Zitat von Star Citizen

Scramble Races, Marauding miners, and a Ship Shape pipeline report in this week’s update.

Quelle: https://robertsspaceindustries.com/comm-link/tran…round-The-Verse

Zitat von Star Citizen

Writer’s Note: The Knowledge of Good and Evil: Part Three was published originally in Jump Point 2.11. Catch up on the story by reading Part One and Part Two.

Then someone walks up to me.

“Oh, you ‘lone, Sister? Ain’ i’ late?” the man says.

Strangers don’t just walk up to you in Bazaar Street.

“Or ‘hapse you ain’ Sister. Null tha’. is i’ rat. Yeah. Gear rat. Street rat eve’.” The man had taken another few steps towards me and stopped again when I backed away.

What did he say? All the panic of a few minutes ago shoots back into my mind and stiffens my spine. I don’ eve’ got a slag.

I turn to look at the man for the first time. He’s rough and poor looking, but better dressed than I’d expected. He is shaved but unremarkable. I see the shadow of a face I remember well.

Boss Dirk.

“Ya remember me? Got. I remember you, rat. I remember that you owe me.”

Dirk and I face off outside the rail station. It’s dark now and only a few half-working shop signs illuminate the intersection we’re standing in. We’re like night and day. I’ve changed in every way imaginable and he looks just like he did back when I was a gear rat for him. The only difference is his clothes look newer. He’d gotten the jump on me and surprised me, but it seems like he’s wasting that. He’s just staring me dead in the eye with a grin on his face. He knows the score is 1-0 but it’s like he’s waiting for me to say something.

“Hello, Dirk.” I strip him of his title and acknowledge him at the same time. He flinches. I put on my best imitation of Mom Super’s passive expression and purposefully study him back.

Score: 1-1

“I knew i’, bu’ my boys didn’ believe i’. See . . . ‘m know you are smar’ rat. Got lock on tha’ long time ago. Yeah, a long time ago, green eyes. Never could hide those, could ya?”

Damn it. What did he mean about my eyes? Hell. Score: 2 – 1

“You know, debt like yours pile up over time. Interest. You los’ me a cool 20k cred deal long time ago an’ word on Bazaar says tha’ up got deals for mos’ tech’s except mine. Like ‘m got bad reputation on account a you.”

This is not good. Lost deals are more than their cred value and if what Dirk’s saying is true, I lost him a big break when that customer saw me beat up and blamed him. Chances are I never would have earned enough to pay him back. If I hadn’t been caught on the rail that day . . .

I hear footsteps behind me and feel the presence more than see it. Two others, at least. Unhappily close. I can’t let them get too close to me. Score: 3 – 1

“Three of you? I thought you were more of a man than that, Dirk.” The thugs stop where they are.

Dirk’s damn stare hasn’t left me. I can’t break focus or he’ll think I’m weak or can’t hold my nerve.

“I don’t have what you think I have, Dirk. No credits to my name. The Sisters don’t use them. Even this coat’s borrowed. I’m not good looking enough to sell for a slave. I’m not a rat anymore. So you have a deal to make or are you just sucking O2?” Straight bluff. Better than nothing. Score: I’m losing bad.

He laughs, looking away long enough for me to steal a glance at each of the thugs. Big boys, them.

I feel the sting of it before I realize what’s happening. Dirk’s backhand knocks me down. I clutch my face in pain and shock, knowing that if more is coming, I can’t stop it.

“Tha’ wha’ you think, rat? Tha’ them Sisters none work with creds? Wha’ you think all tha’ information them got for, looks? Sister’s got high-up clients. Keep ‘em secrets. Sell ‘em info. Manipulate people with damn information. Smug bitches.” He spits and takes his time before he looks at me again. “How ya think ‘em keep lights on an’ meals cooked? Null tha’ free. Rat like you supposed ta know tha’. Got some ta teach you with, rat. An’ them Sister’s got ‘nough ta paid wha’ you owe me.”

“You can go to hell.”

His eyes are burning with hate. “Won’ hurt for me ta keep eyes ou’ on them rats you school some. Jus ta make sure them null gettin’ hurt none. Wouldn’ wan’ tha’, would ya, green eyes?”

Dirk’s thug pulls the child I’d stayed to help out from the shadows. A huge black eye and bruises on his arms.

“Le’ me go, ya slag fak.” The kid fights against Dirk’s grip. Dirk slaps him hard.

I nearly scream at the sight of it. The kid just wants to learn something and these abusing faks are treating him like a piece of currency.

“Wha’ ya got say ‘bout knowin’ if ya don’t do wha’ ‘m tell ya there be more a tha same for tha whole lot a ‘em?”

