Chris Roberts and Sandi Gardiner share the Frankfurt studio update. Also, get some insight on the department responsible for assuring the quality of Star Citizen.
And for info on becoming a subscriber, go to: https://robertsspaceindustries.com/pledge/subscriptions
Quelle: https://robertsspaceindustries.com/comm-link/tran…round-The-Verse
Sponsored by WillsOp
Externer Inhalt robertsspaceindustries.comInhalte von externen Seiten werden ohne Ihre Zustimmung nicht automatisch geladen und angezeigt.This is TRACKER, your best source for official Bounty Hunter Guild news. I’m you host, Garet Coliga, and it is my distinct pleasure to track down all the latest info, tips and tech reviews before they have a chance to slip away.
Today’s show is sponsored by WillsOp Systems, makers of quality avionics, sensors and targeting systems for over four decades. Personally, I got one of their Mobius scanners hooked into my Dragonfly, and while I don’t pull down too many contracts these days, it’s fairly obvious that it would be a real boon hunting an asset surface-side. Plus, I’ve heard from plenty of others that WillsOp’s targeting systems are among the more consistently high-rated suites you can buy. If you check them and like what you see, you can use the code TRCK47 to get a special bonus offer on your order.
Now before we get started, there’s a bit of Guild business to take care of. It seems that a fair amount of members may have started recently using a new Xi’an focus-drug called E’tâm. From what I hear, it can really be a huge help on long stakeouts or extended surveillance ops, but it’s looking like there may be some unexpected side effects for Humans. Turns out that a few weeks back there was a murder case in Lo where the suspect went into some sort of fugue state after a bad ‘flow’ ride and killed her crew. Guild Health Services is currently recommending that members avoid the herbal supplement until more testing can be done, just in case this isn’t an isolated incident. While you’re at it, it’s probably worth being more careful if you’re approaching a target who seems to be under the influence.
With that out of the way, let’s move on to today’s HotSheet, shall we? Now, since today’s sponsor specializes in high tech, we figured it would be a good excuse to do a bit of a themed warrant list and highlight a few of the more choice tech-focused contracts available on the boards. Of course, before you pursue any of these jobs and confront a fugitive, remember to consult your local Guild or Law Enforcement office as bounties may have been cleared. And as always, all contracts must be executed by licensed Guild Members in good standing, so please make sure that if you’re planning to work, you get those dues in on time.
First up on the HotSheet is a hacker who goes by the alias GibMercy and is wanted in connection to a series of heists out in Hadrian. Turns out Gib had managed to infiltrate a couple of the shopping kiosks in one of the busier sectors of the flotilla and reroute the loading protocols for several high-value orders. By the time the discrepancy was noticed, Gib and their cargo-laden Hull-C were long gone. The authorities were able to identify GibMercy’s handywork based off their coding fingerprint, but they haven’t been able to pin down a real ID to go with the handle. That’s why they passed it off to the Guild. All you’ll have to go on is the ship make and the manifest for the stolen cargo, so it will definitely be a puzzler, but on the plus side, the payout’s a large one.
Next bounty that caught our eye is for one Shakara Toula. Last seen operating near Asura, she is what’s commonly known as a “gasper.” In other words, she hacks remote stations, seals all the doors and begins venting rooms until the poor folks aboard pay her demands. There’s been a bounty on her head for a little while now, but recently she knocked over an older station and the aging life support system wasn’t able to kick back online. Two people expired before a nearby ship was able to arrive and lend assistance to the rest of the station. That tragedy was enough to move Toula up a warrant-class. Note that she’s proven difficult to apprehend thus far, as her advanced computer skills have allowed her to slip away from the few Agents and bounty hunters who’ve managed to catch up with her. Bit of advice, anyone who attempts the job should make sure their electronic security measures are up to snuff.
The final snag and bag on our list is one I’m sure many of you have heard of — Ivan Pannich. The illegal gun and ammo mods he manufactures have been linked to eleven Guild deaths over the years, including the unfortunate passing of my good friend Ariel Liang. After four months off the grid, two days ago a security scan picked up Pannich leaving Severus. With his weapon proficiency, he should be considered extremely dangerous. My advice would be to go in wearing heavier armor as an extra precaution. A few deployable shields would probably not be entirely amiss either. Now, since the Guild has a vested interest in seeing Pannich brought to justice, they are offering to fund bonuses on the contract to any hunters who assist in bringing him in before the trail goes cold again. TRACKER will definitely be providing any updates as they come in.
Looking at the three jobs in the rundown today, you can see why it’s vitally important for a bounty hunter to stay up to date on the latest tech. Not only because it might give an advantage out on the job, but because you can be sure that as soon as a new piece of gear hits the market, there’s going to be some outlaw scum perverting it for ill-gotten gain. Don’t get me wrong, I know how tough it can be staying current. Sometimes, the last thing you want to do after keeping tabs on a bail-skip all day is study a tech manual. So, to help you out, famed Guild member Joss Han will be joining us after the break to explain how with a few core skills under your belt, you’ll be able to better analyze and adapt to malicious tech you may encounter on the job. Joss Han, you may remember, is the hunter who took down the notorious infoagent SyNide a few years back, so he knows his stuff.
All right, TRACKER’s going to take a quick pause for a word from our sponsor, WillsOp Systems, but make sure to stay put to hear what Joss has to say when we come back. Right after these commercial messages.
Quelle: https://robertsspaceindustries.com/comm-link/spec…al-Difficulties
Greetings Citizens
Externer Inhalt robertsspaceindustries.comInhalte von externen Seiten werden ohne Ihre Zustimmung nicht automatisch geladen und angezeigt.Last week was out of this world with the reveal of the Banu and their role in the universe. On top of learning more about the Banu, we revealed their newest spacecraft: the Banu Defender. In last week’s ATV, we shared the spec, design, and took a dive into the Banu lore with Lead Writer Dave Haddock and Senior Writer Will Weissbaum. Learn more about the Banu and their integral part of the Star Citizen universe here.
We’ve also introduced new reward levels to our existing referral program and kicked off a limited time contest to get everyone pumped for Star Citizen Alpha 3.0 and Gamescom. We’ve heard a lot of excellent feedback over the weekend that we are working on further updates; stay tuned!
So what’s going on this week?
Today’s Citizens of the Stars has Jared Huckaby talking with Tirent, co-founder of the Star Citizen Competitive League, a massive Star Marine tournament that was broadcast live on Twitch.tv with over 55 teams that signed up! Then, I sit down with Mark Abent, Senior Gameplay Engineer and host of “Bugsmashers!” for this week’s Quantum Questions. Will Brian Chambers be knocked down from being Quantum Champion? Only one way to find out!
Tuesday is a new Subscribers Town Hall featuring the Banu! Join Jared Huckaby, writers Dave Haddock and William Weissbaum, and ship designer Jonny Jacivious as they take questions from subscribers about the Banu and other alien races found within the Star Citizen universe. Also if you are a Subscriber, this is your last chance to get your question submitted or upvote the ones you want to be asked by visiting the Subscriber’s section on Spectrum here.
On Wednesday, our bi-weekly show “Bugsmashers!” is back! Bug hunter extraordinaire Mark Abent tackles a bug in Single Player Arena Commander, where a player floats indefinitely out of his ship and into the verse if left idle at the start of the match. These episodes give detailed insight into the development process and is a must watch for those interested in the technical aspects of the Star Citizen.
This Thursday on Around the Verse is the Foundry 42 Frankfurt Studio Update! Brian Chambers shows off all the cool tech the team is working on to bring Star Citizen to life. Also included is a feature about our QA teams from around the globe and the never-ending work they do to verify changes, and report new bugs to our development team.
Every new concept sale brings with it our dedicated Questions and Answers post, and last week’s launch of the Banu Defender is no different. There’s a thread open in Spectrum now where you can not only submit your questions for consideration, but upvote on the ones you want us to answer most. Questions will be picked later this week, and a single, super-sized post will go up this Thursday.
Rounding out the end of the week is Happy Hour: Museum. Resident historian Ben Lesnick dives deep into the lore and history of the games that pave the way to Star Citizen.
That’s all from me, see you in the ‘Verse!
Tyler Nolin
AKA Admiral Sloth
Community ManagerThe Weekly Community Content Schedule
MONDAY, APRIL 24th, 2017
Citizens of the Stars (https://www.youtube.com/user/RobertsSpaceInd/)TUESDAY, APRIL 25th, 2017
Weekly Lore Post (https://robertsspaceindustries.com/comm-link/spectrum-dispatch)
Subscribers Town Hall: Banu & Other Aliens – Noon PST (https://twitch.tv/starcitizen)WEDNESDAY, APRIL 26th, 2017
Bugsmashers! (https://www.youtube.com/user/RobertsSpaceInd/)THURSDAY, APRIL 27th, 2017
Around the Verse (https://www.youtube.com/user/RobertsSpaceInd/)
Q&A Post: Banu DefenderFRIDAY, APRIL 28th, 2017
Happy Hour RSI Meusum – Noon PST (https://twitch.tv/starcitizen)
RSI NewsletterCommunity Spotlight: April 24th, 2017 – News Citizen
Externer Inhalt robertsspaceindustries.comInhalte von externen Seiten werden ohne Ihre Zustimmung nicht automatisch geladen und angezeigt.It’s no secret that the Star Citizen community is the best there is, the best there was, and the best there ever will be! Some people have dedicated their time to be able to spread the word and share all the new details regarding the development of Star Citizen. Without them, we wouldn’t be able to reach nearly as many other citizens without them.
Below you will find a few of the communities dedicated to sharing the news and updates from within Star Citizen to fans around the world.
Star Citizen Subreddit
Externer Inhalt robertsspaceindustries.comInhalte von externen Seiten werden ohne Ihre Zustimmung nicht automatisch geladen und angezeigt.With over 100,000 subscribers, the Star Citizen subreddit has always been a popular site for those looking to find out the latest in Star Citizen.
Relay.sc
Externer Inhalt robertsspaceindustries.comInhalte von externen Seiten werden ohne Ihre Zustimmung nicht automatisch geladen und angezeigt.Relay was developed as a means to transcribe and summarize all of our content, analyze the Star Citizen development process, and bring you up to the minute news.
Imperial News Network
Externer Inhalt robertsspaceindustries.comInhalte von externen Seiten werden ohne Ihre Zustimmung nicht automatisch geladen und angezeigt.Developed by Nehkara and Wolf Larsen, INN is a place where their team will create, curate, and aggregate the best Star Citizen content – whether it’s research, images, video, or anything else, so long as it’s related to the Star Citizen universe.
Quelle: https://robertsspaceindustries.com/comm-link/citi…In-Star-Citizen
A Guide to Visiting the Banu Protectorate
Welcome, Citizen, to the official “A Guide to Visiting the Banu Protectorate”, 65th edition. There are new, fun, and informative additions to the Guide, such as tips on negotiation and personal safety.
Enjoy your time in the Protectorate and thank you for making us your choice in planning your voyage.
Sincerely,
The UEE Diplomatic CorpsExterner Inhalt robertsspaceindustries.comInhalte von externen Seiten werden ohne Ihre Zustimmung nicht automatisch geladen und angezeigt.Why visit the Banu?
The Banu are not only the first alien species that Humanity had contact with, but they have been a consistently peaceful and respectful neighbor who have fostered a close relationship with the UEE and her citizens through economic trade and cultural exchange. On top of all that, they are a rich and vibrant people well worth a closer look.
Known best for their industrious nature, Banu pride themselves on their artisanal craftsmanship and astute business acumen. Rather than the traditional family units or corporations typically found among Humans, the Banu instead have a societal structure that combines both into one single unit – the Souli. Often translated as ‘guild,’ the Souli is the foundation for life in the Protectorate, where Banu work and live together. Each Souli specializes in a specific industry and can vary widely; from a ship manufacturing Souli, to a trade Souli, even a Souli that raises Banu young. There is a Souli for everything. This regimented division of labor translates directly into the skilled expertise present on Banu worlds, markets and trade-vessels making for a memorable visit.
Where to go?
Travelling throughout the Banu Protectorate offers a variety of exotic sights and sounds. From the flotillas of Yulin to the hallowed halls of Trise, you can find adventure and mystery around every corner. So where do you even start? We’ve assembled a handy guide of some of the systems to make planning your journey even easier.
Bacchus II – Skip between the thousands of archipelagos and islands across this vast
ocean world to experience what many consider the quintessential Banu world.Geddon I – Fancy a little danger? Visit the arcologies among the beautiful desolation of this geologically active volcanic world to see how mining soulis are harvesting planetary resources for trade goods.
Gliese IV – Ever wonder what an uninhabited planet looks like? Traverse the unkempt
wilds of Gliese IV, perfectly habitable to Humans and Banu, but completely unoccupied.Kins II – For you history buffs, no trip to the Banu Protectorate would be complete
without seeing the ancient structure on Kins II. Completely defying any existing Banu
engineering styles, these sites have long baffled xenoarchaeologists about who (or
what) built them.What to do when I get there?
Of course, the Banu don’t spend all their time working and trading. With a strong belief that you should always live in the moment and focus on the present, they take their relaxation almost as seriously as they take their work. There are plenty of options to choose from when it comes to diversions and there’s sure to be something to match almost any taste. Maybe you would like to try your hand at one of the bustling gambling halls where goods are exuberantly exchanged in games of chance. If you’re passionate about sports, the Banu have taken a strong liking to the Human game of Sataball with many arenas to be found throughout the Protectorate — just be warned that it’s common for Banu to cheer for both sides in a match!
For many who visit the Banu, the biggest draw will be the markets which many consider to offer some of the best shopping anywhere in the universe. Not only can you peruse the elite craftsmanship of the various Souli, but because the Banu trade with many other species, you can often find exotic goods from almost every corner of known space and some items from even farther than that. Wandering down the crowded stalls of a Banu Flotilla can be a treat for the senses, but to get the full experience you will definitely want to have the fun of purchasing an item of your very own. For those looking for just a small keepsake of their travels, a popular item to purchase is a tholo, a small three-sided token representative of Cassa, the Banu patron of luck.
- These trinkets are sold as decision-making devices, so ask a question, then roll the tholo to get a ‘yes,’ ‘no’ or (what roughly translates to)‘run’ as an answer.
And after all that exploring and shopping, make sure to stop by one of the dining Souli to experience some of the Banu’s hospitality firsthand and partake in one of their large communal meals. While Banu typically eat with their hands, some places that cater to Humans will have silverware available.
In the Marketplace
When visiting any Banu population center, from the smallest enclaves to the thriving cities, you will notice one thing: they are always built around a central marketplace. Human anthropologists theorize that early Banu societies must have grown around crossroads, placing themselves along the confluences of travellers allowed them to maximize their exposure to goods moving around their planet. The more popular crossroads attracted more and more Banu until permanent settlements began to take shape around them. Interestingly enough, these are just theories and not even Banu ones. The most comprehensive historians of the Banu culture are actually Humans and that only goes back as far as our first interactions with them. The Banu belief that one should always live in the present has created a cultural mentality that disregards facts of the past. To that end, while technical knowledge will be preserved (until they come across a better design), all other facts (historical figures, key events, even their own homeworld) have been lost to the ages. So, while Humans place great value on deeds and noteworthy
actions, to the Banu it is the accumulation of material goods that truly represents a life well spent. No where is this clearer than in their markets.From stalls packed to the brim with odds and ends to the immaculate showrooms aboard a Merchantman, there are a few things to keep in mind when trading with the Banu:
- Negotiating is a must. It is considered very strange to accept an initial offer.
- Even though an item or a ship can look the same on the outside, it’s worth taking a
closer look as Banu manufacturing can vary widely from Souli to Souli. It may be worth
shopping around till you find the one that matches your price and quality standards.- As trade between our two species grows, many Banu are making products specifically to
cater to Human tastes. For example, there are now numerous ship Souli who are
constructing Human flight ready versions of ships like the Merchantman and Defender.- It is traditional for Banu to offer hospitality while negotiating and you will often see traders
gathered around a slomaddon, a large ornate brewing vessel, each of them
having contributed an ingredient to the drink, sloma.If you are offered a cup, be polite and take a sip, but make sure to drink responsibility
— sloma can sometimes be quite potent.
- Most Banu will consider a deal final once the transaction is complete. Make sure you
inspect everything closely and double check the terms of your agreement before leaving.- A good tip for finding a reputable dealer is watching where other Banu shop. If a Souli doesn’t have very many customers there might be a reason for it.
- If you see something you like, go ahead and buy it! Banu traders are often transient and may not be there next time you return.
Safety and Security
Here are a few tips and pointers to keep in mind during your visit:
- Many Humans find that bringing earplugs or other hearing protection can be helpful since the Banu’s hearing isn’t as sensitive and noise levels can get quite high.
- While many Banu will deal with you honestly, they have what can be described as a lax view of crime and expect visitors to look after themselves, so keep your wits about you at all times. Some travelers find hiring local Banu mercenaries or Defender escorts to be a sound investment.
- If you are the victim of a crime, you will be expected to hire a security Souli to investigate the matter for you. In cases of theft, many are willing to take a percentage of the recovered goods as their fee.
- One of the biggest dangers that Humans can encounter in the Banu Protectorate is slavery. We strongly advise people avoid the “Servant Markets” of Kins II for this reason. However, please note that if you are captured by Banu slavers you will most likely be offered the opportunity to purchase your own freedom. There are few companies that offer travelers slavery insurance in case of emergency.
- Please note that while many visitors have read the popular book A Human Perspective, we would like to remind people that this is a work of fiction and should not be counted on as an accurate source of information on the Banu.
A Guide to Visiting the Banu Protectorate
“A Guide to Visiting the Banu Protectorate” is prepared by the United Empire of Earth Diplomatic Corps for the use of UEE members, both public and private. Logos & photos used with permission. All Rights Reserved.
[/article]
Externer Inhalt robertsspaceindustries.comInhalte von externen Seiten werden ohne Ihre Zustimmung nicht automatisch geladen und angezeigt.Discover the Defender
Learn more about the Banu’s unique culture and their premiere fighter in this brochure.
