New Star Citizen update finally removes one of the most frustrating ways for a mission to go wrong

New Star Citizen 4.4 patch notes have just landed, and Cloud Imperium Games has finally addressed one of the biggest pain points in the space game. Picture the scene: you've just touched down in a contested zone, the hostile PvPvE regions where some of the best loot is up for grabs. You geared up properly, prepared your route, and you're just in the process of setting off when a random injury suddenly throws your plans into disarray. But no more. CIG has just overhauled the way damage affects players, and you'll no longer need to pray to the RNG gods.

The new Star Citizen update has just arrived on the PTU. While there are a few small upgrades dotted about that will appeal to specific parts of the player base, it's the player injury changes that are going matter to everyone. CIG explains that its intention here "is to make injuries reflective of time spent in combat and act as 'warnings' when you need to rest and restore." Perhaps that's a little less realistic, but I suspect anyone who's ever fallen foul of an unlucky blow won't mind.

The random chance for injuries to occur when you take damage is now completely gone. Instead, they're defined by "binary trigger thresholds." CIG doesn't tell us exactly what these are, but does state that the amount of damage for each body part to become injured has been increased by "around 1.5x," so you'll generally see them less often.

In addition to this, the max health reduction caused by those initial tier-three injuries has been lowered, although you'll still have to deal with the other negative effects depending on what's been hurt. That means slower movement for your legs, unstable weapon aim if it's your arms, stamina penalties and wheezing for the chest, and affected vision and hearing with head injuries.

Elsewhere, the patch moves the Vanduul-Tech smugglers mission behind a rank-one reputation requirement with Intersec. The IAE Expo Hall in Orison has been enabled for testing. There's a new weapon called the 'Triple Threat,' and a ballistic missile launcher called the 'Boomtube.' It might look small, but the explosions it can cause if you land a shot shouldn't be underestimated.

Obviously, you're also going to want to be delving into the new system, Nyx, the asteroid Delamar that's found there, and the mining facility of Levski founded by the People's Alliance. At least now you won't have to worry about an unexpected stray blow leaving you scrambling for medical support while you do that.

Star Citizen alpha 4.4 is now available for all waves to test via the PTU. CIG notes that the patch "does not contain all of the intended features" that will end up in the full update, with more being added as they become available. Check the latest patch notes courtesy of the Roberts Space Industries site for a full rundown.