He reaches into a pocket and pulls out a cube bigger than a fist and tosses it at me. I catch it and one of the corners jabs me in the palm.

“Take tha’ and pu’ i’ nex’ ta tha Sister’s precious Vault. Press tha’ button an’ wait till i’ blink at ya. Don’ mess with i’. Don’ scan i’. Don’ be rough with i’. I’ come back broke, or messed with or wrong an’ i’ gonna be them rats tha’ get i’. Like this one.” Dirk shakes the child by the arm.

I’ve got to distract them so the child can get away. I won’t have more of this on my hands. I don’t know how I’m going to do that flat on my back, but I have to think of something.

I see five figures come out from around the corner and suddenly they are running toward the scene Dirk and I are making. If they’re not more of Dirk’s men, then they might be slavers or worse. I brace and get ready to jump up and sprint.

I tense my body for the jump to my feet but stop as I recognize the silhouette of Sisters in their habits with hoods up. The five black-clad figures surround me.

The commotion is almost enough to distract Dirk and the child pulls hard once, but can’t break free.

The Sisters all look the same with their hoods up, but one speaks directly to Dirk. “What are you doing with that child?” Dirk grins and lets go. The kid runs for it.

The child’s departure is hardly acknowledged by his thugs as I sigh with relief. I remember the cube I’m holding and stash it in my large coat pocket.

“Whatever your business was here, it is done.”

Dirk spits on her shoe. “Null, bu’ i’ is now. See ya a’ nex’ school, Sisters.”

My attackers leave without another word. A Sister offers me a hand. “Are you all right?” she asks.

“Yeah, mostly.” Shock is starting to wear off and I start to tremble a bit.

The Sisters move to support me. “Time to get you home.”

* * *

I stagger into my room and collapse. What the hell am I doing? How could I have gotten cornered out in the open? And Dirk knew who I was and that I live with the Order and . . .

I notice the cube thing in my pocket and feel compelled to take it out. 5×5×5 cm, only one button, and gloss black. Like nothing I’ve ever worked on before.

No big deal, right? Nothing I shouldn’t handle on my own. Nothing in the Library can hurt anyone. It’s just old stuff. Barely anything worth stealing unless you really like old gear and reading.

But that damn Vault.

All I’ve got to do is set the thing up in the Library and turn it on. It will do whatever the hell it wants. But the rats will be safe. Dirk said they will be.

If I don’t go along . . . The fak threatened my school and my kids.

But I’m doing this to keep the school open. Mom Super would understand, if I told her. And I just need to turn the thing on. Put it near the Vault. Easy enough. And if I get caught . . . I’m doing it to keep the school open. Mom Super would understand.

Dirk’s threat hounds me.

The Sisters talk about information and the sacred freedom, but have got a giant secret vault thing in the middle of it all. What the hell is that all about? And what Dirk said about selling information and high-class clients and the Sisters’ manipulation of people?

Somehow, I don’t feel as safe as I used to, even in my own room. Feels like I’m being watched by Dirk or the walls or god, but that doesn’t make sense.

The cube is black like a shadow, and I can’t stop looking at it every other second. Snatching it, I put it in my desk drawer and close it. I let out the breath I didn’t know I’d been holding. Amazing how such a small gadget can carry so much trouble.

The knock at the door makes me jump, but the pattern is familiar. “Come in.”

Mom Super comes in looking concerned. “I’ve heard you had a run in with some rough men. Are you all right?”

“It was just an old misunderstanding, that’s all.”

“The bruise on your cheek and the situation you were found in speaks otherwise, young one.”

“Really, it was nothing. I just need to be more careful not to be in Bazaar after dark. That sort of thing happens all the time if you’re not careful, and I just made a mistake. Nothing to worry about.”

“All right. I will leave you to attend to yourself. If you have more you wish to talk about, I am always willing to.”

As the door closes behind her I know that Mom Super has more questions for me then she asked. I know I have more questions than I know how to ask.

Just sitting here thinking about . . . all the “whys.” I’m sweating. Fear, anger and shame all mixed into a toxic knot in my chest.

I get up and open my closet. The floor is mostly clean. I push what’s there aside and crawl in. After what feels like hours I finally nod off in the only place I can think of to run to, and it doesn’t help. Null a secure ‘gainst your own mind. Don’t exist, that.

Suddenly I hear my young voice in my head, “Ask the ‘why’s’ an’ you dies.”

Like hell am I going to let threats and street rhymes start running my life again.

I get up from the floor of my closet and go over and open my desk drawer. I take stock of my options for a moment before I grab the cube and sit down at my work bench.