Read the brochureor
DownloadIntroducing the Banu Defender
In the Banu Protectorate, tradesmen are known for hauling precious cargo across long distances in their Merchantman ships. While the Merchantman boasts a cavernous cargo area, it lacks the offensive capabilities to ward off large numbers of attackers.
Meet the Banu Defender, a multi-crew fighter whose patchwork design features both Xi’an thrusters, Tevarin shields, and four Singe tachyon cannons. Though cargo space is limited, the Defender features modest accommodations for its crew and provides easy access to components. The Defender gets its name from the role it serves: the first line of defense against enemy attacks.
That’s why the Defender makes the ideal companion to the Merchantman: one to do the heavy hauling and the other to perform the deadly dogfighting. Every Banu merchant knows an investment in defense is an investment in their livelihood.
Now, you can purchase both ships as part of the Banu Pack! This exclusive 2-ship pack is available for a limited time. The Defender and Merchantman can also be bought individually in two models: Standard and War Bond. This special sale ends on May 1, 2017.
About the Sale
The Defender is being offered for the first time as a limited concept sale. This means that the ship design meets our specifications, but it is not yet ready to display in your Hangar, fight in Arena Commander or fly in the Alpha. All revenue collected from Concept Sales goes directly to supporting the development of Star Citizen; to building a game with a scale and depth that’s never been accomplished in games before. Your contributions directly finance the hundreds of developers striving to create the Best Damn Space Sim ever and the team engaging with the Best Damn Community Ever. Concept Sale profits don’t go to shareholders or personal pockets; they go directly into developing a better game. Star Citizen wouldn’t exist without the continued support of our backers.
The sale includes Lifetime Insurance on the ship hull and a pair of decorative items for your Hangar. A future patch will add a Defender poster and then once the in-game model is finished you will also be given an in-game Defender mini ship model! In the future, the ship price will increase and the offer will not include Lifetime Insurance or these extras.
Disclaimer
Remember: we are offering this pledge ship to help fund Star Citizen’s development. The funding generated by sales such as this is what allows us to include deeper, non-combat oriented features in the Star Citizen world. Concept ships will be available for in-game credits in the final universe, and they are not required to start the game.
Additionally, please note that the Defender will be entering the ship pipeline now, it will ultimately be released after other concept ships have been completed. All decorative ‘flare’ items will also be available to acquire in the finished game world. The goal is to make additional ships available that give players a different experience rather than a particular advantage when the persistent universe launches.
Quelle: https://robertsspaceindustries.com/comm-link/tran…2-Banu-Defender
Chris Roberts and Sandi Gardiner are all about the Banu. Also, the Los Angeles studio shares their update. Learn how you can earn a trip to GamesCom here: https://robertsspaceindustries.com/referral-contest
And for info on becoming a subscriber, go to: https://robertsspaceindustries.com/pledge/subscriptions
Quelle: https://robertsspaceindustries.com/comm-link/tran…round-The-Verse
Greetings Citizens
Externer Inhalt robertsspaceindustries.comInhalte von externen Seiten werden ohne Ihre Zustimmung nicht automatisch geladen und angezeigt.It’s been a busy week.
Last week saw the release of ATV with our always stellar UK Studio Update and the addition of what was almost certainly our largest, most in-depth Ship Shape segment of all time: the Aegis Javelin. ATV has grown and evolved by leaps and bounds over the last year, and a large part of that is due to the continued support of our Subscribers, and the tremendous work of team members across the world dedicating their time and efforts to pulling back the curtain and showing you more of what we’ve been working on than ever before.
So to you and to them, I just wanted to add one more, “Thank You” to the pile. You’re the best.
Yeah, you.
Okay, maybe not YOU, but definitely you.
Also last week we published our March Monthly Studio Report and our biggest schedule update, ever, including a behind-the-scenes video detailing just some of the considerations made when putting together a production schedule at any level. Doing this was something Chris was extremely passionate about, and I don’t have to tell you how contagious that passion for making Star Citizen can be. It’s one of the many reasons we enjoy working on a project like this.
If you haven’t checked out Chris’ Letter from the Chairman and the 3.0/2017 Production Schedule Report, I’d highly recommend you do so.
Externer Inhalt robertsspaceindustries.comInhalte von externen Seiten werden ohne Ihre Zustimmung nicht automatisch geladen und angezeigt.I also got to visit a replica of the Hotel Room from the end of 2001: a Space Odyssey this weekend and I’m still excited about it so I’m including a line about it and picture here and nobody can stop me. I’m even gonna bold it.
This week brings us continuing episodes of Citizens of the Stars and Loremaker’s Guide to the Galaxy, an ATV on Thursday from the LA Studio, and the return of Happy Hour Gamedev on Friday. What’s on this week’s Gamedev? Well, if things go how I think they’re gonna go, it won’t be like anything you’ll ever see from any other game studio, so check that out. Of course, thinking about it, that’s every episode of Happy Hour Gamedev so far, isn’t it?
Subscribers can look for a thread about the next Subscriber’s Town Hall to go up in the Den sometime this week, and a thread for the next 10 for the Chairman Special Edition to go up in the weeks after that.
And in case you missed it, the price for our next concept ship, the Banu Defender was announced over the weekend in the Ship Prices announcement thread. It’s $185 dollars, and the ship and the Banu race will be revealed to the world on Friday.
With that, I’ll see you in the ‘Verse.
Jared “Disco Lando” Huckaby
Community ManagerThe Weekly Community Content Schedule
MONDAY, APRIL 17th, 2017
Citizens of the Stars (https://www.youtube.com/user/RobertsSpaceInd/)TUESDAY, APRIL 18th, 2017
Weekly Lore Post (https://robertsspaceindustries.com/comm-link/spectrum-dispatch)WEDNESDAY, APRIL 19th, 2017
Loremaker’s Guide to the Galaxy (https://www.youtube.com/user/RobertsSpaceInd/)THURSDAY, APRIL 20th, 2017
Around the Verse (https://www.youtube.com/user/RobertsSpaceInd/)
Vault UpdateFRIDAY, APRIL 21st, 2017
Happy Hour Gamedev – Noon PST (https://twitch.tv/starcitizen)
RSI Newsletter
Banu Defender Concept SaleCommunity Spotlight: April 17th, 2017 – Stream Citizen
Externer Inhalt robertsspaceindustries.comInhalte von externen Seiten werden ohne Ihre Zustimmung nicht automatisch geladen und angezeigt.There are many ways to spread the word that Space Sims are back, be that in webforums or chatrooms, news articles or reviews, but perhaps one of my favorite ways to share our mutual love of Star Citizen is through streaming. There are many folks out there that showcase Star Citizen to others through their streams on a variety of platforms, including Twitch, YouTube, and Beam, and you can get a real sense for how the game is progressing by watching the reactions of players live. This week, we shine the spotlight on these industrious individuals who share their love of Star Citizen through streaming.
Talung
Externer Inhalt robertsspaceindustries.comInhalte von externen Seiten werden ohne Ihre Zustimmung nicht automatisch geladen und angezeigt.A self-proclaimed “gamer from the days of the Sinclair Spectrum and somehow still remaining a complete noob at most games,” Talung can often be found streaming Star Citizen and was recently partnered with Twitch.
You can find his stream channel at twitch.tv/talung.
Grakees
Externer Inhalt robertsspaceindustries.comInhalte von externen Seiten werden ohne Ihre Zustimmung nicht automatisch geladen und angezeigt.A fan and backer since May 2013, Grakees streams Star Citizen throughout the week. You can join in the fun at twitch.tv/grakees and experience the HUGS. He’s big on hugs. Watch out.
Sgt. Gamble
Externer Inhalt robertsspaceindustries.comInhalte von externen Seiten werden ohne Ihre Zustimmung nicht automatisch geladen und angezeigt.You may remember Sgt. Gamble from our CitizenCon 2016 Pre-Show gamestreams. His streams often have an infectious energy that his viewers enjoy.
You can check out his channel at twitch.tv/sgt_gamble.
RedLir
Externer Inhalt robertsspaceindustries.comInhalte von externen Seiten werden ohne Ihre Zustimmung nicht automatisch geladen und angezeigt.RedLir streams nearly every day of the week, often highlighting his adventures in Star Citizen. As a member of TEST Squadron… well, what more do I really need to say, right?
You can catch his streams at twitch.tv/redlir.
Quelle: https://robertsspaceindustries.com/comm-link/citi…In-Star-Citizen
Noch bis zum 16. April 2017 haben alle interessierten Spieler die Möglichkeit, die Weltraum-Simulation Star Citizen kostenlos auszuprobieren. Das Entwicklerteam von Cloud Imperium Games stellt dafür das Raumschiff Anvil Super Hornet zur Verfügung.
Quelle: http://www.pcgames.de/Star-Citizen-P…ielbar-1225813/
Monthly Studio Report: March 2017
Greetings Citizens!
Welcome to the monthly report where we collect updates from our studios around the world into a single comprehensive place to summarize the various progresses (and setbacks) they’ve experienced.
Last month we debuted our new style of Monthly Report, utilizing the weekly Studio Reports found in Around the Verse to create an overview of progress made in the last four weeks. In addition to our continuing progress with Squadron 42 and the PU 3.0 undertaking, we released both 2.6.2 and 2.6.3 to the entire community, and have now focused those attentions to the upcoming Star Citizen Alpha 3.0.
With that, let’s review some of what each studio did this month.
CIG Los Angeles
Externer Inhalt robertsspaceindustries.comInhalte von externen Seiten werden ohne Ihre Zustimmung nicht automatisch geladen und angezeigt.CLOUD IMPERIUM: LOS ANGELES
SHIP ART AND DESIGN
Externer Inhalt robertsspaceindustries.comInhalte von externen Seiten werden ohne Ihre Zustimmung nicht automatisch geladen und angezeigt.Externer Inhalt robertsspaceindustries.comInhalte von externen Seiten werden ohne Ihre Zustimmung nicht automatisch geladen und angezeigt.The ship team spent a lot of the month working on the Drake Buccaneer. Art created a custom dual weapon mount and generated all the LODs, while the tech content team implemented UV2s and Damage. Tech design made their flight balance passes to get it ready for flight with sound and then passed it along to VFX. The ship team has also made a lot of progress on the newly revamped RSI Aurora. The whitebox phase in now complete, which includes a proxy layout of the space, establishing the animation positions, placing the screens, and making sure the characters could hold the controls. The final geometry of the cockpit has begun in an effort to improve the inside of the ship. Now that tech design has implemented all the art updates into the ship’s new archetype, the RSI Aurora is heading into greybox.
TECH DESIGN
Externer Inhalt robertsspaceindustries.comInhalte von externen Seiten werden ohne Ihre Zustimmung nicht automatisch geladen und angezeigt.Externer Inhalt robertsspaceindustries.comInhalte von externen Seiten werden ohne Ihre Zustimmung nicht automatisch geladen und angezeigt.The tech design group completed the design for the Multi Function Display (MFD) screens, which controls power, heat, coolers, shields, weapons, countermeasures and missiles, in preparation for Item 2.0 functionality. These designer prototypes are meant to help understand what’s needed and see how everything will interact with each other.
UI
Externer Inhalt robertsspaceindustries.comInhalte von externen Seiten werden ohne Ihre Zustimmung nicht automatisch geladen und angezeigt.Externer Inhalt robertsspaceindustries.comInhalte von externen Seiten werden ohne Ihre Zustimmung nicht automatisch geladen und angezeigt.As soon as these designs have been approved, the UI team will create an interface to take advantage of the functionality that engineering is implementing in the back end. Once this system is in place, a ship that is staffed by a knowledgeable crew will be able to operate their ship beyond the default system settings and min-max the various ship systems to suit not only a player’s style, but potentially save a player during a potentially devastating attack.
QA
This month QA aided LA Development by checking a variety of fixes for 2.6.2 issues. They also provided support to Austin QA with PTU & LIVE sanity checks, smoke tests, sweeps and deployments, and helped new hires get up to speed with the game. As for feature work, the team swept ship destruction VFX, Item System 2.0, implementation of recent loadout changes, and tested multiple iterations of new targeting and ESP code. For a quick reminder on Quality Assurance terms, a Sanity Check basically ensures that the game loads. This is now automated, but can take about an hour or two to investigate any errors that arise. A Smoke Test checks the basic functionality. This process takes 6-8 people about a day if there aren’t any major issues. A Full Sweep means checking everything possible, a process which requires a much larger team and can take over a week. Full Sweeps are the most arduous, rigorous, and intense, but also incredibly important.
ENGINEERING
The engineering team started a new shop entity that uses DataCore components to allow shops to be easily streamed in with object containers, with the aim to be finished in the next sprint. The plan is to make shops more dynamic and reactive to the economy by retrieving their inventory from the back end. The engineering team added a new attribute to vehicle XMLs that allows designers to specify the interior grid type of the vehicle (small, medium, or large). This optimization will reduce memory storage as all ships previously defaulted to medium size.
Externer Inhalt robertsspaceindustries.comInhalte von externen Seiten werden ohne Ihre Zustimmung nicht automatisch geladen und angezeigt.Externer Inhalt robertsspaceindustries.comInhalte von externen Seiten werden ohne Ihre Zustimmung nicht automatisch geladen und angezeigt.As discussed previously, a new Light Group entity was developed, equipped with a state machine to serve as the ultimate light switch. Now that implementation of the core state-switching functionality is complete, the next step is to start using the Light Group in our vehicles and environments and replace all instances of the old layer-switching method of light management. This new light group entity reduces the number of lights used, which has dramatic impacts on performance. For example, hundreds of entities were reduced down to 90 or less with no visual impact on the Drake Caterpillar.
A framework is being developed in IFCS (Intelligent Flight Control System) for the autopilot to handle situations like take-off and landing sequences. This also applies to AI control, so they’ll be providing the AI developers with a set of tools for controlling the ships, like a “move-to”, “change speed to”, etc. This will improve the stability and predictability of ship motion under optimal conditions.
The Room System and Atmosphere Containers were updated with several new features, better debugging tools, and several bug fixes. The room system has only been implemented in a few locations, but these changes will allow the implementation of rooms and atmospheres throughout the various locations and ships in the game. At the moment, the entering and exiting of airlocks are scripted events. They don’t factor in atmosphere of any kind. This new system will be able to replace this setup with an actual room and atmosphere that allows for a dynamic experience.
In addition to the room system changes, a new feature allows the designers and artists to set wear and dirt parameters for loadouts. This functionality comes in two levels: overall and individual values for specific items. Wear and Dirt values are used by the render node to set shader parameters that make items look old, dusty, scuffed up, and burnt out. This task also used Loadout Editor side work, where the team added UI support to edit wear and dirt.
Recently, the team started on the Entity Owner Manager. This system will be responsible for managing ownership and lifetimes of all the entities in the game and is a core feature required to take gameplay from a multiplayer game to a persistent online experience. It will work in conjunction with the back end persistence systems to indicate dynamic changes to the world that need to be tracked and persisted across sessions. The Entity Owner Manager will also work with various game and engine systems, including Debris, Salvage, Criminality, Streaming, Missions, Cargo, Shops, and more to help create the persistent experience across clients and servers.
The team has been working on scanning subcomponents, which required some slight refactoring of the object databank. After the changes, the databank can support the storage of “child” entries, which will be the subcomponents on ships/players/etc. In doing this, the thread safety of accessing data within the databank was also improved. This allows calculations to be moved onto other threads, which will help improve performance. This focuses on two big elements: the ping component and angle of focus. The ping component is the method in which a player or pilot will send out a wave to see if there are any objects of note within their scan range. This could be a ship, an asteroid, or even traces that mark whether a player entered or exited quantum travel. Since other players can detect these traces, we think that this could have some pretty heavy game implications. For example, if you were an outlaw, it would allow you to track potential prey. Angle of focus allows players to adjust the angle with which they’re scanning. A smaller angle will also provide more range, but only contacts within the angle can be detected. The underlying radar query logic is being refactored to use zone queries rather than a huge iteration of registered radar objects. This will make the scanning system much more efficient.
TECH CONTENT
Since the tech content team supports and implements every pipeline within Star Citizen and Squadron 42, one of their main focuses have been performance improvements. For instance, the team changed the mesh vertex and position formats, which massively improves streaming of these meshes as well as reducing build size.They’re also improving the Python integration within our editor, which allows for faster development of Python tools which are used by every department across the company. The tools can script any sandbox process they want. For example, it can place asteroids and generate modular outposts, which saves a tremendous amount of development time on otherwise tedious and time consuming tasks. The tech content team completed a character animation tool that tracks and reports the number of various wild lines each character will have in the universe. With over 1200 pages of script for S42, which include all story lines as well as wild lines, a tool was needed to continuously generate reports on how many were completed and what was left to solve. Once the various lines are all in, the system will be able to pull lines based on player action and situation, but also randomize the potential wildline responses so the NPCs aren’t repeating the same line every time.
Externer Inhalt robertsspaceindustries.comInhalte von externen Seiten werden ohne Ihre Zustimmung nicht automatisch geladen und angezeigt.All helmets have been converted to a dot skin format. The conversion was important to allow a unified LOD ratio across the character skins. This means no more helmet-less people running around the ’verse. To ensure this is easier in the future, Tech Content also created a tool that rigs skins and exports automatically which will drastically reduce dev time from an entire day to just a few minutes.
Heads were also successfully converted to use the human skin shader developed by the graphics team. Since there are 44 different areas of blended wrinkles and blended diffuse, the texture cost was quite high, at about 100 MB per head. With this change, roughly 90% of the original texture memory cost was saved without discernable visual impact.
With the implementation of the female character progressing rapidly, thousands of animations have been transferred from male to female to complete her motion set and provide a data for animation to iterate on.
To help the cinematics team focus on content needed for Squadron 42, a tool was written to allow for visibility of scenes before they even hit the engine. This allows for fast exporting of animations and preview renders which are then automatically uploaded to Shotgun. This makes it easier and faster to review the many hours of cinematics for Squadron 42.
