The crowdfunded space sim Star Citizen recently reached a new milestone-the first player to be able to seamlessly travel between two star systems on different servers-and the man responsible for it, Cloud Imperium Games CEO Chris Ro Bartz has indicated that the release of 1.0 may finally be just around the corner.

It has been more than a decade since Roberts first showed us a prototype of Star Citizen. This space game has now raised over $670 million and has become two distinct projects: a single-player Wing Commander successor called Squadron42 and a persistent space MMO for Star Citizen.

Squadron 42, which features well-known actors such as Gillian Anderson, Mark Hamill, and Gary Oldman, was declared "feature complete" late last year, and Roberts says these features are now being introduced into the persistent universe "at an accelerated rate." Meanwhile, the recent technological milestone of a player named "MrTrash" (their name, of course) becoming the first player to travel between star systems in a wormhole is an important step toward the MMO's 1.0 release, according to the CEO.

"After years of hard work toward a goal that many thought was impossible, we are on the verge of delivering one of the final pieces of technology that will enable a connected, shared universe that thousands of people can experience together simultaneously," Roberts told supporters in his latest Dispatches, writing.

The technology, which they call "server mesh," will allow players to move seamlessly between locations hosted on different servers (more complicated, but that's the gist). According to Roberts, a recent test set a new record for simultaneous players on Star Citizen's server shard.

More details on server meshing are in the Q&A, but the big takeaway here is that Roberts believes Star Citizen's 1.0 release is close enough to start talking seriously again. now that Squadron 42's features are complete, the development team is re Now that Squadron 42's features are complete, he said, the development team is regrouping and about to set sail "toward Star Citizen's own goal line."

"Star Citizen 1.0 is what we consider to be a set of features and content that represents a 'commercial' release," Roberts wrote.

"This means that the game is welcoming to new players, stable, and polished with enough gameplay and content to keep players engaged. In other words, it is no longer an alpha or early access version. [Benoit Beausejour, head of technology at Cloud Imperium, said the company is now "running full steam ahead" to launch server meshing in Star Citizen Alpha 4.0, which he said "marks a new beginning" for the game architecture. Senior game director Rich Tyrer said that in pursuit of its 1.0 goals, players can expect "a series of quality-of-life improvements" as well as "a major quarterly update with a lot of changes to long-untouched systems like economics and insurance" as well as He added that players should expect "entirely new features and content." [As part of this 1.0 push, Roberts said he moved from Los Angeles to Austin to be closer to the time zones of Manchester, Frankfurt, and Montreal, where Star Citizen's development is concentrated. As a result, Cloud Imperium's LA office was downsized, and developers based there were asked to relocate to other offices, primarily in Manchester. Roberts cited one person who left the company. Todd Papy, live director of Persistent universe, who had been living in the UK but returned to the US, was fired: "Roberts writes: 'I'm not sure what to do. 'After much consideration, I have decided that I cannot afford to be in this role for a significant part of the year, away from the main team in Manchester.'

"I will miss the sunny skies and beaches of Los Angeles, but 'Star Citizen' and 'Squadron 42' come first. The trip has been longer and more arduous than I anticipated 11½ years ago, but the final destination has been very exciting and fulfilling." I never would have dreamed that I would have the opportunity to create something of the scale and ambition of Star Citizen, and for that I feel incredibly blessed by your support.

Squadron 42 was at one point slated for release in 2014 and then 2016, but no release date has been set, nor has Star Citizen 1.0. According to Roberts, more than 1.1 million players logged in last year, and the full text of his post on the current state and future of Star Citizen can be read here.

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