I’ll start with passive scans.

* * *

Days have never felt as long as these do. I can barely eat. I’ve come up with nothing. Passives show nothing my eyes couldn’t already tell me. The case is sealed tight. Even the button seems to be formed into the glass. No seams or joints to pry open. I haven’t been this frustrated since I had to study Biology.

Things start to take a toll on me as I realize how trapped I am. I’m flying blind without more information. Dirk can hold his threat against the street children over me for years and continually get me to cooperate. It’s too late to tell Mom Super. I still need answers though, and what he said about the Sisters has me doubting everything I know about them.

I get Mom Super alone in the meal hall after dinner the third night. “Mom Super, can I ask you about some things I’ve been wonder . . . thinking about?”

“Of course you may, young one. I will answer as best I can.”

If I ask too directly about what Dirk said I’ll give myself away, but I have to look inquisitive like I’ve been holding questions back.

“Only a few things I guess. It’s hard not to, ya know? Things just come up. Like, what do you do with all the information you collect besides study it and put it on shelves?”

“We sell it, or many times give it away. Sometimes we simply keep it and do nothing at all with it.”

That one stuns me a bit as I test Dirk’s words against the ramifications of that claim. It sounds like a canned answer but it rings like the truth.

“How do you get all the stuff you collect in the Library? Just Pilgrimages?”

“Sometimes information is bequeathed to us. At times it is given freely. Other times it is given into our care at great price by the faithful or others. At times when information is received as confession, it is not to be released until morally necessary or after the confessor’s death, and then always without connection to that person. It is one of our most sacred duties to ensure such things are not lost, but to acquire them often requires that we allow some stipulation and even restriction to certain information. That is what we keep in the Holy Vault.”

“What does ‘morally necessary’ mean? I mean, what sort of thing could a person know that would be so important?”

“That is the first follow-up question you have asked.” Mom Super caught my genuine curiosity by the tail like a cat nabbing a mouse. I sit frozen, trying not to react.

“It’s a very good question,” she continues. I let out the breath I’m holding. “Information of itself does not have moral character. It is the situations and circumstances surrounding information that determine its moral value. If it would be morally wrong for us to withhold or suppress something about a crime or event, then we cannot withhold it. If we have been sworn to the confessional about something that has no influence on the world, then that is reserved for a time. It comes to subjective assessments at times, so we must remain humble and vigilant of our own biases.”

That’s close to what Dirk described, but a whole lot different. “But what if information from the Vault or confessional or whatever would hurt people? Even if you released it for the right reasons? To manipulate things?”

Shit, did I just say that out loud?

“Is that something you’ve heard, young one?”

“Just once, Mom Super.”

For a split second, I think I see a tiredness on her face like I haven’t seen before. Maybe it’s sadness. After I blink, it’s not there anymore.

“Whenever the Order releases information from the confessional vault early, it must always have some sort of effect. If it were to mean nothing, then there would be no reason to release it. Those who entrust their secrets to us have the utmost faith in our stewardship and discretion.” Mom Super sighs and takes a larger breath than normal. “Some may see what we do as manipulation or meddling. Perhaps especially if they are on the wrong side of what is revealed. That too would be subjective, I think.”

Dirk had only given me a half truth and twisted it besides.

“That has to be really hard. Who decides if that happens?”

“I do,” Mom Super says quietly. “I think I will retire, young one. You should rest as well. Street school seems to take much out of each week.”

Even without trying to figure out what just happened to Mom Super, I’ve got a lot to parse. The Sisters do sell information, but it’s not back-alley trades like Dirk wanted me to think. Sure the info from the Vault changes things when it gets released, or the Sisters wouldn’t lock it away. They’ve even got a hang-up about the freedom of info, so it’s got to be a big deal that the Vault exists at all. If it’s all true, what she just told me changes everything but doesn’t make anything easier.

Cracking tough eggs is what a gear rat does, but it will mean covering all my tracks after I hack into the thing. I don’t call myself a gear rat anymore, but I sure as hell still have skills. More even, than I ever had as a rat, thanks to Mom Super.

I head back to my room. I can’t be stupid about this, but if what Mom Super said is true, then I can’t let Dirk have what he wants. A set of antennae and a mobiGlas can do a whole lot if you know how to make them dance right.

* * *

My active scanning finally shows me the innards of the thing, but what’s there doesn’t make sense. Why would you make a piece of equipment with a decryption suite, a tiny swap drive, a transmitter, and a power supply that will only last a few days? There’s no storage drive that could hold any reasonable amount of information. It doesn’t have the gear to transmit the information out to somewhere else.