NARRATIVE
The narrative team has been developing some additional 3.0 missions. They’ve also begun documenting posters and props to populate the world of Star Citizen. The team also created an equivalent Time Capsule approach for the Xi’an history from birth to present day as a means of expanding Xi’an history and society documentation. Breakdowns of ethno-groups in the Star Citizen universe has been in progress to take full advantage of the character customization technology 3Lateral showcased at GDC a few weeks ago.
CHARACTER ART
Externer Inhalt robertsspaceindustries.comInhalte von externen Seiten werden ohne Ihre Zustimmung nicht automatisch geladen und angezeigt.Externer Inhalt robertsspaceindustries.comInhalte von externen Seiten werden ohne Ihre Zustimmung nicht automatisch geladen und angezeigt.The character team is working on the ingame mesh of the Heavy Outlaw. Next, it will go onto rigging and implementation. The light, medium, and heavy female marine armor and the undersuit has been sent to rigging and implementation. Once the male base suits were done, an adjusted wrap technique was used to save development time. We’ve also made progress on the Female Explorer suit, which has now moved through the high poly phase, so she’ll be exploring the universe in no time. On the Squadron 42 front, both the EVA deck crew and the Marine BDU have gone through the high poly phase and are onto the in-game mesh and texturing phase. We’ve continued developing the Vanduul and the medium and heavy versions of the OMC outlaw faction. Lastly, the mechanized Titan Suit is in R&D along with other alien concept sculpts.
CIG Austin
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DESIGN
The ATX Design team focused on getting 2.6.2 out the door, which has mainly consisted of adding new subscriber flair items and fixing some minor bugs. Additional shop-related elements have been updated as the shopping system continues to grow. The team is also in the process of revising the Stanton System Map. Also, Landing Zone AI and Usables are undergoing additional development.
Externer Inhalt robertsspaceindustries.comInhalte von externen Seiten werden ohne Ihre Zustimmung nicht automatisch geladen und angezeigt.Externer Inhalt robertsspaceindustries.comInhalte von externen Seiten werden ohne Ihre Zustimmung nicht automatisch geladen und angezeigt.New subscriber flair will be rolled out in the coming months. One of the new items is called the ‘viVid Display,’ which can display game locations holographically. Players can use the ‘viVid Display’ to find out more about locations, including their intended visuals. Other flair items include a series of ship schematics, which will showcase the level of detail that goes into ship design. These light board displays can be hung from any poster style port in your hangar.
Externer Inhalt robertsspaceindustries.comInhalte von externen Seiten werden ohne Ihre Zustimmung nicht automatisch geladen und angezeigt.The Shopping System will be revamped in our next release. As the Item 2.0 system advances, the Item Port structure has been changed as well so it can fall in line with the end goal. These fluctuations have re-addressed things like how Shop Mannequins and Item Bundles are set up. The team’s goal is to create a base mannequin object that the shopping system can apply loadouts to. The items on a given mannequin would be purchasable by themselves, or as a bundle for a discounted price. In the past, every outfit was only purchasable as an entire set of items. On top of that, a bespoke mannequin setup had to be generated for each unique outfit display. Fortunately, advancing tech will soon allow the Loadout Editor to quickly create various item combinations within a given shop. That loadout, comprised of items in the shop, will then be assigned to the shop’s inventory as a “Bundle.” The Shopping System will then spawn these bundles directly onto an empty shop mannequin with no additional effort by the designers. A process that took hours will soon take minutes, allowing different item combinations to be quickly generated for display on the mannequins. While this might seem like a minor change, this will actually unlock a multitude of options for the design team to create realistic shops.
ANIMATION
Externer Inhalt robertsspaceindustries.comInhalte von externen Seiten werden ohne Ihre Zustimmung nicht automatisch geladen und angezeigt.Externer Inhalt robertsspaceindustries.comInhalte von externen Seiten werden ohne Ihre Zustimmung nicht automatisch geladen und angezeigt.The PU Animation Team just finished a small Mocap shoot using the in-house OptiTrack system. This was a pickup shoot to help fill in all the gaps from the Performance Capture shoots done at Imaginarium studios and captured transition animations for both male and female characters. These animations included sitting down at tables with trays, going through the chow line, eating, drinking, rummaging, or sitting in cockpits and turrets. A Usable is an object that a player or NPC can interact with like a chair, wall, table, or any other set piece, but also include props such as cups, plates, bottles, crates, and anything else that can physically picked up by a person. Obviously, animation can only get these game assets so far. The biggest challenge right now is making all the usables function in game. It is up to code, tech and designers to make them work, which is why Austin Animation is working closely with our Frankfurt and UK studios. The team also amended metrics for door control panels, bathroom toilet facilities, and chow lines in the Idris mess hall. Tech is being put in place that will allow an NPC to navigate to a usable set piece and perform a variety of actions (like grabbing a usable prop off the set piece, setting other usable props onto it, walking away with the prop, going to and interacting with another usable set piece, setting usable props on top of usable props, then getting up and navigating to a third usable set piece to dispose of the usable prop with all the usable props on it). Once this one test case is fully functional, we will be able to use these universal animations with different usables throughout the game.
SHIP ANIMATION
Externer Inhalt robertsspaceindustries.comInhalte von externen Seiten werden ohne Ihre Zustimmung nicht automatisch geladen und angezeigt.Externer Inhalt robertsspaceindustries.comInhalte von externen Seiten werden ohne Ihre Zustimmung nicht automatisch geladen und angezeigt.The Ship Animation team has finished the major animation tasks for the Drake Cutlass Black. Characters can now enter and exit the pilot and copilot seats properly. For the copilot, the team used a new cockpit template called the “Stick.” This template positions the player in a pose like that of a helicopter pilot which was required to fit the new geometry of the Cutlass cockpit.
DEV OPS
DevOps added additional logging to better track issues and allows the team to dump the status of the users download session at the moment they experience the issue. The DevOps team then works directly with the Community Relations team to debug the issue or issues the user is experiencing. A great example of this is the latest version of the Patcher. As some of the Windows 10 users may have already noticed, the 2.4.9 version of the Patcher brought back music that had been missing. The exact cause of the issue was that the Windows 10 sound settings were set to 192kHz which caused the Patcher to crash if you had the music turned on. You can now enjoy all of Pedro Camacho’s music again!
QA
Externer Inhalt robertsspaceindustries.comInhalte von externen Seiten werden ohne Ihre Zustimmung nicht automatisch geladen und angezeigt.The QA Department has been heavily focused on 2.6.2 testing. With the addition of Multiplayer Megamap and Serialized Variables, multiple cross-studio playtests between the ATX and UK studios were performed in order to check for any unexpected behaviors, such as increased desynchronization and lag between clients, massive performance changes (good or bad), and crashes.
Since the new Drake Buccaneer came online sooner than expected, we were able to perform frequent testing to ensure the ship was operating as expected for its inclusion in 2.6.2.
In the development stream testing, Squadron 42 testing continues, as well as a range of tests with ground vehicles on planetary surfaces in a multiplayer environment. Various development tools are also being tested, such as the Procedural Planet Editor (PlanED), and the Subsumption Editor.
PLAYER RELATIONS
The Player Relations team was very busy in both the US and UK this month helping with 2.6.2 and 2.6.3. We spent a lot of time with Evocati and QA working on getting the final bugs worked out, then managing our public PTU playtests. In the coming weeks, we will be increasing and updating our PTU test numbers, so we’ve spent a lot of time working on how to roll that out, too. Lastly, we also had a great summit in LA with other department leads and stakeholders to work out our plans for the rest of year, and we got to spend a little time working with our Turbulent friends as well.
Foundry 42 UK
Externer Inhalt robertsspaceindustries.comInhalte von externen Seiten werden ohne Ihre Zustimmung nicht automatisch geladen und angezeigt.FOUNDRY 42: UK
PROGRAMMING
Externer Inhalt robertsspaceindustries.comInhalte von externen Seiten werden ohne Ihre Zustimmung nicht automatisch geladen und angezeigt.Externer Inhalt robertsspaceindustries.comInhalte von externen Seiten werden ohne Ihre Zustimmung nicht automatisch geladen und angezeigt.The player interaction sprint is proceeding at full speed. Rather than outlining a whole mesh, they have created a system where sub-objects can be highlighted allowing players to choose individual parts. This is especially useful in cockpits, where players can interact with individual buttons and switches to access things like ship functions and resource distribution. The team has also been ensuring the new interaction system works seamlessly with the multifunction displays (MFD). The new placement system has also come online, so players can choose where and with what orientation objects can be set down. If the placement position is out of range, players now automatically go into a throw state.
Different actor states have been added to the Player Status System, so the player finds it harder, or even impossible, to do things like jump, vault and mantle depending on how fatigued they are. Mass has been added to the suit and weapons as another way to influence the player’s stamina. We’ve also added a breathing state component to bring together the player’s status with the procedural breathing animation and sound. The team is now starting work on new gameplay elements like suit punctures, oxygen recharging and depressurisation.The team invested time in the conversation system tech by creating a tool to help simplify complicated conversations when there are multiple actors in the same scene.
UI
Externer Inhalt robertsspaceindustries.comInhalte von externen Seiten werden ohne Ihre Zustimmung nicht automatisch geladen und angezeigt.Externer Inhalt robertsspaceindustries.comInhalte von externen Seiten werden ohne Ihre Zustimmung nicht automatisch geladen und angezeigt.The UI team began the front-end skeleton framework for Kiosk shopping. This includes properly setting up all UI components such as lists, grids, buttons, TextFields, and other various assets. Once this is done, the engineers will hook these components up to the game data and get it presented diegetically in the game world. The team is also supporting the player interaction system to unify the way the players will interact with in-game UI screens across the game. This means the same underlying system used to interact with a MFD in a ship seat will be applied to all in-game terminals, wall-mounted displays, and kiosks. This will make interaction with in-game displays feel much less clunky and constrictive. In anticipation of the Graphics Team’s work on the new render-to-texture (RTT) tech, the UI team has done a round of testing using current helmet interiors to see how well the UI looks rendered onto an interior glass surface.The new RTT tech will eventually allow the UI to render properly in the rendering pipeline, making it feel much more integrated with the game-world than it is currently. They have also checked how well the text will read at various sizes and how any post-processing effects, such as motion blur or chromatic aberration, might potentially negatively impact the legibility of the text and symbols. The UI team is also looking at potential impacts the new incoming dynamic field of view system might have on the UI. This new system will allow such things like the HUD and 3D helmet interior to remain roughly the same size on screen when setting a lower or higher field of view.
AUDIO
The Audio team has been involved in all gameplay features like the Buccaneer, surface outposts, Squadron level development, and the actor status system. Work has continued on the Audio Propagation system to make audio respect walls, doors and paths. In the current system, audio triggers play from their point of origin and either being occluded or un-occluded, but always play from their source position. The new propagation system will allow a sound playing inside a room to be heard by anyone listening from outside the room, either through the door, window, or any other opening. This extends to other rooms, so a sound playing 4 rooms away will navigate the doorways and the air in between in order to reach the listener. Also, the first and second pass of the mix management system have been completed. This is a virtual mixing console that can be applied to certain areas or rooms and allows the creation of mix snapshots that can apply volume, filter or effect settings on any parts of the audio mix with faders in DataForge that can be tweaked in real-time. Setting up and organising these areas, and mix snapshots, will allow for easy adjustment of the audio mix. Finally, a lot of progress has been made on the WordUp dialogue tool to manage the huge amount of spoken lines in the PU and S42.
For fun, here’s a piece of original Star Citizen music called Atomos for you to enjoy.
CONCEPT ART
Externer Inhalt robertsspaceindustries.comInhalte von externen Seiten werden ohne Ihre Zustimmung nicht automatisch geladen und angezeigt.The Concept team has been finishing the Gemini ballistic shotgun and establishing the look of a new ship weapon manufacturer, Preacher Armaments. Preacher prides themselves on making high-quality, reliable and effective weapons that are favored by bounty hunters, police, and militia. In 2940, the conglomerate Eon Group bought out Preacher from founder Kino Walton and immediately ramped up manufacturing. Preacher Armaments is aggressively making its way into stores across the universe.
Concept work for the Banu Defender is complete, as well as on two additional ships that will be revealed in the future. Work continues on the truckstop interiors, satellite interiors, New Babbage on microTech and dressing for the modular habitation modules. Here is a glimpse of a WIP Truckstop interior. Truckstops will serve as waypoints for haulers and other travelers making their way through the system giving them a chance to restock, refuel, and stretch their legs.
ENVIRONMENT ART
Externer Inhalt robertsspaceindustries.comInhalte von externen Seiten werden ohne Ihre Zustimmung nicht automatisch geladen und angezeigt.Externer Inhalt robertsspaceindustries.comInhalte von externen Seiten werden ohne Ihre Zustimmung nicht automatisch geladen und angezeigt.The environment team has been refining the surface outposts with technical, engineering, and habitation spaces coming together with their preliminary dressing passes. The exteriors are now mostly complete. The team is also looking into lighting variations for the procedural system to add more complex setups for the lighting states. The greybox for the truckstop space station is continuing and now that all the building set pieces have been established, the detail phase has begun. On the Satellite sprint, we’re close to being Whitebox complete on the communication archetype, which means the modules and classifications that were specified by design have been visually explored.
SHIP ART AND DESIGN
Externer Inhalt robertsspaceindustries.comInhalte von externen Seiten werden ohne Ihre Zustimmung nicht automatisch geladen und angezeigt.Externer Inhalt robertsspaceindustries.comInhalte von externen Seiten werden ohne Ihre Zustimmung nicht automatisch geladen und angezeigt.Our ship team has been continuing work on the Hull-C and Reclaimer, which includes the new light controller work that allows for easier set up of different lighting entities and switches them between property states (e.g., on, off, emergency) depending on various circumstances such as a player interaction or sufficient pull from a connected power pipe. The Javelin continues to be polished for both Squadron 42 and Star Citizen. The team is also completing the capital ships of the Vanduul Fleet.
VFX
Externer Inhalt robertsspaceindustries.comInhalte von externen Seiten werden ohne Ihre Zustimmung nicht automatisch geladen und angezeigt.As you’re aware, the VFX was completed on the Drake Buccaneer and the ship was released in 2.6.2. Meanwhile, the RSI Constellation Aquila is going through its flight-ready pass. The MISC Prospector finished a thrusters first pass and damage R&D blockout. The new GPU-driven thruster trails have completed its initial implementation phase. On the Weapon VFX side, the style guide has been improved by bringing in a new system that defines the visual style of a weapon based on manufacturer and energy type. The Apocalypse Arms Scourge railgun, Kastak Arms Devastator plasma shotgun rework, and Klaus & Werner Gallant energy rifle rework finished their first pass. The layered impact library has been rolled out. Previously, impacts were per weapon and per surface type, but the new setup allows us to layer up individual elements which gives more flexibility and less maintenance.
ANIMATION
Externer Inhalt robertsspaceindustries.comInhalte von externen Seiten werden ohne Ihre Zustimmung nicht automatisch geladen und angezeigt.The animation team has been exploring a lot of technical previs this past month. Part of that work includes improving the functionality of the shouldered weapon state to get the railgun ready and playable for 3.0. The team also polished the prone set so it will be ready for code to work their magic on fixing any edge cases and continued to work on Breathing & Stamina to create a solid look and feel for a player breathing across multiple states, such as normal, tired and hyperventilating. The weapons-free jumps are getting a pass to bring the animations more in line with the mocap rather than the technical first pass implementation. The Devastator shotgun, Gallant, Arrowhead, and Railgun weapon reloads have been improved. Meanwhile, the Derby Studio continued with Facial animation for SQ42 and Star Citizen cinematics. They attended a facial shoot down in London for 3.0 and members of the team visited the LA studio for some facial animation R&D meetings.
Foundry 42 DE
Externer Inhalt robertsspaceindustries.comInhalte von externen Seiten werden ohne Ihre Zustimmung nicht automatisch geladen und angezeigt.FOUNDRY 42: DE
WEAPONS
Externer Inhalt robertsspaceindustries.comInhalte von externen Seiten werden ohne Ihre Zustimmung nicht automatisch geladen und angezeigt.Externer Inhalt robertsspaceindustries.comInhalte von externen Seiten werden ohne Ihre Zustimmung nicht automatisch geladen und angezeigt.This past month, we completed all the rockets and rocket pods ranging from size 1 to 3 as well as the first art pass for the Knightbridge Arms Ballistic Cannons. The various sizes can now be used to test out the new modularity system and various upgraded levels and combinations. The FPS weapon artists finished a second art pass on the Klaus & Werner Arclight II, Gallant, and Arrowhead which now include new venting mechanisms that add more visual interest to the reloads. The first art pass on the Kastak Arms Ravager-212 and a second art pass on the Kastak Arms Devastator with an additional layer of detail was also completed.
LIGHTING
Externer Inhalt robertsspaceindustries.comInhalte von externen Seiten werden ohne Ihre Zustimmung nicht automatisch geladen und angezeigt.The lighting team began determining a way to integrate lighting on modular surface outposts, so it feels coherent across potentially countless outpost layout permutations. The challenge with this task is that every room could have a different arrangement of props and objects, which dictates where lights would logically be placed, as well as the theme or mood of that room. For example, crew sleeping quarters should have a different mood than a hydroponics lab. To do this, the lighting team tested for possible issues (such as light leaking through walls or certain lighting variations looking incorrect when placed next to others) by integrating simple lighting variations into the procedural system. The team also focused on creating a visual target for our main room types (habitation, hydroponics, mining, and storage) to see how far we can push the lighting to match our concepts and goals for the interior look of our surface outposts. When these are finished, we can then determine how to break the lighting down into modular components that can be fed back into the procedural system.
