Hi everyone,

We are proud to reveal this limited edition Challenge Coin, commemorating the achievements of One Empire, a community-based Government initiative that has brought people all over the UEE closer together for the last 200 years. We present this coin as a gift to all backers who pledged prior to the $200 million milestone as a sign of our gratitude.

This item is considered hangar flair and will be distributed to your account later today, ready to compliment your favorite hangar of choice. These are being distributed in waves, so if you don't see it show up right away, simply check back soon.

Thank you to everyone who has supported us in the development of Star Citizen and Squadron 42 - we could not do it without you.

We'll see you in the 'verse

Star Citizen has earned a reputation as one of the most expensive and chronically delayed projects ever devised. But, despite having its fair share of detractors and several years worth of scheduling snafus, the venture has raised more than $200 million from thousands of fans eager to see Cloud Imperium Games space-sim dream come to life.

Over the past few months, Newsweek spoke with community members and Cloud Imperium developers to explore how the shared passion between players and creators has maintained engagement through seven years of active development with no end in sight.

Thank you... will try to learn up.. just pledged a starter, a bit disorienting - still learning how to get to the planets

Tomorrow, Cloud Imperium will make Star Citizen Alpha 3.5 free to download and play for any player to celebrate the launch of Star Citizen’s city-covered planet, ArcCorp. First revealed at CitizenCon 2017, ArcCorp is a massive planet almost entirely covered in man-made structures. Players on ArcCorp will travel the bustling plazas and neon-hued alleys of Area18 (the planet's main landing zone), uncover local urban culture, meet colorful locals, and find new ways to make in-game credits.

Anyone who plays Star Citizen between May 1 and May 8 will have access to the following five ships:

• Anvil Arrow - Featuring an ultra-aerodynamic frame, slight profile, and the most advanced maneuvering thruster tech available, the Arrow shines in Alpha 3.5’s new flight atmospheric flight model. It’s the most agile ship in its class, and can hold its own in a knock-down-drag-out dogfight with quad missile racks and a full complement of countermeasures.

• MISC Prospector – equipped with a mining laser, the Prospector is Star Citizen’s starter mining ship.

• Drake Cutlass Black – this ship packs real firepower with both piloted guns as well as a manned turret. It is flown by multiple crew members to haul and protect cargo. This is one of our most popular ships for both new and returning players.

• Aegis Avenger Titan – one of our cargo ships, the Titan is a light cargo hauler version of the Avenger specifically kitted out to deliver payloads across the ‘Verse.

• Drake Dragonfly – a two seater hoverbike, the Dragonfly is equipped with a laser cannon and is one of the best ways to navigate surface-side in Star Citizen. The Dragonfly can fit easily in the cargo hold of multiple ships, giving players an on-the-ground option after landing.

Anyone actively playing this? I've had the game for ages (bought it 2013) but never played it properly. Would love to play if there are any like-minded players out there. I currently have the F7C-M Super Hornet.

The issue
So far, I am in a solar system called Stanton. There are multiple planets, however, Hurton and Crusader are the most important ones since they have moons that are smaller planets as well.

Each planet has a list of “cities” called posts with different purposes such as mining posts or research, for example. Each “city” has its price sheet and there are also rest-areas, as the highways in the real world, called R&R. In the game, they are placed at the Lagrange points of the 2 main planets.

Each post has a list of resources it accepts to trade. Those resources are raw materials or finished goods (aluminum, medical supplies, hydrogen, for example). So, excluding trips to the “illegal” posts, I was sure there was a way to make money by trading. I mean going from post to post and to be sure to select the best route, so I could make as many profits as possible.

However, even though in the salesman problem you can technically choose any city, here you have an extra constraint: posts don’t accept all the resources (in the continuation of this article I will refer to this extra-constraint as the “Star Citizen constraint”). Then, with this new information and taking into consideration the number of “stops” I was willing to make, my cargo capacity and my investment — I was left with 2 choices:

1. Create an algorithm that would evaluate each possible route, one by one. It would check where I can sell what I can buy at my starting post, then it would check what I could buy at the selling point, checking for the next selling points and so on. Then based on the universe of all possible routes, I would select the best one — with the highest total profit.

2. Create a genetic algorithm that would hack the logic process by getting a profitable route quicker.

I chose the second option.