I decide to turn it on. The cube starts to send signals on the same frequency that I’m used to seeing on my readouts when I’m near the Vault. So that matches up, but too much still doesn’t.

I set my scraped-together diagnostic tool to imitate the Vault’s transmissions, my room being far enough away that I’m certain the cube can’t actually reach the real Vault with so little power. The cube’s transmissions start to cycle through known encryption handshakes. It’s trying to connect, all right. I pick a protocol that’s old and obscure for my decoy to use and wait. Almost two hours of nothing, then it happens. A sudden spike in the communication between the cube and my imitation Vault transmitter. Then suddenly nothing. And my gear stops responding.

My setup is wiped clean. I panic and turn off my mobiGlas as fast as possible, hoping the wipe routine didn’t jump the link to my more precious hardware. The cube’s indicator light blinks three times and goes off, like an acknowledgement of what just happened.

It’s an info-nuke! Dirk doesn’t want to steal anything from the Vault. He’s trying to destroy it!

My mind starts racing. Why would he do that? The information in the Vault has to be valuable, but you can’t sell something you’ve destroyed. Dirk’s only good for petty theft.

I stop and think about what I know about Dirk and realize it’s all old information. Not as useful or complete as I would want. I’ve been assuming I knew what he wants.

Why should I care what he wants; this is an attack on the Sisters and feels all wrong.

* * *

I don’t sleep. Can’t sleep. I have to figure out why Dirk would want to wipe out the Vault. I have to get this cube back to Dirk and keep everything away from Mom Super. I . . .

I can’t do this. I can’t take this into the Library. I can’t betray the Sisters and Mom Super. I won’t. I’ll find some other way to protect the children. They’re street rats, maybe just warning them could be enough. What if it’s not?

I have to break into the operating system of the cube and find out more about it. That might show me what’s really going on.

The operating system turns out to be a labyrinth. This should be delicate work and I’m doing it with a sledge hammer. There’s no time to be more careful. Every time I make too many mistakes it tries to wipe out whatever device I have connected to it. Whoever made this used some high-caliber tech and didn’t skimp on accessories. Expensive, that. More than Dirk could afford, that’s for damn sure.

I know I have to give it back to Dirk and he’s sure to have some way to look at whether it’s done its job. Eventually, I find what I expect. Log files of everything it’s done and every connection attempt and signal received since it was turned on. I even see the entry for the wipe it did of my original decoy. Still no clue as to why it exists or who made it. I edit the logs about my intrusion. Then I find a hidden partition with more logs. Then I discover a second operating system that only runs when the device isn’t connected to anything. I sandbox that and get it to boot and find a whole new set of log files and double checks I bypass or change. I work forty-eight hours straight trying to make sure Dirk can’t detect what I’ve done and leave the record of the falsely completed Vault wipe intact.

Then, just before I start my last script to cover my tracks in the software, I decide to run a full power scan of the insides again and take stock of what’s there.

And I find something extra. After a while of looking at it I figure the only thing it can be, a write-once memory chip. The kind that only allows you to put information on it once and then it’s stored permanently.

If there are logs of what I did that the system put there before I could stop it, then I’m screwed and Dirk will know everything I’ve done and all my work to fake this is worthless.

* * *

The write-once memory on top of my guilt, the lack of sleep, and a bit of desperation push me to decide I’m going to stand up to him. I have to tell him I won’t do this. To hell with him finding out that I’ve played with his toy. I’m not going to let myself get bullied by some low life and his thugs. I can warn the children and then they can take care of themselves until I come up with something better. I’m sure word’s gotten out around the rat camps by now to stay away from Dirk.

Taking the ride to Bazaar Street feels different. Maybe it’s the cube in my pocket. The rail car seems hot, but I’m the only one sweating. I’ve got a plan and an angle. There is even a slim chance of a way out. Walking out of the rail car, the open air is chilled. The Sisters and I head towards Work Row.

There are still children there waiting for school to start, even in this cold. I make a mental note to bring jackets and some heat units next week as we set up.

The end of the alley darkens as three men stand blocking the way. I recognize them instantly. Dirk and his muscle.

The other Sisters look at me. This is still my turf to them, and they must not recognize them as the men who attacked me. I tell them to keep unpacking and go to face the trio alone, but two Sisters follow me. At least this time I have backup nearby and a way out behind me.

They form up behind me. A sign of support. A chip in the game of appearances that poor people play. They’ve come to my aid, and I almost betrayed them to Dirk’s five cubic centimeter invasion.

Dirk locks on to them right away. “‘m got talk ta green eyes ‘lone. You others can outbound.”