TECH ART
The tech art team worked on multiple skinning tasks, including clothing for both the PU and SQ42 (to widen the range of character customization) and a skinning pass on the final Vanduul mesh (so the animators can work on their animations).The team created a tool that allows the team to quickly update the exact grip placements for individual weapons. Artists can now use a reference mesh, create an offset, hit export, and immediately see their changes live in engine. This will allow them to iterate much quicker than before. In addition, they developed a tool for the animators to redirect their walking animations to turn animations. This fairly simple tool that will ultimately reduce the time the animators need to spend on certain specific animations.
DESIGN
Externer Inhalt robertsspaceindustries.comInhalte von externen Seiten werden ohne Ihre Zustimmung nicht automatisch geladen und angezeigt.Externer Inhalt robertsspaceindustries.comInhalte von externen Seiten werden ohne Ihre Zustimmung nicht automatisch geladen und angezeigt.The Level Design team worked on the modularity of Space Stations and Surface Outposts. As an initial proof of concept, the team has decided to move forward with five versions of the outposts. Ultimately with this system, we’ll be able to create a large number of outposts with different layouts and purposes, but first, the systems, props, and placement of planets need to work as intended. The Truck Stop is our first test of modularity in Space Stations. Soon, customizable hubs will be able to create variations using add-ons and procedural prop placement which can add flavor to various rooms. The modularity of Space Stations also extends to how the rooms connect to one another through the use of pre-made flowcharts. Design is collaborating with engineers to get it functioning in-game as intended. The system design team has been continuing their work on the usables system, as well as working with the cinematics team in helping to establish the final look and feel for the conversation system.
ENGINE TEAM
Externer Inhalt robertsspaceindustries.comInhalte von externen Seiten werden ohne Ihre Zustimmung nicht automatisch geladen und angezeigt.Externer Inhalt robertsspaceindustries.comInhalte von externen Seiten werden ohne Ihre Zustimmung nicht automatisch geladen und angezeigt.The engine team finished the physics grid refactoring, which is used to store each individual physical object in the world and to allow for fast neighbour queries. The old legacy CryPhysics grid system worked by projecting the entire world onto a fixed 2d array of cells of uniform dimension. For memory reasons, the old system was configured to huge cell sizes to allow for our massive worlds, which lead to severe performance problems when dealing with lots of small objects as well as lots of entities returned due to the fact the grid would ‘wrap-around’ every few thousand kilometres. To address these issues, the new grid system was designed to have a sparse and fixed hierarchy of nested 3D grid cells of various sizes where objects will get inserted into different levels of the fixed hierarchy depending on their size. That way, the engine can efficiently handle objects the size of a planet (several thousand kilometres in radius) all the way down to small pebbles just a few centimeters across. Initial performance tests in Stanton have proven the new grid to be vastly more efficient (10x less entities returned for small queries, and queries in general faster in the magnitude of 1.2x – 2x) while using slightly more memory than the legacy system.
The team has also been developing the core foundation of our AI movement. While motion capture animation is perfect for cut-scenes and all types of linear animations where things are fixed and predictable, mocap-data can’t be used directly for animations that need to be truly interactive. To use mocap-data in interactive situations, longer motion-clips must be broken into shorter clips and generated into multiple variations of the same motion-style. As an example, a simple walk-cycle needs the ability to walk at different speeds, walk in circles, walk on slopes, and walk in different directions. A typical AI-character in Squadron might have about 1000 of these motion-clips. It’s impossible to create unique animations-clips for every given situation. That’s why we developed a blending technique called Parametric Blending.
Externer Inhalt robertsspaceindustries.comInhalte von externen Seiten werden ohne Ihre Zustimmung nicht automatisch geladen und angezeigt.Externer Inhalt robertsspaceindustries.comInhalte von externen Seiten werden ohne Ihre Zustimmung nicht automatisch geladen und angezeigt.Parametric Blending enables all these clips to be controllable at runtime. It takes the concept of “simple” animation-blending and moves it to the next level. The goal is to make the outcome of a transition or an interpolation predictable for an undefined number of assets. Each motion-clip contains a combination of physical and stylistic properties (what we call the “natural” motion-parameters, because they are inherently part of the motion itself). To control a character in a game, these “natural” motion-parameters need to be passed to the animation-system, and let it generate the motion we need. Once there are enough animation-clips, they’re placed into a blend-space. The most important aspect of a blend-space is that each animation-clip represents a point in a coordinate-system and all points are connected by an index list. In a blend-space, blending is treated as a geometrical problem. The relationship between animation-clips is extremely important for the blending to work. The placement of the assets into the blend-space is fully automatic due to how the animators set up their locators before export. In a single blend-space, there can be more than 100 unique animation-clips and they can be controlled like a single animation. In a 2D blendspace, the travel-speed is on the X and the turn-speed is on the Y. This means we can generate all motions between a slow-walk and fast-walk while maintaining the correct turn-speeds. Blend-spaces are not only limited to simple motion-cycles, they’ll be used for most AI motions in our vast universe, enabling our AI-characters to move fluidly and realistically in the world.
The engine team also did improvements to the objects blending with terrain. The underlying terrain and objects shapes are now taken into account to blend procedurally distributed objects more naturally with the planetary generated environment.
QA
Externer Inhalt robertsspaceindustries.comInhalte von externen Seiten werden ohne Ihre Zustimmung nicht automatisch geladen und angezeigt.The QA team has been testing the Loadout Editor. The Loadout Editor is heavily used by our devs across all four locations, so it made sense to increase the depth of testing on a daily basis. The first version of the Solar System Editor (also known by its shortened name: SolEd) is being tested as well. The Engineers went over SolEd’s functionality and gathered initial feedback from the team. QA documented the feedback and will work closely with the engineers on the best ways to address and test specific feedback in the near future. They also supported the Engine team with testing of a few things such as the updated Planet Physics grid and the Refactoring of Texture Streamer logic.
AI
Externer Inhalt robertsspaceindustries.comInhalte von externen Seiten werden ohne Ihre Zustimmung nicht automatisch geladen und angezeigt.Externer Inhalt robertsspaceindustries.comInhalte von externen Seiten werden ohne Ihre Zustimmung nicht automatisch geladen und angezeigt.The AI team this month completed some work on Mission related functionalities for both the PU and Squadron 42 designers. They also improved the setup for complex conversation scenarios, where multiple characters need to interact with one another. The first step to achieve that was to allow the subsumption logic to run on top of players. That allows logic on predefined story scenes to be executed and also ensures the AI system can fully communicate with players and interact with them. The subsumption tool also had some improvements on the conversation setup. The team also kicked off work on “Conversation Sub Activities.” The sub-activities describe the logic for multiple characters in one view, to make it easier for designers to synchronize interactions between the characters and the environment. Essentially, those conversations will still result in unique sub activities that run on the different characters so that each individual entity can still handle further events/situations on their own.
The first pass on refactoring of the perception for the spaceships was also completed. There is currently a general perception component on characters that can handle several types of senses. A normal Human will have his own vision and hearing senses, but once sitting down inside a spaceship, they will also be able to interface with the spaceship radar and group the information about the different senses into its perception component. This will allow for progress towards more “character-controlled” behaviors on spaceships, since strict dependencies between the game code and specific behaviors running on the vehicles themselves will be removed.
CINEMATICS
The cinematics team is making steady progress across multiple chapters, from implementing new scenes to polishing existing ones. The team also assisted in defining the look of the conversation system and participated in the various sprints push this system along. The goal is to allow for a cinematic feel while still maintaining flexibility and immersion.
VFX
Externer Inhalt robertsspaceindustries.comInhalte von externen Seiten werden ohne Ihre Zustimmung nicht automatisch geladen und angezeigt.Externer Inhalt robertsspaceindustries.comInhalte von externen Seiten werden ohne Ihre Zustimmung nicht automatisch geladen und angezeigt.The VFX team in Frankfurt has continued working on planetary effects. The systems for implementation have been progressing nicely thanks to the close collaboration between the VFX artists and Engineers. They started implementing some of the new effects on the planets, including various atmosphere and weather effects, as well as more specific effects for various types of assets that will be distributed with the object scattering system.
ENVIRONMENT ART
Externer Inhalt robertsspaceindustries.comInhalte von externen Seiten werden ohne Ihre Zustimmung nicht automatisch geladen und angezeigt.Externer Inhalt robertsspaceindustries.comInhalte von externen Seiten werden ohne Ihre Zustimmung nicht automatisch geladen und angezeigt.The Frankfurt environment team has been primarily focused on finalizing the Crusader’s moons. The procedural assets distribution system has seen a lot of progress and is still improving. All the separate pieces that make-up our procedural planets and moons are truly starting to fall into place. The team is now moving on to get the Levski landing zone integrated onto Delamar and will be the first big landing zone on a procedural entity. This means a new procedural planet/asteroid and the exteriors architecture of Levski will be created. The challenge is to merge the procedural terrain and the landing zone in a way in which they feel like they belong together.
Turbulent
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Externer Inhalt robertsspaceindustries.comInhalte von externen Seiten werden ohne Ihre Zustimmung nicht automatisch geladen und angezeigt.This month, Turbulent launched spectrum 0.3.2, which includes major performance updates to help render messages and threads in the client. Hopefully, this will allow users to switch faster between lobbies and channels, as well as take less CPU and render time than in the 0.3.1 version. 0.3.2 also brings two new features. First users can now re-order communities in the top left of the sidebar by dragging and dropping the community to the new location.Second, the other feature is the channel thread list, so now threads that contain media information and videos have thumbnail images allowing users to preview the content.
Externer Inhalt robertsspaceindustries.comInhalte von externen Seiten werden ohne Ihre Zustimmung nicht automatisch geladen und angezeigt.There has also been mobile optimization and keyboard fixes that will hopefully be ready for 0.3.3. This should fix bugs Android users have been encountering when typing into the chat. The new patch also adds nested threads to the forums Users can now create a new thread and change a discussion type from a classic chronological timeline into a nested discussion. This gives us two benefits. First, we can now sort by up votes and get a nested reply tree behind it. Second, users can gain more control into choosing discussion types. The post creator will have the option of choosing if it’s a nested thread or not.
Turbulent will also archive the old forums on Friday, April 14. We’ve expanded our category list to bring all those discussions from the old forum to Spectrum. This will not be an import, but a recreation inside the new system. This month, the team also worked on the new delta patcher. Turbulent is responsible for building the actual application that hosts the patching libraries, so we’ve worked hard over this month to get this new application setup. It requires a whole new application stack called Electron which lets the team patch the game data with this new launcher internally.
Externer Inhalt robertsspaceindustries.comInhalte von externen Seiten werden ohne Ihre Zustimmung nicht automatisch geladen und angezeigt.Another major project started this month is a redesign of some of the elements of the RSI site. This is a massive overhaul of the website to address how it caters to new users. We can’t talk much about it now, but there will be updates as the design progresses. There has also been progress on updating the Ship Stats page. The ship stats are supposed to reflect the intent design of a ship and not necessarily the exact stats that are currently in game, but at the same time, there are things that are missing. The team is changing how the back end manages this by re-designing some of the tech view, specifications view, and holoviewer.
Community
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Some of our devs attended Austin’s biggest media festival, South by Southwest, and participated in a special panel last month. Before that, Community Manager Jared Huckaby and Lead Community Manager Tyler Witkin attended PAX East where they got some hands on time with our incredible backers. CIG team members haven’t been back to meet our East Coast backers since 2014, so it was good to visit again. In addition to meeting many content creators at the PAX event itself, they were also able to attend a Boston Bar Citizen with fans from all over. The importance of these events cannot be understated, as they’re not only a great chance for you to meet the team, but it really energizes the team to directly interface with all of you. And speaking of Bar Citizens, the team was also honored to attend meet-ups in Brisbane, Australia; Austin, Texas; and Santa Monica, California. There are Bar Citizens happening every week. Learn more about them here.
Subscribers this month saw the Space Station flair series begin in addition to receiving their very own Big Benny’s machine as part of the annual Subscription update. The March Jump Point was also released with a focus on the Anvil Hurricane. The issue also includes plenty of lore, part of an original Star Citizen serial, and more!
On Citizens of the Stars, the team checked in with some of the best screenshot artists, original video makers, and news reporters in the community while also spotlighting plenty of other backer projects. Don’t forget, if you’re a subscriber you can contribute questions to Quantum Questions and vote for which ones are asked to the weekly development guests. Check out the thread in the Subscriber’s Den on Spectrum.
During this month’s Happy Hours, the team showed how our designers prototype new systems by building a basketball game mockup live, and our very own Ben Lesnick took a dive into Chris Roberts’ Privateer to talk about how this classic game has influenced Star Citizen.
Star Citizen joined the worldwide celebration of Space Week with many developers, including Sean Tracy and Erin Roberts, appearing on the Twitch front page to talk about the worlds being built in Star Citizen.The team at Turbulent also held a live Town Hall to answer questions about Spectrum and their other platform work. Spectrum continues to update with more functionality on the horizon. As of today, old forums are being closed and archived. Posts will still be available to read, but Spectrum will be the new home for any future discussions.
Last week, the team held a special ‘Drake-over’ sale to celebrate the Buccaneer being flight-ready. With the Dragonfly and Cutlass finishing up, the current Drake lineup is almost done. Also on the ship front, a lot of work has been put into our next reveal, the Banu Defender. Stay tuned to learn more about both the Defender and the Banu race! Additionally, an update to the Referral Program is in progress. Expect to hear more about this soon, including details on a special contest.
Conclusion
WE’LL SEE YOU NEXT MONTH…
Quelle: https://robertsspaceindustries.com/comm-link/tran…port-March-2017
Monthly Studio Report: March 2017
Greetings Citizens!
Welcome to the monthly report where we collect updates from our studios around the world into a single comprehensive place to summarize the various progresses (and setbacks) they’ve experienced.
Last month we debuted our new style of Monthly Report, utilizing the weekly Studio Reports found in Around the Verse to create an overview of progress made in the last four weeks. In addition to our continuing progress with Squadron 42 and the PU 3.0 undertaking, we released both 2.6.2 and 2.6.3 to the entire community, and have now focused those attentions to the upcoming Star Citizen Alpha 3.0.
With that, let’s review some of what each studio did this month.
CIG Los Angeles
Externer Inhalt robertsspaceindustries.comInhalte von externen Seiten werden ohne Ihre Zustimmung nicht automatisch geladen und angezeigt.CLOUD IMPERIUM: LOS ANGELES
SHIP ART AND DESIGN
Externer Inhalt robertsspaceindustries.comInhalte von externen Seiten werden ohne Ihre Zustimmung nicht automatisch geladen und angezeigt.Externer Inhalt robertsspaceindustries.comInhalte von externen Seiten werden ohne Ihre Zustimmung nicht automatisch geladen und angezeigt.The ship team spent a lot of the month working on the Drake Buccaneer. Art created a custom dual weapon mount and generated all the LODs, while the tech content team implemented UV2s and Damage. Tech design made their flight balance passes to get it ready for flight with sound and then passed it along to VFX. The ship team has also made a lot of progress on the newly revamped RSI Aurora. The whitebox phase in now complete, which includes a proxy layout of the space, establishing the animation positions, placing the screens, and making sure the characters could hold the controls. The final geometry of the cockpit has begun in an effort to improve the inside of the ship. Now that tech design has implemented all the art updates into the ship’s new archetype, the RSI Aurora is heading into greybox.
TECH DESIGN
Externer Inhalt robertsspaceindustries.comInhalte von externen Seiten werden ohne Ihre Zustimmung nicht automatisch geladen und angezeigt.Externer Inhalt robertsspaceindustries.comInhalte von externen Seiten werden ohne Ihre Zustimmung nicht automatisch geladen und angezeigt.The tech design group completed the design for the Multi Function Display (MFD) screens, which controls power, heat, coolers, shields, weapons, countermeasures and missiles, in preparation for Item 2.0 functionality. These designer prototypes are meant to help understand what’s needed and see how everything will interact with each other.
UI
Externer Inhalt robertsspaceindustries.comInhalte von externen Seiten werden ohne Ihre Zustimmung nicht automatisch geladen und angezeigt.Externer Inhalt robertsspaceindustries.comInhalte von externen Seiten werden ohne Ihre Zustimmung nicht automatisch geladen und angezeigt.As soon as these designs have been approved, the UI team will create an interface to take advantage of the functionality that engineering is implementing in the back end. Once this system is in place, a ship that is staffed by a knowledgeable crew will be able to operate their ship beyond the default system settings and min-max the various ship systems to suit not only a player’s style, but potentially save a player during a potentially devastating attack.
QA
This month QA aided LA Development by checking a variety of fixes for 2.6.2 issues. They also provided support to Austin QA with PTU & LIVE sanity checks, smoke tests, sweeps and deployments, and helped new hires get up to speed with the game. As for feature work, the team swept ship destruction VFX, Item System 2.0, implementation of recent loadout changes, and tested multiple iterations of new targeting and ESP code. For a quick reminder on Quality Assurance terms, a Sanity Check basically ensures that the game loads. This is now automated, but can take about an hour or two to investigate any errors that arise. A Smoke Test checks the basic functionality. This process takes 6-8 people about a day if there aren’t any major issues. A Full Sweep means checking everything possible, a process which requires a much larger team and can take over a week. Full Sweeps are the most arduous, rigorous, and intense, but also incredibly important.
ENGINEERING
The engineering team started a new shop entity that uses DataCore components to allow shops to be easily streamed in with object containers, with the aim to be finished in the next sprint. The plan is to make shops more dynamic and reactive to the economy by retrieving their inventory from the back end. The engineering team added a new attribute to vehicle XMLs that allows designers to specify the interior grid type of the vehicle (small, medium, or large). This optimization will reduce memory storage as all ships previously defaulted to medium size.
Externer Inhalt robertsspaceindustries.comInhalte von externen Seiten werden ohne Ihre Zustimmung nicht automatisch geladen und angezeigt.Externer Inhalt robertsspaceindustries.comInhalte von externen Seiten werden ohne Ihre Zustimmung nicht automatisch geladen und angezeigt.As discussed previously, a new Light Group entity was developed, equipped with a state machine to serve as the ultimate light switch. Now that implementation of the core state-switching functionality is complete, the next step is to start using the Light Group in our vehicles and environments and replace all instances of the old layer-switching method of light management. This new light group entity reduces the number of lights used, which has dramatic impacts on performance. For example, hundreds of entities were reduced down to 90 or less with no visual impact on the Drake Caterpillar.
