It works like this. The early backers during the initial campaign were given a bunch of goodies along with Life Time Insurance (LTI) on whatever ship they bought. That LTI was supposed to end with the initial campaign but they extended it out so more people could buy into the game. Then they decided once the game gets to xx million dollars they would give LTI to all backs who had already bought the game.

Well they finally ended the LTI (for now) but it will probably come back again down the line.

Without LTI when you buy in you still get access to the alpha and beta stuff but you will only get 6 months worth of Insurance on your starter ship. After that six months is up you will have to hire on as a crew or take a loan in order to buy a new ship if you die or start a new game.

Also there is a price hike.

The basic starter package for early backers still costs 30 bucks where it costs more now for new backers. As the deadline closes for beta (dec this year) the price will slowly increase and once they run out of beta copies they will probably stop selling packages all together and then you will have to wait for the game to release.

That is not to say you cant still get LTI at the early backer prices. You just need to get someone with early backer status to gift you the pledge. So you send them xx paypal money and they buy it and gift it to your email address and you then have a LTI package. (obviously you must trust this person)