“Yours first,” I say.

Dirk shifts attention to me then gives a nod. The two thugs turn around and walk back around the corner, with one keeping an eye down the alley.

I give the Sisters my best try at a reassuring smile. They bow slightly and return to the work of settling the children for school a little further away. My hand reaches into my pocket for the cube. It’s like holding a loaded gun I don’t have control of. I swallow down my emotions and set my feet as I stop in front of them.

I look my old boss dead in the eye, “I won’t do it, Dirk.”

Everything is very still and very dangerous for what feels like minutes.

“Ya know, ‘m think you smart some, green eyes. Guess not. Them rats gonna pay for this.”

I look over my shoulder again at the students. “They aren’t rats. They’re children.”

I return my attention to Dirk and barely see the shock pistol before it fires. My body convulses as I black out.

* * *

I wake up to the sound of crying and someone shaking me. I finally get my eyes open and sit up. Pain racks my body so much I almost puke. My eyes are adjusting to the darkness. Darkness? The shock pistol. Must have been out for hours. I see two sisters huddled together. One is where the crying is coming from. The other is consoling her.

I look around the normally orderly alley and see chaos. Clothes and scraps of clothes. Debris scattered.

And blood. Too much blood. I look at myself and the Sisters again. None of it seems to be from us.

I make it to my feet without falling back down and stumble over the a stack of crates in the middle of the empty area we normally use for our classroom. On it is a note.

“I’ve got your rats. Do it or they die.”

Oh God.

It’s me that cries now.

* * *

The rail ride back is endured alone in my own head, as my mind fills with panic and rage. Why couldn’t I have just done what Dirk told me to? The rail car races its way along, but I silently will it faster.

Half running into the warm halls of the convent should have made me feel relief, but it only heaps on dread as I recognize one of our number heading off in the direction of Mom Super’s rooms. Most likely to tell her what happened. I don’t have time to think about that though, Dirk’s threats are real now. He’s changed more than I realized.

The others shepherd me to my room and at least one stays outside the door as I stumble through it. The uncommon sound of rushing feet comes down the hall just before Mom Super bursts in. She has right to do that anywhere in the convent, but she usually knocks on my door.

“Young one, are you all right? I’ve been told you and the others were confronted by a group of rough men. What happened? What did they want?”

Mom Super, panicked? I have to deflect this now.

“The Sisters report children have been injured or taken away by the same men who attacked you. Can you explain this?”

“Some thugs jumped us. They want us to shut down the school. We have to pay some sort of protection money and they’ll leave us alone. That’s all.”

Mom Super’s not buying it, “I don’t see how you could be this casual, young one. This is not some old secret of circumstance you should be keeping alone. You must tell me what they really wanted. Violence almost befell the Sisters on your behalf as well. That makes this a matter for the whole of this Order. It is a step too far to believe those men want only to extort some . . .”

“I’m taking care of it, all right! The kids are gonna be safe. It’s just thugs.”

I haven’t flown off the handle like that in years. Mom Super can see the wall I never let her past, and acknowledges it with a stern look.

“You want me to take your word without any explanation when I should be calling the authorities. I am charged with the safety of this Order and its members. What of these children? Is it so that you can protect them but you cannot protect yourself?”

“I’m taking care of it,” I repeat.

“I have a responsibility I cannot ignore. I should have already reported the assault and possible kidnapping. The police will have to know sooner or later.”

“The police getting into it will be a death warrant for those kids. You told me you wanted me to help you bridge the gap into Bazaar Street because you can’t understand it and I can. I’m the only one that can get those kids back.”

“What choice do I have then?” She pauses. “I expect to be told what has happened after it is settled.” Mom Super looks at me hard for a moment longer than comfortable and then leaves in anger.

Damn it all, she had to even bring trust into this? I feel the cube in my pocket nagging at me. I have to do it. Damn you to hell, Dirk.

* * *

I’ll have to wait a few hours till everyone is asleep. Mom Super’s suspicion means I’ll be watched if I try and go to the library now, and I can’t let anyone stop me. I lie down but can’t rest. Minutes pass as slow as hours, and my skin itches as the waiting ticks on. My alarm goes off and I roll out of bed feverish to be about my task.

The halls are empty as I make the trek to the library entrance. I’m half surprised when it opens for me. The lights in the library are dimmed to night settings. Weaving through the stacks to the Vault I see no one and jump at every sound.

I pull the cube out from the bag I’m carrying it in and place it on the desk nearest the Vault.

Even through the pain and fatigue induced haze I still stop my finger above the button just before I press it. I have to do this. For the children. I can’t wait or they’ll die. I close my eyes.