A framework is being developed in IFCS (Intelligent Flight Control System) for the autopilot to handle situations like take-off and landing sequences. This also applies to AI control, so they’ll be providing the AI developers with a set of tools for controlling the ships, like a “move-to”, “change speed to”, etc. This will improve the stability and predictability of ship motion under optimal conditions.
The Room System and Atmosphere Containers were updated with several new features, better debugging tools, and several bug fixes. The room system has only been implemented in a few locations, but these changes will allow the implementation of rooms and atmospheres throughout the various locations and ships in the game. At the moment, the entering and exiting of airlocks are scripted events. They don’t factor in atmosphere of any kind. This new system will be able to replace this setup with an actual room and atmosphere that allows for a dynamic experience.
In addition to the room system changes, a new feature allows the designers and artists to set wear and dirt parameters for loadouts. This functionality comes in two levels: overall and individual values for specific items. Wear and Dirt values are used by the render node to set shader parameters that make items look old, dusty, scuffed up, and burnt out. This task also used Loadout Editor side work, where the team added UI support to edit wear and dirt.
Recently, the team started on the Entity Owner Manager. This system will be responsible for managing ownership and lifetimes of all the entities in the game and is a core feature required to take gameplay from a multiplayer game to a persistent online experience. It will work in conjunction with the back end persistence systems to indicate dynamic changes to the world that need to be tracked and persisted across sessions. The Entity Owner Manager will also work with various game and engine systems, including Debris, Salvage, Criminality, Streaming, Missions, Cargo, Shops, and more to help create the persistent experience across clients and servers.
The team has been working on scanning subcomponents, which required some slight refactoring of the object databank. After the changes, the databank can support the storage of “child” entries, which will be the subcomponents on ships/players/etc. In doing this, the thread safety of accessing data within the databank was also improved. This allows calculations to be moved onto other threads, which will help improve performance. This focuses on two big elements: the ping component and angle of focus. The ping component is the method in which a player or pilot will send out a wave to see if there are any objects of note within their scan range. This could be a ship, an asteroid, or even traces that mark whether a player entered or exited quantum travel. Since other players can detect these traces, we think that this could have some pretty heavy game implications. For example, if you were an outlaw, it would allow you to track potential prey. Angle of focus allows players to adjust the angle with which they’re scanning. A smaller angle will also provide more range, but only contacts within the angle can be detected. The underlying radar query logic is being refactored to use zone queries rather than a huge iteration of registered radar objects. This will make the scanning system much more efficient.
TECH CONTENT
Since the tech content team supports and implements every pipeline within Star Citizen and Squadron 42, one of their main focuses have been performance improvements. For instance, the team changed the mesh vertex and position formats, which massively improves streaming of these meshes as well as reducing build size.They’re also improving the Python integration within our editor, which allows for faster development of Python tools which are used by every department across the company. The tools can script any sandbox process they want. For example, it can place asteroids and generate modular outposts, which saves a tremendous amount of development time on otherwise tedious and time consuming tasks. The tech content team completed a character animation tool that tracks and reports the number of various wild lines each character will have in the universe. With over 1200 pages of script for S42, which include all story lines as well as wild lines, a tool was needed to continuously generate reports on how many were completed and what was left to solve. Once the various lines are all in, the system will be able to pull lines based on player action and situation, but also randomize the potential wildline responses so the NPCs aren’t repeating the same line every time.
Externer Inhalt robertsspaceindustries.comInhalte von externen Seiten werden ohne Ihre Zustimmung nicht automatisch geladen und angezeigt.All helmets have been converted to a dot skin format. The conversion was important to allow a unified LOD ratio across the character skins. This means no more helmet-less people running around the ’verse. To ensure this is easier in the future, Tech Content also created a tool that rigs skins and exports automatically which will drastically reduce dev time from an entire day to just a few minutes.
Heads were also successfully converted to use the human skin shader developed by the graphics team. Since there are 44 different areas of blended wrinkles and blended diffuse, the texture cost was quite high, at about 100 MB per head. With this change, roughly 90% of the original texture memory cost was saved without discernable visual impact.
With the implementation of the female character progressing rapidly, thousands of animations have been transferred from male to female to complete her motion set and provide a data for animation to iterate on.
To help the cinematics team focus on content needed for Squadron 42, a tool was written to allow for visibility of scenes before they even hit the engine. This allows for fast exporting of animations and preview renders which are then automatically uploaded to Shotgun. This makes it easier and faster to review the many hours of cinematics for Squadron 42.
NARRATIVE
The narrative team has been developing some additional 3.0 missions. They’ve also begun documenting posters and props to populate the world of Star Citizen. The team also created an equivalent Time Capsule approach for the Xi’an history from birth to present day as a means of expanding Xi’an history and society documentation. Breakdowns of ethno-groups in the Star Citizen universe has been in progress to take full advantage of the character customization technology 3Lateral showcased at GDC a few weeks ago.
CHARACTER ART
Externer Inhalt robertsspaceindustries.comInhalte von externen Seiten werden ohne Ihre Zustimmung nicht automatisch geladen und angezeigt.Externer Inhalt robertsspaceindustries.comInhalte von externen Seiten werden ohne Ihre Zustimmung nicht automatisch geladen und angezeigt.The character team is working on the ingame mesh of the Heavy Outlaw. Next, it will go onto rigging and implementation. The light, medium, and heavy female marine armor and the undersuit has been sent to rigging and implementation. Once the male base suits were done, an adjusted wrap technique was used to save development time. We’ve also made progress on the Female Explorer suit, which has now moved through the high poly phase, so she’ll be exploring the universe in no time. On the Squadron 42 front, both the EVA deck crew and the Marine BDU have gone through the high poly phase and are onto the in-game mesh and texturing phase. We’ve continued developing the Vanduul and the medium and heavy versions of the OMC outlaw faction. Lastly, the mechanized Titan Suit is in R&D along with other alien concept sculpts.
CIG Austin
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DESIGN
The ATX Design team focused on getting 2.6.2 out the door, which has mainly consisted of adding new subscriber flair items and fixing some minor bugs. Additional shop-related elements have been updated as the shopping system continues to grow. The team is also in the process of revising the Stanton System Map. Also, Landing Zone AI and Usables are undergoing additional development.
Externer Inhalt robertsspaceindustries.comInhalte von externen Seiten werden ohne Ihre Zustimmung nicht automatisch geladen und angezeigt.Externer Inhalt robertsspaceindustries.comInhalte von externen Seiten werden ohne Ihre Zustimmung nicht automatisch geladen und angezeigt.New subscriber flair will be rolled out in the coming months. One of the new items is called the ‘viVid Display,’ which can display game locations holographically. Players can use the ‘viVid Display’ to find out more about locations, including their intended visuals. Other flair items include a series of ship schematics, which will showcase the level of detail that goes into ship design. These light board displays can be hung from any poster style port in your hangar.
Externer Inhalt robertsspaceindustries.comInhalte von externen Seiten werden ohne Ihre Zustimmung nicht automatisch geladen und angezeigt.The Shopping System will be revamped in our next release. As the Item 2.0 system advances, the Item Port structure has been changed as well so it can fall in line with the end goal. These fluctuations have re-addressed things like how Shop Mannequins and Item Bundles are set up. The team’s goal is to create a base mannequin object that the shopping system can apply loadouts to. The items on a given mannequin would be purchasable by themselves, or as a bundle for a discounted price. In the past, every outfit was only purchasable as an entire set of items. On top of that, a bespoke mannequin setup had to be generated for each unique outfit display. Fortunately, advancing tech will soon allow the Loadout Editor to quickly create various item combinations within a given shop. That loadout, comprised of items in the shop, will then be assigned to the shop’s inventory as a “Bundle.” The Shopping System will then spawn these bundles directly onto an empty shop mannequin with no additional effort by the designers. A process that took hours will soon take minutes, allowing different item combinations to be quickly generated for display on the mannequins. While this might seem like a minor change, this will actually unlock a multitude of options for the design team to create realistic shops.
ANIMATION
Externer Inhalt robertsspaceindustries.comInhalte von externen Seiten werden ohne Ihre Zustimmung nicht automatisch geladen und angezeigt.Externer Inhalt robertsspaceindustries.comInhalte von externen Seiten werden ohne Ihre Zustimmung nicht automatisch geladen und angezeigt.The PU Animation Team just finished a small Mocap shoot using the in-house OptiTrack system. This was a pickup shoot to help fill in all the gaps from the Performance Capture shoots done at Imaginarium studios and captured transition animations for both male and female characters. These animations included sitting down at tables with trays, going through the chow line, eating, drinking, rummaging, or sitting in cockpits and turrets. A Usable is an object that a player or NPC can interact with like a chair, wall, table, or any other set piece, but also include props such as cups, plates, bottles, crates, and anything else that can physically picked up by a person. Obviously, animation can only get these game assets so far. The biggest challenge right now is making all the usables function in game. It is up to code, tech and designers to make them work, which is why Austin Animation is working closely with our Frankfurt and UK studios. The team also amended metrics for door control panels, bathroom toilet facilities, and chow lines in the Idris mess hall. Tech is being put in place that will allow an NPC to navigate to a usable set piece and perform a variety of actions (like grabbing a usable prop off the set piece, setting other usable props onto it, walking away with the prop, going to and interacting with another usable set piece, setting usable props on top of usable props, then getting up and navigating to a third usable set piece to dispose of the usable prop with all the usable props on it). Once this one test case is fully functional, we will be able to use these universal animations with different usables throughout the game.
SHIP ANIMATION
Externer Inhalt robertsspaceindustries.comInhalte von externen Seiten werden ohne Ihre Zustimmung nicht automatisch geladen und angezeigt.Externer Inhalt robertsspaceindustries.comInhalte von externen Seiten werden ohne Ihre Zustimmung nicht automatisch geladen und angezeigt.The Ship Animation team has finished the major animation tasks for the Drake Cutlass Black. Characters can now enter and exit the pilot and copilot seats properly. For the copilot, the team used a new cockpit template called the “Stick.” This template positions the player in a pose like that of a helicopter pilot which was required to fit the new geometry of the Cutlass cockpit.
DEV OPS
DevOps added additional logging to better track issues and allows the team to dump the status of the users download session at the moment they experience the issue. The DevOps team then works directly with the Community Relations team to debug the issue or issues the user is experiencing. A great example of this is the latest version of the Patcher. As some of the Windows 10 users may have already noticed, the 2.4.9 version of the Patcher brought back music that had been missing. The exact cause of the issue was that the Windows 10 sound settings were set to 192kHz which caused the Patcher to crash if you had the music turned on. You can now enjoy all of Pedro Camacho’s music again!
QA
Externer Inhalt robertsspaceindustries.comInhalte von externen Seiten werden ohne Ihre Zustimmung nicht automatisch geladen und angezeigt.The QA Department has been heavily focused on 2.6.2 testing. With the addition of Multiplayer Megamap and Serialized Variables, multiple cross-studio playtests between the ATX and UK studios were performed in order to check for any unexpected behaviors, such as increased desynchronization and lag between clients, massive performance changes (good or bad), and crashes.
Since the new Drake Buccaneer came online sooner than expected, we were able to perform frequent testing to ensure the ship was operating as expected for its inclusion in 2.6.2.
In the development stream testing, Squadron 42 testing continues, as well as a range of tests with ground vehicles on planetary surfaces in a multiplayer environment. Various development tools are also being tested, such as the Procedural Planet Editor (PlanED), and the Subsumption Editor.
PLAYER RELATIONS
The Player Relations team was very busy in both the US and UK this month helping with 2.6.2 and 2.6.3. We spent a lot of time with Evocati and QA working on getting the final bugs worked out, then managing our public PTU playtests. In the coming weeks, we will be increasing and updating our PTU test numbers, so we’ve spent a lot of time working on how to roll that out, too. Lastly, we also had a great summit in LA with other department leads and stakeholders to work out our plans for the rest of year, and we got to spend a little time working with our Turbulent friends as well.
Foundry 42 UK
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PROGRAMMING
Externer Inhalt robertsspaceindustries.comInhalte von externen Seiten werden ohne Ihre Zustimmung nicht automatisch geladen und angezeigt.Externer Inhalt robertsspaceindustries.comInhalte von externen Seiten werden ohne Ihre Zustimmung nicht automatisch geladen und angezeigt.The player interaction sprint is proceeding at full speed. Rather than outlining a whole mesh, they have created a system where sub-objects can be highlighted allowing players to choose individual parts. This is especially useful in cockpits, where players can interact with individual buttons and switches to access things like ship functions and resource distribution. The team has also been ensuring the new interaction system works seamlessly with the multifunction displays (MFD). The new placement system has also come online, so players can choose where and with what orientation objects can be set down. If the placement position is out of range, players now automatically go into a throw state.
Different actor states have been added to the Player Status System, so the player finds it harder, or even impossible, to do things like jump, vault and mantle depending on how fatigued they are. Mass has been added to the suit and weapons as another way to influence the player’s stamina. We’ve also added a breathing state component to bring together the player’s status with the procedural breathing animation and sound. The team is now starting work on new gameplay elements like suit punctures, oxygen recharging and depressurisation.The team invested time in the conversation system tech by creating a tool to help simplify complicated conversations when there are multiple actors in the same scene.
UI
Externer Inhalt robertsspaceindustries.comInhalte von externen Seiten werden ohne Ihre Zustimmung nicht automatisch geladen und angezeigt.Externer Inhalt robertsspaceindustries.comInhalte von externen Seiten werden ohne Ihre Zustimmung nicht automatisch geladen und angezeigt.The UI team began the front-end skeleton framework for Kiosk shopping. This includes properly setting up all UI components such as lists, grids, buttons, TextFields, and other various assets. Once this is done, the engineers will hook these components up to the game data and get it presented diegetically in the game world. The team is also supporting the player interaction system to unify the way the players will interact with in-game UI screens across the game. This means the same underlying system used to interact with a MFD in a ship seat will be applied to all in-game terminals, wall-mounted displays, and kiosks. This will make interaction with in-game displays feel much less clunky and constrictive. In anticipation of the Graphics Team’s work on the new render-to-texture (RTT) tech, the UI team has done a round of testing using current helmet interiors to see how well the UI looks rendered onto an interior glass surface.The new RTT tech will eventually allow the UI to render properly in the rendering pipeline, making it feel much more integrated with the game-world than it is currently. They have also checked how well the text will read at various sizes and how any post-processing effects, such as motion blur or chromatic aberration, might potentially negatively impact the legibility of the text and symbols. The UI team is also looking at potential impacts the new incoming dynamic field of view system might have on the UI. This new system will allow such things like the HUD and 3D helmet interior to remain roughly the same size on screen when setting a lower or higher field of view.
AUDIO
The Audio team has been involved in all gameplay features like the Buccaneer, surface outposts, Squadron level development, and the actor status system. Work has continued on the Audio Propagation system to make audio respect walls, doors and paths. In the current system, audio triggers play from their point of origin and either being occluded or un-occluded, but always play from their source position. The new propagation system will allow a sound playing inside a room to be heard by anyone listening from outside the room, either through the door, window, or any other opening. This extends to other rooms, so a sound playing 4 rooms away will navigate the doorways and the air in between in order to reach the listener. Also, the first and second pass of the mix management system have been completed. This is a virtual mixing console that can be applied to certain areas or rooms and allows the creation of mix snapshots that can apply volume, filter or effect settings on any parts of the audio mix with faders in DataForge that can be tweaked in real-time. Setting up and organising these areas, and mix snapshots, will allow for easy adjustment of the audio mix. Finally, a lot of progress has been made on the WordUp dialogue tool to manage the huge amount of spoken lines in the PU and S42.
For fun, here’s a piece of original Star Citizen music called Atomos for you to enjoy.
CONCEPT ART
Externer Inhalt robertsspaceindustries.comInhalte von externen Seiten werden ohne Ihre Zustimmung nicht automatisch geladen und angezeigt.The Concept team has been finishing the Gemini ballistic shotgun and establishing the look of a new ship weapon manufacturer, Preacher Armaments. Preacher prides themselves on making high-quality, reliable and effective weapons that are favored by bounty hunters, police, and militia. In 2940, the conglomerate Eon Group bought out Preacher from founder Kino Walton and immediately ramped up manufacturing. Preacher Armaments is aggressively making its way into stores across the universe.
Concept work for the Banu Defender is complete, as well as on two additional ships that will be revealed in the future. Work continues on the truckstop interiors, satellite interiors, New Babbage on microTech and dressing for the modular habitation modules. Here is a glimpse of a WIP Truckstop interior. Truckstops will serve as waypoints for haulers and other travelers making their way through the system giving them a chance to restock, refuel, and stretch their legs.
ENVIRONMENT ART
Externer Inhalt robertsspaceindustries.comInhalte von externen Seiten werden ohne Ihre Zustimmung nicht automatisch geladen und angezeigt.Externer Inhalt robertsspaceindustries.comInhalte von externen Seiten werden ohne Ihre Zustimmung nicht automatisch geladen und angezeigt.The environment team has been refining the surface outposts with technical, engineering, and habitation spaces coming together with their preliminary dressing passes. The exteriors are now mostly complete. The team is also looking into lighting variations for the procedural system to add more complex setups for the lighting states. The greybox for the truckstop space station is continuing and now that all the building set pieces have been established, the detail phase has begun. On the Satellite sprint, we’re close to being Whitebox complete on the communication archetype, which means the modules and classifications that were specified by design have been visually explored.
