’t know what Star Citizen is, developer Cloud Imperium Games is giving you a chance to find out. But the short explanation is that it is a sci-fi trading and adventure game that began as a 2012 crowdfunding phenomenon. And now, Cloud Imperium is making the space sim free to download and play as part of its annual CitizenCon livestreaming event. Beginning on Sunday, November 24, you can hop into Star Citizen and begin flying certain ships that normally cost real-world money to buy. Cloud Imperium says these “test flights” will each last 24 hours.

This promotion runs through December 5. Cloud Imperium plans to make a different set of ships available to anyone on each one of those days. Star Citizen has different in-fiction ship manufacturing companies, and those companies will offer up there ships at a special expo on the planet ArcCorp.

During your free fly, you may play through all of Star Citizen’s content. That includes 30 different mission types, two planets, and 12 different moons. You can even use any currency you earn to rent or buy different ships. But you will lose access to those ships the next time the studio restarts the server.

Welcoming new players into Star Citizen

To ensure this is a smooth experience for new players, Cloud Imperium is also launching a new “Welcome Hub.” This features a series of tutorials to teach players the basics. But the hub also has a “Guide System” that pairs rookie Star Citizen pilots up with the game’s veterans as a sort of mentoring program.

All of this is part of a CitizenCon event that will stream live on the game’s Twitch channel starting November 23 at 5 a.m. Pacific/8 a.m. Eastern. Cloud Imperium is promising that event will feature a ton of new announcements. That will lead into the Free Fly day beginning the next day.