“Forgive me,” I say. Like the prayers the Sisters use, but to myself more than anything. Someone else responds as I feel a hand close around my wrist.

“Forgive you for what?”

TO BE CONTINUED…

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Fan art by STARMEDIC

Hello everyone,

Last week saw the reveal of our latest concept ship, the RSI Apollo. No matter how dire the circumstances, this rapid response medical ship provides critical aid and is available in the pledge store until August 22nd. Check out the Ship Shape and RTV to learn more about this Guardian Angel, or post in our Q&A questions gathering thread if there are still questions you want to see answered. We’ll collect the top-voted questions, present them to our designers and post the answers in a Comm-Link soon.

Did you crack the 100,000 points yet? You have until the end of today (11:59 PM PDT), to reach a score of 100,000 points or more in the retro-inspired Astromedic browser game, unlock the Guardian Angel badge, and enter a prize draw for an RSI Apollo Astromedic ship pack. Good luck to everyone and don’t be afraid to share your score in the comments below!

And before we come to this week’s schedule, let me point you to a new thread on Spectrum. You know that we’re always on the lookout for incredible Star Citizen gameplay experiences, so we created a place for you to share your favorite Twitch/YouTube clips, that might be highlighted in our shows or even showed off in our development studios. We’ll post a new thread each week and want to thank everyone who already submitted their clips last week.

With that, let’s see what’s going on this week:

Play the Astromedic browser game and enter a prize draw for an RSI Apollo Astromedic ship pack until tonight at 11:59 PM Pacific. You can continue play the game and unlock the badge until the end of the promotion.

Every week on Calling All Devs, designers, engineers and other developers from our five offices around the world answer backer questions submitted on Spectrum and voted for by YOU. Today, we’ll welcome Calling All Papys, Part II, an all-Papy themed episode where Live Game Director Todd Papy answers your questions!

On Tuesday, the Lore Team will publish The Knowledge of Good and Evil: Part Three. If you missed the previous parts, you can read up on them here.

Thursday will welcome another episode of Around the Verse where we’ll take a look at the latest Star Citizen news with a project update.

Lastly, make sure to tune in on Friday for another episode of Reverse the Verse, broadcast live at 12PM Pacific on our Star Citizen Twitch channel. Stay tuned for further information about who our special guests will be and keep an eye on Spectrum for the Questions Thread!

Stay shiny! We’ll see you in the ‘Verse.

Ulf Kuerschner
Community Manager

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The Weekly Community Content Schedule

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MONDAY, JULY 23RD, 2018
Calling All Devs (https://www.youtube.com/user/RobertsSpaceInd/)

TUESDAY, JULY 24TH, 2018
Weekly Lore Post (https://robertsspaceindustries.com/comm-link/spectrum-dispatch)

WEDNESDAY, JULY 25TH, 2018
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THURSDAY, JULY 26TH, 2018
Around the Verse (https://www.youtube.com/user/RobertsSpaceInd/)
Vault Update

FRIDAY, JULY 27TH, 2018
Reverse the Verse Live – 12 PM Pacific / 7 PM UTC (https://www.twitch.tv/starcitizen)
Roadmap Update
Jump Point – July Issue
RSI Newsletter

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Community MVP: July 23rd, 2018

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We are constantly amazed by the contributions made by the Star Citizen community. Whether it’s fan art, a cinematic, a YouTube guide, or even a 3D print of your favorite ship, we love it all! Every week, we select one piece of content submitted to the Community Hub and highlight it in this section. The highlighted content creator will be awarded with an MVP badge on Spectrum and be immortalized in our MVP section of the Hub.

Don’t forget to submit your content to our Community Hub for a chance at seeing it here!

Galactic Historian: UEE Government by TheAstroPub

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In this episode of Galactic Historian, TheAstroPub covers the most powerful empire in human history from the Star Citizen Universe, the United Empire of Earth.

Check out the full video on the Community Hub.

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Quelle: https://robertsspaceindustries.com/comm-link/citi…In-Star-Citizen

Zitat von Star Citizen

Ship Shape breaks out on it’s own! Host Jared Huckaby takes us on a tour of the ship making their way to the development pipeline with updates on the 890 Jump, the 300 series and an introduction to the new RSI Apollo medical ship.

Quelle: https://robertsspaceindustries.com/comm-link/tran…6683-Ship-Shape

Zitat von Star Citizen

A massive battle on Yela, flight improvements, and trouble at CryAstro in this week’s update.

