Alpha 5.0: Alpha 4.11 renamed, Nyx I leads, Nyx II and III move to 5.1 (November 5, 2026)
In its Roadmap Roundup of November 4, CIG renames Alpha 4.11 to Alpha 5.0 to mark the arrival of Genesis technologies, starting with Nyx I. The roadmap also shifts: Nyx II and III are pushed back to 5.1, and CIG says no wipe has been announced.
In the Roadmap Roundup of November 4, published on Spectrum, CIG announces that Alpha 4.11 becomes Alpha 5.0. The studio presents this change of number as a reflection of the scope of the technologies that must come together in this version, all stemming from Genesis, its initiative for creating and populating planetary environments.
What Alpha 5.0 covers
CIG groups five components under this new name:
- Starchitect: procedural world construction from Genesis data, which distributes locations across planetary surfaces using modular components.
- Planet Tech V5: overhaul of planet generation and rendering (biomes, vegetation and rocks, ground materials, GPU-driven generation).
- Population Manager: balancing of server population and populating environments with inhabitants suited to their setting.
- Contract Boards: missions accessible via Guild Halls in regional hubs, at local, regional, global or solar system scale, with a fully redesigned interface.
- DGS Planet Subdivision: progress on server meshing that splits planets and moons into smaller server territories, assigned dynamically.
Nyx I will be the first planet to receive these technologies, before their extension to Nyx II, Nyx III and existing locations.
Roadmap card movements
The Roadmap Roundup records several status changes:
- The Lightning Bolt Company "Skarnov" DMR rifle leaves 5.0 for an early release in 4.10.3, with Committed status.
- In Alpha 5.0, Contract Boards, the S3 and S10 Bomb Racks, the Kastak Arms "Hellion" pistol and the Kastak Arms "Verdict" LMG move to Committed status.
- Loot Refresh and Vehicle Combat Balance Pass are added with Tentative status.
- Item Recovery (Ship Loadout Improvements), which aims to better preserve custom configurations when recovering a ship, is removed from the release view because it is not ready.
- Nyx II and Nyx III, previously targeted for 5.0, move to Tentative for Alpha 5.1.
The Vehicle Combat Balance Pass corresponds to rebalancing time-to-kill in space combat. The October PU Monthly Report, published the same day, indicates that the first time-to-kill rebalancing tools were introduced by the Core Gameplay team.
No wipe announced
A wipe rumor tied to 5.0 circulated after an ambiguous reply from a CIG community manager on Spectrum, wrongly interpreted as answering a question on the subject. CIG clarified that no wipe has been confirmed or announced for this version. A Spectrum thread titled "[REDDIT UPDATE] No current plans for 5.0 wipe" relays this clarification.
Context
The renaming comes after several weeks of testing around Genesis. On October 30, CIG launched a new Genesis Tech Preview build for an overnight Evocati playtest focused on Nyx I, with new locations, new contracts and the launch of the Procedural Generation Tracker. This service is meant to allow reactivating minerals, resources and planetary fauna on a meshed server.
The October Monthly Report gives some progress indications. Starchitect missions generate contracts about 15 times faster, and AI navigation in Starchitect has been reworked to avoid fragmentation of planetary navmeshes. The Mission Design team mentions more than 300 contracts already planned for Nyx I, in only 15% of the time spent on Pyro's initial release.
Unofficial datamine data, meanwhile, had detailed the Guild Halls based on test files: 27 locations would host such a building, each giving access to contracts from four guilds. These figures have not been confirmed by CIG.
What we still don't know
CIG has not communicated any release date for Alpha 5.0, nor a schedule for a possible PTU. The move of Nyx II and III to Tentative for 5.1 comes with no deadline, and the fate of Item Recovery (Ship Loadout Improvements) remains open. The details of contracts, rewards and how Contract Boards work at launch are also not specified.
The next signal to watch will be the next Roadmap Roundup, which will show whether Tentative cards move to Committed. New Genesis Tech Preview builds should also be followed, as the Alpha 5.0 technologies continue to be tested there.