In this Star Citizen weekend review, Salty Mike discusses the promising technical advancements seen in the Planetech preview and patch 4.10.3’s new combat event, while also highlighting ongoing issues like persistent bugs and slow social tools development. Despite minimal roadmap updates and underwhelming events such as the Day of Davara, the focus on stabilization and bug fixing offers hope for future features like base building, though players should manage their expectations.
In this Star Citizen weekend review for October 26th, 2026, Salty Mike covers the latest developments including the ongoing Planetech preview focused on the Evocati server, and the unexpected release of patch 4.10.3. The Planetech tests introduced more varied biomes and settlements, such as moisture farms in desert areas and remote research stations, alongside a significant technical upgrade with quasi-dynamic server meshing to better manage planet load distribution. While the tests continue to be limited to Evocati and somewhat repetitive, the tech improvements are promising for future expansions.
Patch 4.10.3 brought the Vandal Incursion event, which introduced new combat scenarios where players face off against Vandals and the Shattered Blade faction, sometimes even battling each other before turning on the player. The event culminates in a challenging fight against a Mer capital ship, requiring significant firepower to defeat. Additionally, the patch included an increase in enemy numbers for the popular Caterpillar boarding missions and introduced the Lightning Bolt Company DMR weapon, which has a unique bouncing lightning round mechanic but is currently underwhelming in performance.
The roadmap updates remain minimal, focusing mainly on bug fixes and incremental improvements rather than new content. The community Q&A session (10 from the Community) addressed concerns about preventing regressions and bugs, with developers emphasizing root cause analysis, expanded test plans, and enhanced validation tools. However, Salty Mike expressed frustration that some persistent bugs, like the broken Recoagia starter mission, remain unresolved despite promises, highlighting the gap between developer intentions and player experience.
Social tools development is progressing but slower than hoped due to resource diversion to bug fixing. The first rollout will revamp chat systems with location-based channels and introduce a new social app to replace outdated UI elements. Regarding the LAMP lighting system, its limited deployment to fighter ships is due to technical challenges with static canopies on larger ships, and the team is seeking solutions that avoid reauthoring hundreds of ships. Other brief updates include ongoing work on freight elevators and physics improvements.
Finally, the review touches on the Day of Davara event, which has become increasingly underwhelming over time, now mainly serving as a paint sale with minimal in-game activity and poor implementation. Despite this, some new paint designs like the Lykan for Wolves received praise. Salty Mike concludes that the current focus on stabilizing and fixing the game means slower content updates and simpler events, a trade-off for a more functional game in the long run. He remains cautiously optimistic about future features like base building but urges viewers to temper expectations.