Quelle: https://robertsspaceindustries.com/comm-link/tran…round-The-Verse

Zitat von Star Citizen

Scraping By

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In anticipation of the release of the Vulture, Drake Interplanetary has coordinated with Discovered to provide a number of experienced scavengers early models to test in the field. Chosen from a pool of hundreds of applicants, archaeologist Lorenzo Chernov proposed the exploration of a secluded debris field he discovered in the Idris system.

Here are excerpts from his logs.

BEGIN RECORDS:

2948.02.17_05:48 SET

Ok, here we go. Day one of exploring. Wonder what I should call this place. If this was an official UEE Archaeological Society expedition, it’d probably get something generic, like ‘Debris Field 8514J-Idris system’. At least I’ve landed on a name for this new salvage ship. I think they’re officially calling it the Vulture, but this one feels like Amaira to me. I’d like to give a big shout out to the folks at Drake for letting me try it out. Of course, they did have a bunch of stipulations, including that I record this audio log to track my adventures and what I like about the ship, what could be improved, and so on.

Plus, if this debris field is truly more than just a bunch of modern scrap, like I believe it is, then they’ll also get credit for making this mission happen. Definitely couldn’t run this op without Amaira’s help. No way I could afford to outfit the expedition with a Reclaimer, let alone the cost of crewing one.

I finished a general set of scans yesterday, so there’s a clear picture of how all the pieces were found. Analyzing them last night, I noticed a few larger pieces of detritus near the middle. They look like parts of a fuselage, maybe even a cockpit. They might be my best bet to determine what ships were involved, and more importantly, what era this wreckage is from. The debris is really dense around those pieces, so EVAing to them could be problematic. The last thing I want to do is upset the balance of materials and create a collision cascade. As Professor Haley used to say, “better to take your time than ruin the find.”

First thing this morning, I charted a path through the wreckage, but it’s going to take some work to get there. My initial estimate is that there are probably ten to fifteen ships here. Plus, there’s most likely additional material from vessels that were involved, but made it to safety.

Even though the picture isn’t clear yet, I get a gnawing feeling that this isn’t just the fallout of some racer kids gone stupid. Or a deal gone bad.

Then again, I’ve said that before…

All right, Amaira let’s get to work.

2948.02.28_20:34 SET

Amaira and I just returned from another run to Tanys. Sold the latest round of scrap and resupplied. Gotta remember to take the next load to a different shop. The desk jockey at Dumper’s remembered me and made conversation. Hopefully I didn’t say too much. Hate to have half the scrappers in the system turn up looking to score. I will say it was nice to talk to someone instead of just rambling into this thing all day long.

I probably didn’t need to leave Tanys heading in the wrong direction before making a series of random jumps back here. Mom always said I was overly cautious.

That applies here too. I’m doing everything by the book. EVAing over to every piece of debris, carefully scanning and cataloging it, and then determining if it’s worth saving or salvaging. So far, there’s been a lot less worth holding onto than I hoped. Nothing I’ve kept is actually important, just material sample for later analysis.

Oh wait, I almost forget, the Dumper’s clerk did mention something interesting. I guess the composition of the alloys I brought in last time was a bit unusual. I tried to play it cool and not press her for too many details, but that’s gotta be a good sign, right? I know ship manufacturers have adjusted their specs over the centuries thanks to technological advances, changes to their supply chain, or a whole bunch of other factors. A part of me wants to send a piece of debris for further analysis, but it’ll have to wait. I’m already cutting my budget pretty thin. The stuff I’m scrapping has been just enough to stay stocked on essentials and keep Amaira functional.

Honestly, I really couldn’t have done any of this without Amaira. So far I’ve got nothing but positive feedback on the Vulture. The tractor beam is super sticky, and the industrial-grade scraper chews through materials like a charm. Living quarters are even comfortable enough to make me forget I’m floating in some long-forgotten part of Idris, surrounded by a dozen or so ships that dueled to the death.

There is the smell, though. Not that it’s terrible, but if you folks at Drake do listen to this, couldn’t hurt to think about upgrading the O2 scrubbers a bit. Then again, maybe I’m just a little bit riper than average.

Time to grab a few hours of shut-eye, and get back to it.

2948.03.03_13:23 SET

Damn it, that did not go as planned.

Well, the good news is I was right. That big piece was definitely from a cockpit, looked like it was from an early Aegis ship too. Some of the control panel was still intact. Haven’t seen many like it, so I EVAed over for a better look.

That’s when I saw a piece of debris unlike any other, distinctly designed to look like a big feather. At that moment, I forgot all about the cockpit. That distinctive piece meant a Prowler was part of the wreckage.