SHIP ART AND DESIGN
Externer Inhalt robertsspaceindustries.comInhalte von externen Seiten werden ohne Ihre Zustimmung nicht automatisch geladen und angezeigt.Externer Inhalt robertsspaceindustries.comInhalte von externen Seiten werden ohne Ihre Zustimmung nicht automatisch geladen und angezeigt.Our ship team has been continuing work on the Hull-C and Reclaimer, which includes the new light controller work that allows for easier set up of different lighting entities and switches them between property states (e.g., on, off, emergency) depending on various circumstances such as a player interaction or sufficient pull from a connected power pipe. The Javelin continues to be polished for both Squadron 42 and Star Citizen. The team is also completing the capital ships of the Vanduul Fleet.
VFX
Externer Inhalt robertsspaceindustries.comInhalte von externen Seiten werden ohne Ihre Zustimmung nicht automatisch geladen und angezeigt.As you’re aware, the VFX was completed on the Drake Buccaneer and the ship was released in 2.6.2. Meanwhile, the RSI Constellation Aquila is going through its flight-ready pass. The MISC Prospector finished a thrusters first pass and damage R&D blockout. The new GPU-driven thruster trails have completed its initial implementation phase. On the Weapon VFX side, the style guide has been improved by bringing in a new system that defines the visual style of a weapon based on manufacturer and energy type. The Apocalypse Arms Scourge railgun, Kastak Arms Devastator plasma shotgun rework, and Klaus & Werner Gallant energy rifle rework finished their first pass. The layered impact library has been rolled out. Previously, impacts were per weapon and per surface type, but the new setup allows us to layer up individual elements which gives more flexibility and less maintenance.
ANIMATION
Externer Inhalt robertsspaceindustries.comInhalte von externen Seiten werden ohne Ihre Zustimmung nicht automatisch geladen und angezeigt.The animation team has been exploring a lot of technical previs this past month. Part of that work includes improving the functionality of the shouldered weapon state to get the railgun ready and playable for 3.0. The team also polished the prone set so it will be ready for code to work their magic on fixing any edge cases and continued to work on Breathing & Stamina to create a solid look and feel for a player breathing across multiple states, such as normal, tired and hyperventilating. The weapons-free jumps are getting a pass to bring the animations more in line with the mocap rather than the technical first pass implementation. The Devastator shotgun, Gallant, Arrowhead, and Railgun weapon reloads have been improved. Meanwhile, the Derby Studio continued with Facial animation for SQ42 and Star Citizen cinematics. They attended a facial shoot down in London for 3.0 and members of the team visited the LA studio for some facial animation R&D meetings.
Foundry 42 DE
Externer Inhalt robertsspaceindustries.comInhalte von externen Seiten werden ohne Ihre Zustimmung nicht automatisch geladen und angezeigt.FOUNDRY 42: DE
WEAPONS
Externer Inhalt robertsspaceindustries.comInhalte von externen Seiten werden ohne Ihre Zustimmung nicht automatisch geladen und angezeigt.Externer Inhalt robertsspaceindustries.comInhalte von externen Seiten werden ohne Ihre Zustimmung nicht automatisch geladen und angezeigt.This past month, we completed all the rockets and rocket pods ranging from size 1 to 3 as well as the first art pass for the Knightbridge Arms Ballistic Cannons. The various sizes can now be used to test out the new modularity system and various upgraded levels and combinations. The FPS weapon artists finished a second art pass on the Klaus & Werner Arclight II, Gallant, and Arrowhead which now include new venting mechanisms that add more visual interest to the reloads. The first art pass on the Kastak Arms Ravager-212 and a second art pass on the Kastak Arms Devastator with an additional layer of detail was also completed.
LIGHTING
Externer Inhalt robertsspaceindustries.comInhalte von externen Seiten werden ohne Ihre Zustimmung nicht automatisch geladen und angezeigt.The lighting team began determining a way to integrate lighting on modular surface outposts, so it feels coherent across potentially countless outpost layout permutations. The challenge with this task is that every room could have a different arrangement of props and objects, which dictates where lights would logically be placed, as well as the theme or mood of that room. For example, crew sleeping quarters should have a different mood than a hydroponics lab. To do this, the lighting team tested for possible issues (such as light leaking through walls or certain lighting variations looking incorrect when placed next to others) by integrating simple lighting variations into the procedural system. The team also focused on creating a visual target for our main room types (habitation, hydroponics, mining, and storage) to see how far we can push the lighting to match our concepts and goals for the interior look of our surface outposts. When these are finished, we can then determine how to break the lighting down into modular components that can be fed back into the procedural system.
TECH ART
The tech art team worked on multiple skinning tasks, including clothing for both the PU and SQ42 (to widen the range of character customization) and a skinning pass on the final Vanduul mesh (so the animators can work on their animations).The team created a tool that allows the team to quickly update the exact grip placements for individual weapons. Artists can now use a reference mesh, create an offset, hit export, and immediately see their changes live in engine. This will allow them to iterate much quicker than before. In addition, they developed a tool for the animators to redirect their walking animations to turn animations. This fairly simple tool that will ultimately reduce the time the animators need to spend on certain specific animations.
DESIGN
Externer Inhalt robertsspaceindustries.comInhalte von externen Seiten werden ohne Ihre Zustimmung nicht automatisch geladen und angezeigt.Externer Inhalt robertsspaceindustries.comInhalte von externen Seiten werden ohne Ihre Zustimmung nicht automatisch geladen und angezeigt.The Level Design team worked on the modularity of Space Stations and Surface Outposts. As an initial proof of concept, the team has decided to move forward with five versions of the outposts. Ultimately with this system, we’ll be able to create a large number of outposts with different layouts and purposes, but first, the systems, props, and placement of planets need to work as intended. The Truck Stop is our first test of modularity in Space Stations. Soon, customizable hubs will be able to create variations using add-ons and procedural prop placement which can add flavor to various rooms. The modularity of Space Stations also extends to how the rooms connect to one another through the use of pre-made flowcharts. Design is collaborating with engineers to get it functioning in-game as intended. The system design team has been continuing their work on the usables system, as well as working with the cinematics team in helping to establish the final look and feel for the conversation system.
ENGINE TEAM
Externer Inhalt robertsspaceindustries.comInhalte von externen Seiten werden ohne Ihre Zustimmung nicht automatisch geladen und angezeigt.Externer Inhalt robertsspaceindustries.comInhalte von externen Seiten werden ohne Ihre Zustimmung nicht automatisch geladen und angezeigt.The engine team finished the physics grid refactoring, which is used to store each individual physical object in the world and to allow for fast neighbour queries. The old legacy CryPhysics grid system worked by projecting the entire world onto a fixed 2d array of cells of uniform dimension. For memory reasons, the old system was configured to huge cell sizes to allow for our massive worlds, which lead to severe performance problems when dealing with lots of small objects as well as lots of entities returned due to the fact the grid would ‘wrap-around’ every few thousand kilometres. To address these issues, the new grid system was designed to have a sparse and fixed hierarchy of nested 3D grid cells of various sizes where objects will get inserted into different levels of the fixed hierarchy depending on their size. That way, the engine can efficiently handle objects the size of a planet (several thousand kilometres in radius) all the way down to small pebbles just a few centimeters across. Initial performance tests in Stanton have proven the new grid to be vastly more efficient (10x less entities returned for small queries, and queries in general faster in the magnitude of 1.2x – 2x) while using slightly more memory than the legacy system.
The team has also been developing the core foundation of our AI movement. While motion capture animation is perfect for cut-scenes and all types of linear animations where things are fixed and predictable, mocap-data can’t be used directly for animations that need to be truly interactive. To use mocap-data in interactive situations, longer motion-clips must be broken into shorter clips and generated into multiple variations of the same motion-style. As an example, a simple walk-cycle needs the ability to walk at different speeds, walk in circles, walk on slopes, and walk in different directions. A typical AI-character in Squadron might have about 1000 of these motion-clips. It’s impossible to create unique animations-clips for every given situation. That’s why we developed a blending technique called Parametric Blending.
Externer Inhalt robertsspaceindustries.comInhalte von externen Seiten werden ohne Ihre Zustimmung nicht automatisch geladen und angezeigt.Externer Inhalt robertsspaceindustries.comInhalte von externen Seiten werden ohne Ihre Zustimmung nicht automatisch geladen und angezeigt.Parametric Blending enables all these clips to be controllable at runtime. It takes the concept of “simple” animation-blending and moves it to the next level. The goal is to make the outcome of a transition or an interpolation predictable for an undefined number of assets. Each motion-clip contains a combination of physical and stylistic properties (what we call the “natural” motion-parameters, because they are inherently part of the motion itself). To control a character in a game, these “natural” motion-parameters need to be passed to the animation-system, and let it generate the motion we need. Once there are enough animation-clips, they’re placed into a blend-space. The most important aspect of a blend-space is that each animation-clip represents a point in a coordinate-system and all points are connected by an index list. In a blend-space, blending is treated as a geometrical problem. The relationship between animation-clips is extremely important for the blending to work. The placement of the assets into the blend-space is fully automatic due to how the animators set up their locators before export. In a single blend-space, there can be more than 100 unique animation-clips and they can be controlled like a single animation. In a 2D blendspace, the travel-speed is on the X and the turn-speed is on the Y. This means we can generate all motions between a slow-walk and fast-walk while maintaining the correct turn-speeds. Blend-spaces are not only limited to simple motion-cycles, they’ll be used for most AI motions in our vast universe, enabling our AI-characters to move fluidly and realistically in the world.
The engine team also did improvements to the objects blending with terrain. The underlying terrain and objects shapes are now taken into account to blend procedurally distributed objects more naturally with the planetary generated environment.
QA
Externer Inhalt robertsspaceindustries.comInhalte von externen Seiten werden ohne Ihre Zustimmung nicht automatisch geladen und angezeigt.The QA team has been testing the Loadout Editor. The Loadout Editor is heavily used by our devs across all four locations, so it made sense to increase the depth of testing on a daily basis. The first version of the Solar System Editor (also known by its shortened name: SolEd) is being tested as well. The Engineers went over SolEd’s functionality and gathered initial feedback from the team. QA documented the feedback and will work closely with the engineers on the best ways to address and test specific feedback in the near future. They also supported the Engine team with testing of a few things such as the updated Planet Physics grid and the Refactoring of Texture Streamer logic.
AI
Externer Inhalt robertsspaceindustries.comInhalte von externen Seiten werden ohne Ihre Zustimmung nicht automatisch geladen und angezeigt.Externer Inhalt robertsspaceindustries.comInhalte von externen Seiten werden ohne Ihre Zustimmung nicht automatisch geladen und angezeigt.The AI team this month completed some work on Mission related functionalities for both the PU and Squadron 42 designers. They also improved the setup for complex conversation scenarios, where multiple characters need to interact with one another. The first step to achieve that was to allow the subsumption logic to run on top of players. That allows logic on predefined story scenes to be executed and also ensures the AI system can fully communicate with players and interact with them. The subsumption tool also had some improvements on the conversation setup. The team also kicked off work on “Conversation Sub Activities.” The sub-activities describe the logic for multiple characters in one view, to make it easier for designers to synchronize interactions between the characters and the environment. Essentially, those conversations will still result in unique sub activities that run on the different characters so that each individual entity can still handle further events/situations on their own.
The first pass on refactoring of the perception for the spaceships was also completed. There is currently a general perception component on characters that can handle several types of senses. A normal Human will have his own vision and hearing senses, but once sitting down inside a spaceship, they will also be able to interface with the spaceship radar and group the information about the different senses into its perception component. This will allow for progress towards more “character-controlled” behaviors on spaceships, since strict dependencies between the game code and specific behaviors running on the vehicles themselves will be removed.
CINEMATICS
The cinematics team is making steady progress across multiple chapters, from implementing new scenes to polishing existing ones. The team also assisted in defining the look of the conversation system and participated in the various sprints push this system along. The goal is to allow for a cinematic feel while still maintaining flexibility and immersion.
VFX
Externer Inhalt robertsspaceindustries.comInhalte von externen Seiten werden ohne Ihre Zustimmung nicht automatisch geladen und angezeigt.Externer Inhalt robertsspaceindustries.comInhalte von externen Seiten werden ohne Ihre Zustimmung nicht automatisch geladen und angezeigt.The VFX team in Frankfurt has continued working on planetary effects. The systems for implementation have been progressing nicely thanks to the close collaboration between the VFX artists and Engineers. They started implementing some of the new effects on the planets, including various atmosphere and weather effects, as well as more specific effects for various types of assets that will be distributed with the object scattering system.
ENVIRONMENT ART
Externer Inhalt robertsspaceindustries.comInhalte von externen Seiten werden ohne Ihre Zustimmung nicht automatisch geladen und angezeigt.Externer Inhalt robertsspaceindustries.comInhalte von externen Seiten werden ohne Ihre Zustimmung nicht automatisch geladen und angezeigt.The Frankfurt environment team has been primarily focused on finalizing the Crusader’s moons. The procedural assets distribution system has seen a lot of progress and is still improving. All the separate pieces that make-up our procedural planets and moons are truly starting to fall into place. The team is now moving on to get the Levski landing zone integrated onto Delamar and will be the first big landing zone on a procedural entity. This means a new procedural planet/asteroid and the exteriors architecture of Levski will be created. The challenge is to merge the procedural terrain and the landing zone in a way in which they feel like they belong together.
Turbulent
Externer Inhalt robertsspaceindustries.comInhalte von externen Seiten werden ohne Ihre Zustimmung nicht automatisch geladen und angezeigt.TURBULENT
Externer Inhalt robertsspaceindustries.comInhalte von externen Seiten werden ohne Ihre Zustimmung nicht automatisch geladen und angezeigt.This month, Turbulent launched spectrum 0.3.2, which includes major performance updates to help render messages and threads in the client. Hopefully, this will allow users to switch faster between lobbies and channels, as well as take less CPU and render time than in the 0.3.1 version. 0.3.2 also brings two new features. First users can now re-order communities in the top left of the sidebar by dragging and dropping the community to the new location.Second, the other feature is the channel thread list, so now threads that contain media information and videos have thumbnail images allowing users to preview the content.
Externer Inhalt robertsspaceindustries.comInhalte von externen Seiten werden ohne Ihre Zustimmung nicht automatisch geladen und angezeigt.There has also been mobile optimization and keyboard fixes that will hopefully be ready for 0.3.3. This should fix bugs Android users have been encountering when typing into the chat. The new patch also adds nested threads to the forums Users can now create a new thread and change a discussion type from a classic chronological timeline into a nested discussion. This gives us two benefits. First, we can now sort by up votes and get a nested reply tree behind it. Second, users can gain more control into choosing discussion types. The post creator will have the option of choosing if it’s a nested thread or not.
Turbulent will also archive the old forums on Friday, April 14. We’ve expanded our category list to bring all those discussions from the old forum to Spectrum. This will not be an import, but a recreation inside the new system. This month, the team also worked on the new delta patcher. Turbulent is responsible for building the actual application that hosts the patching libraries, so we’ve worked hard over this month to get this new application setup. It requires a whole new application stack called Electron which lets the team patch the game data with this new launcher internally.
Externer Inhalt robertsspaceindustries.comInhalte von externen Seiten werden ohne Ihre Zustimmung nicht automatisch geladen und angezeigt.Another major project started this month is a redesign of some of the elements of the RSI site. This is a massive overhaul of the website to address how it caters to new users. We can’t talk much about it now, but there will be updates as the design progresses. There has also been progress on updating the Ship Stats page. The ship stats are supposed to reflect the intent design of a ship and not necessarily the exact stats that are currently in game, but at the same time, there are things that are missing. The team is changing how the back end manages this by re-designing some of the tech view, specifications view, and holoviewer.
Community
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Some of our devs attended Austin’s biggest media festival, South by Southwest, and participated in a special panel last month. Before that, Community Manager Jared Huckaby and Lead Community Manager Tyler Witkin attended PAX East where they got some hands on time with our incredible backers. CIG team members haven’t been back to meet our East Coast backers since 2014, so it was good to visit again. In addition to meeting many content creators at the PAX event itself, they were also able to attend a Boston Bar Citizen with fans from all over. The importance of these events cannot be understated, as they’re not only a great chance for you to meet the team, but it really energizes the team to directly interface with all of you. And speaking of Bar Citizens, the team was also honored to attend meet-ups in Brisbane, Australia; Austin, Texas; and Santa Monica, California. There are Bar Citizens happening every week. Learn more about them here.
Subscribers this month saw the Space Station flair series begin in addition to receiving their very own Big Benny’s machine as part of the annual Subscription update. The March Jump Point was also released with a focus on the Anvil Hurricane. The issue also includes plenty of lore, part of an original Star Citizen serial, and more!
On Citizens of the Stars, the team checked in with some of the best screenshot artists, original video makers, and news reporters in the community while also spotlighting plenty of other backer projects. Don’t forget, if you’re a subscriber you can contribute questions to Quantum Questions and vote for which ones are asked to the weekly development guests. Check out the thread in the Subscriber’s Den on Spectrum.
During this month’s Happy Hours, the team showed how our designers prototype new systems by building a basketball game mockup live, and our very own Ben Lesnick took a dive into Chris Roberts’ Privateer to talk about how this classic game has influenced Star Citizen.
Star Citizen joined the worldwide celebration of Space Week with many developers, including Sean Tracy and Erin Roberts, appearing on the Twitch front page to talk about the worlds being built in Star Citizen.The team at Turbulent also held a live Town Hall to answer questions about Spectrum and their other platform work. Spectrum continues to update with more functionality on the horizon. As of today, old forums are being closed and archived. Posts will still be available to read, but Spectrum will be the new home for any future discussions.
Last week, the team held a special ‘Drake-over’ sale to celebrate the Buccaneer being flight-ready. With the Dragonfly and Cutlass finishing up, the current Drake lineup is almost done. Also on the ship front, a lot of work has been put into our next reveal, the Banu Defender. Stay tuned to learn more about both the Defender and the Banu race! Additionally, an update to the Referral Program is in progress. Expect to hear more about this soon, including details on a special contest.
Conclusion
WE’LL SEE YOU NEXT MONTH…
Quelle: https://robertsspaceindustries.com/comm-link/tran…y-Studio-Report
Spring is Here!
Whether you’re new to Star Citizen or a Persistent Universe pro, our Spring Sale has something for you. Start the season off right with our discounted Starter Packs and Basket Full Of Mini Ships. Want to see what all the buzz is about first? Then try the Super Hornet Free Fly before you buy. Even though spring is the time for new beginnings, this sale comes to an end on Tuesday, April 18.
Get Started
Externer Inhalt robertsspaceindustries.comInhalte von externen Seiten werden ohne Ihre Zustimmung nicht automatisch geladen und angezeigt.There’s an update on its way to Star Citizen, so it’s a great time to join the Persistent Universe. Take advantage of our discount starter pack and download Star Citizen for only $40 with your choice of either a Mustang or Aurora ship.
The Aurora is the ideal beginner’s ship. This newly redesigned spacecraft favors durability over speed. Looking for something with a bit more edge? The Mustang pushes power ratios to the max with its ultralight material alloys. Some consider the design unsafe, but devoted Mustang owners say it’s worth the risk.
New Reliant Kore Starter
Externer Inhalt robertsspaceindustries.comInhalte von externen Seiten werden ohne Ihre Zustimmung nicht automatisch geladen und angezeigt.The long-awaited Reliant Kore starter package is finally here! This second-tier starter is perfect for those ready to spring into action. At a price of only $75, you can’t afford to wait. This starter ship comes with more than one seat, so invite a new friend for a trip through the ‘verse.
The MISC Reliant is loaded with Xi’An technology, like Xi’An thruster tech. The Kore variant features additional speed and dogfighting capabilities to help keep you safe on hauling runs. MISC designed the Kore to support its Hull series, which is optimal for the occasional skirmish during trips. The vertical flying-wing shape makes this spacecraft especially unique.
A Basket of Mini-Ships
Externer Inhalt robertsspaceindustries.comInhalte von externen Seiten werden ohne Ihre Zustimmung nicht automatisch geladen und angezeigt.If you’re already playing Star Citizen, then get an eggcellent basket of five mini ships for a shell-shocking price of $160! This offer includes the Merlin, Archimedes, Argo, 85x, and Dragonfly. These little ships have a BIG job ahead of them: helping Citizens explore the massive procedural planets arriving in Star Citizen Alpha 3.0! Each short-range vehicle is also available individually for $50 or less.
The Drake Dragonfly features a rare open canopy design that’s capable of being operated on land and in space. If you’re in need of a short-range fighter, then the P52 Merlin is the ship for you. The Merlin variant P72 Archimedes racer is for those that prefer an emphasis on luxury. If you’re considering a career as a merchant, the Argo MPUV is an excellent utility vehicle capable of hauling people or small batches of cargo. The 85x from Origin Jumpworks is a luxury ship, perfect for short range excursions. Get cracking on this deal before it’s gone.
Spring Sale
About the Sale
The Spring Star Ship Sale sale will run through Tuesday, April 18. Reliant Kore packages will be available in the store without the included discount after this time.
Disclaimer
Remember: we are offering this pledge ship to help fund Star Citizen’s development. The funding generated by sales such as this is what allows us to include new features in the Star Citizen world. Concept ships will be available for in-game credits in the final universe, and they are not required to start the game. The goal is to make additional ships available that give players a different experience rather than a particular advantage when the persistent universe launches. Additionally, please note that all decorative ‘flare’ items will also be available to acquire in the finished game world.
Quelle: https://robertsspaceindustries.com/comm-link/tran…-Star-Ship-Sale
Sandi Gardiner and Forrest Stephan share the UK studio update and a look at the Aegis Javelin.
And for info on becoming a subscriber, go to: https://robertsspaceindustries.com/pledge/subscriptions
Quelle: https://robertsspaceindustries.com/comm-link/tran…round-The-Verse
Waitaha
Externer Inhalt robertsspaceindustries.comInhalte von externen Seiten werden ohne Ihre Zustimmung nicht automatisch geladen und angezeigt.ADVOCACY ARCHIVE
INTRA-AGENCY MESSAGES2947-04-11_08:14 SET
TO: SA JULIE NADIR
CC: SC LEN TEXIERA
FROM: ASC FREDDY AGUILAR
SUBJECT: HIGH PRIORITY — DEVELOPING SITUATIONA strange one just came in from our friends in Customs. They had a hauling ship try to jump the line. After finally disabling the ship and establishing comms, they discovered that the person flying the ship was covered in blood.
Local law jumped protocol and moved in to secure the ship. They found the ship’s pilot, Jerome Flabian (PersonalFile #HS5-44246-773), bludgeoned to death on the cockpit floor. To make matters more interesting, the woman flying the ship, Naomi Thampi (PersonalFile #NB1-31452-081), hardly acknowledged the body or the armed police when approached, just repeatedly demanded to know how much longer it’d take her to clear Customs.
Considering the time it will take this information to reach SAC Texiera on Earth, I’ll be overseeing the operation until otherwise notified.
Nadir — Take control of the crime scene. Don’t let the locals give you any flak over jurisdiction. The ship’s flight manifest shows that it traveled from Genesis into Corel, so it’s ours.
Let’s get to work.
Freddy Aquilar
Assistant Section Chief
Office of the Advocacy
New Junction, Lo, Corel2947-04-11_10:29 SET
TO: ASC FREDDY AGUILAR
CC: SC LEN TEXIERA
FROM: SA JULIE NADIR
RE: HIGH PRIORITY — DEVELOPING SITUATIONI’ve brought Naomi Thampi back to the station and put her in Interrogation Room 2. To say something is seriously off with her would be an understatement.
All she’s done since I picked her up is complain about the line at Customs and how her cargo’s losing credits. No matter what I ask, even a simple question like her name, all I get in response is something about the current market value of manganese or something similar. Getting anything worthwhile out of her, let alone a confession, may be trickier than expected.
That said, her hands and clothes are covered in physical evidence. Davis is with her now taking scans and samples. He’s also going to draw blood for a toxicology screening.
My immediate reaction is that she’s on something, but I’ve never seen someone so disassociated from reality but aware. Once Davis is done, I’ll let her stew for a bit and just observe. Let’s see what some alone time does for her.
Julie Nadir
Special Agent
Office of the Advocacy
New Junction, Lo, Corel2947-04-11_12:41 SET
TO: ASC FREDDY AGUILAR
CC: SC LEN TEXIERA
FROM: SA JULIE NADIR
RE: HIGH PRIORITY — DEVELOPING SITUATIONMy team finished a sweep through the ship and a preliminary records search. The pilot wasn’t the only victim. We found four more bodies in the bunkroom.
Evidence is still being collected so an official incident report is still a ways out. Local law weren’t exactly careful when taking the ship, so there’s a lot of contamination at the scene. Plus, we were delayed by Customs officials insisting that we clear the massive ship from the queue since it was causing major delays. Anyways, here’s what I have so far.
Regtags list the ship as Waitaha. It recently received a permit to mine the asteroid belt in Genesis. The government is stingy with those permits so it was a plum opportunity. Personnel files show the ship staffed a regular crew, but one of their usual engineers wasn’t available. Somehow Thampi landed the gig. We’re still looking into exactly how that happened.
We pulled IDs on the ship’s remaining four crewmembers: Ben Lateef (PersonalFile #OH8-31148-310), Cian Parker (PersonalFile #LW5-47162-163), Julia Lai (PersonalFile #BW8-43201-947) and Aisha Mehldau (PersonalFile #XE2-71582-349). All died of asphyxiation in their berths. Looks like Thampi cut off oxygen to the bunkroom once she was in control of the ship.
Finally, we searched Thampi’s locker and personal belongings. The only thing of note was a small lockbox that we had to hack open. Inside was a plastic vial filled with some kind of fermented substance shaped into small balls. It’s been sent out for analysis.
Will keep you two updated on any further developments on my end.
Julie Nadir
Special Agent
Office of the Advocacy
New Junction, Lo, Corel2947-04-11_14:36 SET
TO: ASC FREDDY AGUILAR
CC: SC LEN TEXIERA
FROM: SA JULIE NADIR
RE: HIGH PRIORITY — DEVELOPING SITUATIONMy initial interrogation of Thampi is complete. It took mere minutes to get her to confess.
Honestly, “confess” may be the wrong word to describe what happened. She feels like her actions were completely justified. I wouldn’t say she bragged about it, but she freely admitted to what she did. In fact, she actually seemed annoyed that I was “fixated on it.”
During Thampi’s period of isolation, she repeated, ad nauseam, a list of ores and their market price. When I finally entered the room she demanded to know their current values at the New Junction TDD. Since she ignored anything else I said, I finally decided to look them up for her.
Upon hearing the answers she grew agitated, and then repeated the phrase, “I told them they’d drop.” When pressed on what she was talking about, Thampi admitted to arguing with the rest of Waitaha’s crew over their return to Corel. She was convinced commodity prices would fall and insisted they return as soon as possible before it happened.
Thampi never articulated the position of the rest of the crew. She only said they didn’t share the same urgency as her in returning to Lo. So Thampi grabbed her wrench, “took care of the pilot,” and then commandeered the ship. She also admitted to cutting off oxygen to the bunk to “keep everyone else from waking up.”
Following this matter-of-fact confession, Thampi asked when she could return to the ship and sell the ores. Her only concern was that their prices would continue to drop and that she was “missing her window.”
When I left the interrogation room her tox screening was waiting for me. Looks like there’s a significant amount of a foreign substance in her system that’s been identified as “E’tâm.” Are either of you familiar with it?
I’m not, but whatever that stuff did to her is just terrible …
Julie Nadir
Special Agent
Office of the Advocacy
New Junction, Lo, Corel2947-04-11_15:18 SET
TO: SA JULIE NADIR
CC: SC LEN TEXIERA
FROM: ASC FREDDY AGUILAR
RE: HIGH PRIORITY — DEVELOPING SITUATIONSame shit that’s in Thampi’s system is in the lockbox. Here’s what I’ve dug up so far on E’tâm.
It’s a Xi’an drug, goes by the street names ‘Flow,’ ‘blinder’ or ‘ticktock’ by Humans. Side effects include hyper awareness, cognitive enhancement and hyper focus, so it’s become popular among students and workers.
Recently, there’s been an increasing number of cases involving E’tâm in Corel. Most involve people so engrossed in a task that they neglect to eat, sleep or take care of other basic bodily functions, thus prompting a call to authorities from a friend or relative in an effort to get that person help.
So far, no other cases quite like Thampi’s have popped up, but I’ll keep looking. Let’s hope this is an isolated incident.
Freddy Aquilar
Assistant Section Chief
Office of the Advocacy
New Junction, Lo, Corel
Quelle: https://robertsspaceindustries.com/comm-link/spec…dvocacy-Archive
Die Crowdfunding-Finanzierung des Weltraum-MMORPGs Star Citizen schreitet ungebremst voran. Nun wurde die Marke von 146 Millionen US-Dollar erreicht, woran der letzte Raumschiff-Sale sicher nicht ganz unbeteiligt war. Außerdem kündigten die Entwickler…
Quelle: http://www.pcgames.de/Star-Citizen-P…mescom-1225465/
Greetings Citizens
Externer Inhalt robertsspaceindustries.comInhalte von externen Seiten werden ohne Ihre Zustimmung nicht automatisch geladen und angezeigt.Over the weekend, Several developers from the LA office, including Tyler Witkin, Jared Huckaby, Ben & Alexis Lesnick, Steve Bender, and myself went to a Bar Citizen hosted by some of the LA citizens. It was great to be able to meet some local citizens, and it was my first Bar Citizen since relocating to Los Angeles. I tricked Zyloh into eating a box of M&M’s mixed with Skittles. His reaction was great, but he gave me a terrible, scolding look the rest of the evening.
Let’s see what is going on this week:
Today’s Citizens of the Stars episode has Tyler Witkin introducing Jorunn, a man dedicated to the Bar Citizen movement around the globe. Then, Ben Lesnick puts Dennis Daniel, IT Manager for CIG LA in the hotseat for this week’s Quantum Questions. Learn what kind of machines we play Star Citizen here in the office, and learn the science (or magic?) used in communicating across five studios.
On Wednesday, our bi-weekly show “Bugsmashers!” is back! Bug hunter extraordinaire Mark Abent investigates why some players in Star Marine are able to travel extreme distances in the system after picking up a weapon. I think this is a bug I don’t want Mark to fix!
Thursday’s episode of Around the Verse visits our Manchester Studio, where we pull back the curtains and take a deeper look at Star Citizens development. This is my favorite studio update because of all the new artwork, and in-game footage Erin and the team always show us! Also, make sure to tune in for some exciting news about the Referral Program revamp! New rewards and a competition you won’t want to miss.
Star Citizen Alpha 2.6.2 introduced support for 4K extra-wide resolutions and TrackIR, and on this week’s Happy Hour Showcase, we’re excited to bring both of these to the broadcast. Join Community Manager Jared Huckaby and special guests, Senior Producer Eric Keiron Davis, LA QA Manager Vincent Sinatra, and community broadcaster DeejayKnight as they play Star Citizen live with the fans and answer your questions following Around the Verse the day before. The floor is open to questions this Friday at 12pm Pacific on twitch.tv/starcitizen.
See you in the ‘Verse!
Tyler Nolin
AKA Admiral Sloth
Community ManagerThe Weekly Community Content Schedule
MONDAY, APRIL 10th, 2017
Citizens of the Stars (https://www.youtube.com/user/RobertsSpaceInd/)TUESDAY, APRIL 11th, 2017
Weekly Lore Post (https://robertsspaceindustries.com/comm-link/spectrum-dispatch)WEDNESDAY, APRIL 12th, 2017
Bugsmashers! (https://www.youtube.com/user/RobertsSpaceInd/)THURSDAY, APRIL 13th, 2017
Around the Verse (https://www.youtube.com/user/RobertsSpaceInd/)
Vault UpdateFRIDAY, APRIL 14th, 2017
Happy Hour Gameplay – Noon PST (https://twitch.tv/starcitizen)
RSI Newsletter
Monthly ReportCommunity Spotlight: April 10th, 2017 – Bar Citizen
Externer Inhalt robertsspaceindustries.comInhalte von externen Seiten werden ohne Ihre Zustimmung nicht automatisch geladen und angezeigt.It’s no secret that the Star Citizen community is the best there is, the best there was, and the best there ever will be! For years, the community has taken it upon themselves to organize regular Bar Citizen events, providing an opportunity for Citizens around the world to meet up, make friends, and talk shop. In our opinion, this level of camaraderie is unparalleled, and we could not be more excited about it.
Below you will find a few of the recent Bar Citizens that took place, and remember, you can visit the community created website barcitizen.sc to find out if there is an event in your area!
Los Angeles, California
Externer Inhalt robertsspaceindustries.comInhalte von externen Seiten werden ohne Ihre Zustimmung nicht automatisch geladen und angezeigt.Organized by Wolf Larsen, Star Citizens and CIG staff met up for drinks, fish and chips, and good times!
Atlanta, Georgia
Externer Inhalt robertsspaceindustries.comInhalte von externen Seiten werden ohne Ihre Zustimmung nicht automatisch geladen und angezeigt.Organized by Chanticrow! Is that a webcam I see set up at the table? We would love to see that footage! Looks like a great event!
Houston, Texas
Externer Inhalt robertsspaceindustries.comInhalte von externen Seiten werden ohne Ihre Zustimmung nicht automatisch geladen und angezeigt.Organized by Modern Man and Anchor, this Bar Citizen event looked like a fantastic time with some familiar faces!
Ixelles, Belgium
Externer Inhalt robertsspaceindustries.comInhalte von externen Seiten werden ohne Ihre Zustimmung nicht automatisch geladen und angezeigt.Organized by TradTeam, this event just leaves you jealous that you were not there. Great event y’all!
Quelle: https://robertsspaceindustries.com/comm-link/citi…In-Star-Citizen
Greetings Citizens
Externer Inhalt robertsspaceindustries.comInhalte von externen Seiten werden ohne Ihre Zustimmung nicht automatisch geladen und angezeigt.Hey Citizens!
What an exciting weekend it has been! Have you gotten a chance to fly the Drake Buccaneer yet? Well, last Friday we released Star Citizen Alpha 2.6.2 to the LIVE server and have spent much of the weekend reading all of the great feedback on all that 2.6.2 has to offer.
Let’s see what is going on this week:
Today’s Citizens of the Stars episode has Ben Lesnick introducing Erris, one of the founders of the popular fansite, Relay. Then, Jared Huckaby puts Vehicle Art Director Nathan Dearsley in the hotseat for this week’s Quantum Questions. What’s this about a ‘Defender concept ship’ in Quantum Questions? Watch to find out.
On Wednesday, our bi-weekly show The Loremaker’s Guide to the Galaxy is back! CIG Archivist Cherie Heiberg travels to the Yulin System in the Banu Protectorate. Discover how tensions between two Banu guilds affect the most popular Sataball arena in this week’s show.
Thursday’s episode of Around the ‘Verse visits our Austin Studio with an update from Jake Ross, and Turbulent’s Benoit Beausejour. Going forward, Turbulent will be joining the Austin, Texas studio updates, so look forward to more Spectrum news in the future.
To end the week, we are hosting Happy Hour Interview, where we kidnap a CIG developer and subject them to questions from backers on our official Twitch channel. Last month’s guests were Sean Tracy and Steve Bender. Joining us this week is a surprise (because we don’t know, yet).
Cliffhangars – Ahhhhhhh!
Tyler Nolin
AKA Admiral Sloth
Community ManagerThe Weekly Community Content Schedule
MONDAY, APRIL 3rd, 2017
Citizens of the Stars (https://www.youtube.com/user/RobertsSpaceInd/)TUESDAY, APRIL 4th, 2017
Weekly Lore Post (https://robertsspaceindustries.com/comm-link/spectrum-dispatch)WEDNESDAY, APRIL 5th, 2017
Loremaker’s Guide to the Galaxy! (https://www.youtube.com/user/RobertsSpaceInd/)THURSDAY, APRIL 6th, 2017
Around the Verse (https://www.youtube.com/user/RobertsSpaceInd/)
Vault UpdateFRIDAY, APRIL 7th, 2017
Happy Hour Interview: Guest and Time TBD (https://twitch.tv/starcitizen)
RSI NewsletterCommunity Spotlight: April 3rd, 2017 – Translation Citizen
Externer Inhalt robertsspaceindustries.comInhalte von externen Seiten werden ohne Ihre Zustimmung nicht automatisch geladen und angezeigt.Star Citizen is a truly global phenomenon. There is something really special about those who take the time localize information for others. Here’s a small sampling of the amazing work dedicated citizens around the world are doing to bring Star Citizen to every corner of the globe.
Ciudadano Estelar
Externer Inhalt robertsspaceindustries.comInhalte von externen Seiten werden ohne Ihre Zustimmung nicht automatisch geladen und angezeigt.Ciudadano Estelar is a fan site dedicated to the Spanish-speaking community. Both Frost and Vendaval work to translate Around the ‘Verse episodes, lore posts, and everything in between.
http://www.ciudadanoestelar.com
Star-Citizen.pro
Externer Inhalt robertsspaceindustries.comInhalte von externen Seiten werden ohne Ihre Zustimmung nicht automatisch geladen und angezeigt.Star-Citizen.pro is one of the more popular websites for our Russian community. They have an in-depth FAQs page that helps players with everything from playing in Arena Commander, how to navigate around their account page, and of course, translating the official videos on our YouTube channel.
Star Citizen Traduction
Externer Inhalt robertsspaceindustries.comInhalte von externen Seiten werden ohne Ihre Zustimmung nicht automatisch geladen und angezeigt.Star Citizen Traduction helps with our French-speaking community the same way the previous sites do. They are a group of dedicated backers who continually update the Star Citizen website and videos on a daily basis.
http://starcitizen-traduction.fr/
AngryBOT
Externer Inhalt robertsspaceindustries.comInhalte von externen Seiten werden ohne Ihre Zustimmung nicht automatisch geladen und angezeigt.AngryBOT is a YouTube content creator who has created a guide on using the Community Hub, translating the important parts of the Issue Council in order to make it more accessible for the German Community.
Quelle: https://robertsspaceindustries.com/comm-link/citi…In-Star-Citizen
Drake Sale
Externer Inhalt robertsspaceindustries.comInhalte von externen Seiten werden ohne Ihre Zustimmung nicht automatisch geladen und angezeigt.At Drake Interplanetary, we care about our customers. Our commitment to providing safe, dependable, and economical transport is why Drake Interplanetary ships have flown across the universe for more than one hundred years. Now, we’ve created an extra special offer for anyone seeking safety and reliability at a reasonable price.
In honor of the diamond anniversary release of the Buccaneer, you can now receive the Buccaneer and four of our other splendid models at a special discount. Have recent Vanduul attacks made you and your loved ones vulnerable? Then get the Buccaneer and Cutlass at a special two-pack price. Join us and become a part of the growing militia movement protecting frontier systems. Together, we can save the stars. This one-time sale ends April 10, so act fast.
Buccaneer
Externer Inhalt robertsspaceindustries.comInhalte von externen Seiten werden ohne Ihre Zustimmung nicht automatisch geladen und angezeigt.Because self-defense shouldn’t be a luxury item, we created the Buccaneer with the everyman in mind. This single occupant fighter is less expensive than our competitors, but just as effective. Multiple weapon mounts and two missile pylons guarantee you’ll hold your own if you’re ever caught in a scrap.
The sleek shape and light mass means nimble flying, so you can quickly maneuver out of harm’s way. The fighter also makes a nice companion for other ships in the Drake lineup, such as the Caterpillar. Defend your cargo and your loved ones with the Drake Buccaneer today.
Development Status: The Drake Buccaneer became flight ready with Star Citizen Alpha 2.6.2.
Cutlass
Externer Inhalt robertsspaceindustries.comInhalte von externen Seiten werden ohne Ihre Zustimmung nicht automatisch geladen und angezeigt.Drake Interplanetary is committed to the safety of all citizens and civilians, which is why we designed the Cutlass. This low-cost, low-maintenance ship comes with a larger-than-average cargo hold and dedicated tractor mount for facilitating search and rescue operations.
In fact, the Cutlass Red model is the go-to first responder for mobile medstations like the MISC Endeavor. The standard cargo hold comes equipped with a medical facility and Autodoc. Another popular model, the Cutlass Black, has been praised by local militia for decades. All products from Drake Enterprises are developed with your protection and security in mind.
Development Status: The Drake Cutlass Black became flight ready with Arena Commander 1.0. The Black is close to completing a major update, with the variants scheduled to follow.
Dragonfly
Externer Inhalt robertsspaceindustries.comInhalte von externen Seiten werden ohne Ihre Zustimmung nicht automatisch geladen und angezeigt.Ever dreamed of open canopy racing like a pro? The economical Dragonfly turns that dream into a reality. Feel the wind in your hair or speed through the stars thanks to the modular chassis on this personal recreation vehicle. While in ground mode, skim across the rockiest of terrain with in-line mounted gravlevs. Fully extended outriders allow for exceptional mobility and responsiveness in zero-g mode. Go anywhere in the Dragonfly. The only limit to adventure is your imagination.
Drake Interplanetary promotes good sportsmanship and equality, which is why we’re a proud sponsor of the Amateur Open Canopy Racing League. Join the fun by getting a Drake Dragonfly today!
Development Status: Development of the Drake Dragonfly has been completed, it will premiere alongside procedural planets in an upcoming update.
Herald
Externer Inhalt robertsspaceindustries.comInhalte von externen Seiten werden ohne Ihre Zustimmung nicht automatisch geladen und angezeigt.Called “The Empire’s Most Secure Data Courier Service” by trusted industry leaders, the Herald is a high speed courier ship, capable of moving data quickly and securely across the universe. We don’t believe you should ever compromise between speed and safety when it comes to your personal messages. That’s why the Drake Herald comes equipped with powerful main thrusters and dual missile racks.
Your trust is important to us. So when you trust us with your private data, only the best protection will suffice. Everything within the Data Storage Pod receives a proprietary encryption algorithm. In the slim chance your data falls into unsavory hands, the algorithm will render it unusable. Own the best messenger in the universe. Own the Herald.
Development Status: The Drake Herald became flight ready with Star Citizen Alpha 2.6.
Caterpillar
Externer Inhalt robertsspaceindustries.comInhalte von externen Seiten werden ohne Ihre Zustimmung nicht automatisch geladen und angezeigt.It’s said that beauty is in the eye of the beholder. Owners of the Caterpillar know that the beauty in this cargo ship is its seemingly limitless ability to mix and match cargo modules. In addition, the small price point makes cargo hauling a more affordable profession than ever. The Caterpillar is less expensive than other cargo ships, making it a popular choice for independent haulers. Thanks to the Caterpillar, more people than ever have become financially independent.
At Drake Interplanetary, we’re dedicated to making everyone’s life a little easier. That’s why the Caterpillar’s front cargo can house open canopy vehicles like the Drake Dragonfly, so you can access various landing sites with ease. The front cargo lift also folds into the cargo bay for smoother loading and unloading of your wares. Built with your safety in mind, the Command Module can detach from the body of the ship in the event of emergency. Fans of the Caterpillar refer to the Command Module as the “ship within the ship.” We hope that you call the Caterpillar your “home away from home” on those long cargo hauls.
Development Status: The Drake Caterpillar became flight ready with Star Citizen Alpha 2.6.
Drake Combo Packs
Externer Inhalt robertsspaceindustries.comInhalte von externen Seiten werden ohne Ihre Zustimmung nicht automatisch geladen und angezeigt.It’s the diamond anniversary release of the Drake Buccaneer! To thank our customers for sixty years of continued support, Drake Interplanetary is now offering a diamond anniversary discount on all our Drake gems: the Buccaneer, Cutlass, Caterpillar, Herald, and Dragonfly. Purchase the five ship combo pack and receive 15% off the total price.
Prefer to invest in self-defense? Then take advantage of our special two-pack price of $195 for both the Buccaneer and Cutlass Black. Fend off raiders and Vanduul with the best protection in the UEE. Both of these special offers expires on April 10, so get these Drake deals while you still can!
Quelle: https://robertsspaceindustries.com/comm-link/tran…The-2947-Lineup
Greetings Citizens,
Externer Inhalt robertsspaceindustries.comInhalte von externen Seiten werden ohne Ihre Zustimmung nicht automatisch geladen und angezeigt.Welcome to Star Citizen Alpha 2.6.2! This patch is primarily dedicated to bug fixes with continued focus on Star Marine and Arena Commander. We also have the implementation of Mega Map for Multiplayer Arena Commander and Star Marine, new implementations to our ongoing network code updates, and the new Drake Buccaneer!
Your launcher should show “2.6.2-521494-c” as the client version. It is strongly recommended that players delete their USER folder for the LIVE client after patching, particularly if you start encountering any odd character graphical issues or crash on loading. The USER folder can be found (in default installations) at C:\Program Files\Cloud Imperium Games\StarCitizen\Public.
You can read the complete Patch Notes here.
Read on for a quick look at some of the highlights included in Star Citizen Alpha 2.6.2. This week’s Around the Verse is Part 2 in our Ship Pipeline feature. We show you the development of a ship from greybox to flight ready.
Technical Advancements
Externer Inhalt robertsspaceindustries.comInhalte von externen Seiten werden ohne Ihre Zustimmung nicht automatisch geladen und angezeigt.Play the Way You Want to Play
Customization and giving players many options to play Star Citizen has always been a top priority for us. Not only are we introducing additional customization options, but bringing back an old feature as well. With the release of Alpha 2.6.2, we have added support for non-traditional screen resolutions like very wide screens using 21:9 aspect ratio, and we have also re-enabled support for TrackIR.
Externer Inhalt robertsspaceindustries.comInhalte von externen Seiten werden ohne Ihre Zustimmung nicht automatisch geladen und angezeigt.Multiplayer Mega Map
Mega Map is now enabled for multiplayer Arena Commander and Star Marine maps. This will allow for a much quicker loading time when switching between maps or going from one game mode to another.
Serialized Variables
Externer Inhalt robertsspaceindustries.comInhalte von externen Seiten werden ohne Ihre Zustimmung nicht automatisch geladen und angezeigt.Serialized Variables replaces some of the original aspects of CryEngine for handling data and relaying information between clients. It’s a considerably more lightweight means for handling update messaging on the network, and reduces the risk of data being lost in caching or other processes – effectively reducing lag.
Balance Changes
Externer Inhalt robertsspaceindustries.comInhalte von externen Seiten werden ohne Ihre Zustimmung nicht automatisch geladen und angezeigt.Arena Commander
Externer Inhalt robertsspaceindustries.comInhalte von externen Seiten werden ohne Ihre Zustimmung nicht automatisch geladen und angezeigt.We are bringing a lot of smaller quality of life fixes to Arena Commander. For example, we have gotten rid of the pesky helmet radar staying active when you spawn in a vehicle. Also, ship holograms are working again in the AC loadout screen, as well as the back button if you were invited to a private match.
In Race Mode, checkpoint numbering now starts at one instead of zero, the announcer no longer states you are going in the wrong direction after the fourth checkpoint in each lap, and we fixed an exploit that awarded large sums of REC without much participation.
Star Marine
Externer Inhalt robertsspaceindustries.comInhalte von externen Seiten werden ohne Ihre Zustimmung nicht automatisch geladen und angezeigt.We have made a number of changes to make playing in Star Marine feel better. Some new features include a “+25 Headshot” bonus reward, and Last Stand now requires six players to start instead of eight. It also includes adjusting the spawn points in OP Station Demien, on-foot radar now orients to the player and not the ground, and cooking grenade audio is more recognizable. Players also should no longer be placed into games with less than half of the game time left.
We’ve included numerous environment and audio fixes to Star Marine as well. The start of match countdown audio should no longer play twice, several collision issues in both maps have been resolved, as well as players falling off the map when jumping down certain staircases.
The New Buccaneer Has Arrived
Externer Inhalt robertsspaceindustries.comInhalte von externen Seiten werden ohne Ihre Zustimmung nicht automatisch geladen und angezeigt.This Is Not Your Average Fighter
Drake’s new interceptor and fighter is here!
Built to hit above its weight-class, the Buccaneer brings a notably more potent gun-loadout to lighter ships like the Avenger and the Gladius. Although a heavy-hitter, the Buccaneer is less durable compared to a F7C Hornet, and has a much weaker missile loadout than the AEGIS Sabre. This rough-and-tumble frontier fighter can be maintained in the worst of conditions in order to keep real, working space crews alive.
With an impressive amount of firepower, the Buccaneer comes equipped with two Size 1 9-Series Longswords on the wingtips, two Size 3 gimbals on the underwings with CF-117 Badgers, two Size 1 pylons for a customizable missile loadout, and finally a Size 4 hard point between the two engines as an unmanned turret with two Tarantula-870 Ballistic Cannons.
Quelle: https://robertsspaceindustries.com/comm-link/tran…pha-262-Is-LIVE
Star Citizen-Entwickler Cloud Imperium Games hat offenbar Druck auf das Magazin The Escapist ausgeübt und die Löschung zweier umstrittener Artikel zum Online-Weltraumspiel erreicht. Die Reportagen aus dem Jahre 2015 hatten Chef-Entwickler Chris Roberts…
Quelle: http://www.pcgames.de/Star-Citizen-P…oberts-1224590/
In this week’s episode, hosts Eric Kieron Davis and Steve Bender check in with Germany for their studio update and share part two of the Drake Buccaneer Ship Pipeline.
And for info on becoming a subscriber, go to: https://robertsspaceindustries.com/pledge/subscriptions
Quelle: https://robertsspaceindustries.com/comm-link/tran…round-The-Verse
Greetings Citizens
Externer Inhalt robertsspaceindustries.comInhalte von externen Seiten werden ohne Ihre Zustimmung nicht automatisch geladen und angezeigt.Greetings Citizens!
Over the weekend, we invited wave three and four to the PTU to help us test Star Citizen Alpha 2.6.2. We’ve been receiving a lot of great feedback and Issue Council reports as we move closer to the imminent release to Live.
So, what’s going on this week?
Today’s Citizens of the Stars episode features community video-maker Athagen as our Citizen Spotlight guest, and QA Tester Andrew Hernando is in the hotseat for another installment of Quantum Questions.
Subscriber’s Town Hall is back this Tuesday! This time, Turbulent sits down to talk about Spectrum, the launcher, and more. We don’t get enough opportunities to highlight the amazing contributions Turbulent provides, and are excited about the chance for them to answer your questions.
On Wednesday, Senior Gameplay Engineer Mark Abent tackles a game crash in Spectator mode for our bi-weekly show, Bugmashers! If you’re into the nitty gritty of game development, this show will be right up your alley.
Thursday’s episode of Around the ‘Verse visits our Frankfurt Studio with Brian Chambers. This show continues to be one of the hottest sources for the latest news about Star Citizen’s development, and this week is no different.
Wrapping up the week is Happy Hour Museum. Our very own Ben Lesnick is dusting off the cobwebs on Wing Commander: Privateer! These streams are a great opportunity to learn more about the history of the games that make up Star Citizen’s DNA.
With that, we’ll see you in the ‘Verse.
Tyler Witkin
AKA Zyloh
Community ManagerThe Weekly Community Content Schedule
MONDAY, MARCH 27TH, 2017
Citizens of the Stars (https://www.youtube.com/user/RobertsSpaceInd/)TUESDAY, MARCH 28th, 2017
Weekly Lore Post (https://robertsspaceindustries.com/comm-link/spectrum-dispatch)
Subscriber’s Town Hall (https://www.twitch.tv/starcitizen)WEDNESDAY, MARCH 29th, 2017
Bugsmashers! (https://www.youtube.com/user/RobertsSpaceInd/)THURSDAY, MARCH 30th, 2017
Around the Verse (https://www.youtube.com/user/RobertsSpaceInd/)
Vault UpdateFRIDAY, MARCH 31st, 2017
Happy Hour Museum (https://twitch.tv/starcitizen)
RSI NewsletterCommunity Spotlight: March 27th, 2017 – Desktop Citizen
Externer Inhalt robertsspaceindustries.comInhalte von externen Seiten werden ohne Ihre Zustimmung nicht automatisch geladen und angezeigt.The amount of contributions we see submitted to the Community Hub and Forums on a daily basis continues to amaze us. Last week, we showed off some of the amazing things you are building; this week the theme is “Desktop Citizen,” highlighting cool wallpapers that you have created using concept art and in-game screenshots! Below you will find a few that the developers have as their desktop backgrounds in the office. Don’t forget to check the Community Hub for more and upvote your favorites. You just might see them here in the near future.
Doom_Bringer
Externer Inhalt robertsspaceindustries.comInhalte von externen Seiten werden ohne Ihre Zustimmung nicht automatisch geladen und angezeigt.Doom_Bringer has managed to capture an epic shot filled with vibrant colors. I don’t know about the rest of y’all, but this image immediately found a new home on my desktop.
IggyPi
Externer Inhalt robertsspaceindustries.comInhalte von externen Seiten werden ohne Ihre Zustimmung nicht automatisch geladen und angezeigt.IggyPi shares a screenshot highlighting the beautiful vista found outside of Astro Armada. You can’t help but stop, and stare out into the distance.
Archangel_666
Externer Inhalt robertsspaceindustries.comInhalte von externen Seiten werden ohne Ihre Zustimmung nicht automatisch geladen und angezeigt.Archeangel_666 has taken a screenshot that surely makes all 350R pilots proud!
Oni-Ni-Kanabo
Externer Inhalt robertsspaceindustries.comInhalte von externen Seiten werden ohne Ihre Zustimmung nicht automatisch geladen und angezeigt.Oni-Ni-Kanabo captured dozens of images that truly called to the inner-pirate in me. Make sure to check out the full album here.
Quelle: https://robertsspaceindustries.com/comm-link/citi…In-Star-Citizen