Think I went woozy for a second before my rational brain began wondering about the cost to get the feather piece analyzed. There’s always a chance it’s a replica, since Esperia makes theirs so damn close to the real deal.

In my excitement, I redirected around the cockpit, completely forgetting that I hadn’t cleared the other side. For a second, I took my eyes off where I was going to change my suit’s scanner settings. Suddenly, I felt this dark presence above me. I looked up and slammed face first into a giant piece of metal debris.

It scared the hell out of me. I even thought I was partially blinded, only to later realize I’d cracked my faceplate. Luckily, the seal held. Needless to say, I overreacted. Course corrected back the way I came way too hard and way too fast. That slammed me into the cockpit piece, sending it spinning swiftly away, down the path I’d conveniently spent clearing these past weeks.

Everything inside of me wanted to take off after it. But that second collision really messed up my helmet. Guess I should’ve splurged for a better one, because this one started beeping about a ‘critical failure’, forcing me back here to patch it before it was too late.

I really messed up that last walk. That chunk of the cockpit is lost to the void and I didn’t even get a good scan of it. Still, I can’t stop smiling.

I think I’ve found a lost battle site from the First Tevarin War.

2948.03.03_22:09 SET

It took some work, but I got that piece of the Prowler into the hold. I don’t want to lose it, but it’s also taking up more space than I’d like. Keeping it back there will definitely cut into my bottom line when Amaira and I make runs to Tanys. Might have to find a place around here to leave it when heading back to civilization. It’s not an ideal solution, but I don’t want anyone to see it and start wondering why it’s not being scrapped. If I can swing the credits, it’d be worth setting up a mooring drone as a temporary fix. Then I could safely float any other large finds until I’m ready to hire a transport.

Despite the cockpit debacle earlier, I’d say today was a success. Tomorrow, I’ll start clearing a path to the piece that looks like it’s from a fuselage. Maybe I’ll find a few more pieces of the Prowler, if I’m lucky.

2948.03.08_01:36 SET

Well, I finally made it to that large piece of debris. It was definitely part of a fuselage. Spent hours inspecting it, but couldn’t find any maker’s marks. A part of me wanted to save it for further analysis, but to be honest, I really need the creds from the scrap. My trips to Tanys are becoming less and less frequent as I spend more time inspecting the stuff I’ve found. It’s becoming harder and harder to decide what’s worth saving and what’s safe to feed to the Vulture. Hell, it would’ve been nice if Drake had thrown in some supplies to save me the trouble, but I guess they wanted to see how she handled on the day-to-day.

Anyway, I felt bad having Amaira cut it into pieces, though I made sure it was properly scanned and cataloged before doing so. Despite the heartache, gotta say the scraping laser’s been a joy. Gonna take the scrap to Tanys tomorrow then come back here and keep searching.

2948.03.15_18:47 SET

Another day with nothing to report. Everything I came across was scrap. I figured by now I would have part of a component or something, anything, that could tell me more about what happened here. This is getting pretty darn frustrating.

Every day I stare at the Prowler piece and wonder when I’m going to find more. My working theory is that the rest of it was blown into unidentifiably small bits. Either way, based on the accumulated amount of wreckage I’ve found, if this is a lost battle site, then it’s pretty clear who came out on top.

To be honest, the lack of debris from Tevarin ships worries me. There’s a lingering fear that maybe this was just a random skirmish between gangs and one of them happened to have a new Prowler. I hope that’s not the case, but every day I don’t find something significant, I grow a little more worried that I’ve been wasting my time picking through random debris from a week ago.

I’m understanding why so many of my colleagues prefer digging planetside. The dating is so much easier.

2948.03.19_05:22 SET

Today was… well, technically yesterday, was the day I’ve been waiting for. After weeks of slowly shifting through random debris, I finally found something undeniably significant – a black box.

I rushed it back to Amaira and immediately started my examination. When the date of the last log popped up, I… ok, I’ll admit it, I freaked out. I screamed. I jumped around until I was out of breath. The last recorded date on it was October 1, 2544.

That’s right, not only is this wreckage from the First Tevarin War, it’s actually from the Battle of Idris IV. The infamous Operation Nemesis that was almost a complete disaster until a young Ivar Messer turned the tides of the battle and arguably the entire war.

Once I calmed down, I dug through the logs to figure out why these ships ended up all the way out here. From what I can tell, this spot became a rallying point. These ships fell back here to regroup after surviving the surprise attack by the Tevarin’s planetary defense system. I’m not exactly sure what happened once they were all here, but it obviously didn’t turn out well for them.

I really should get to sleep, but there are still so many things to figure out. Like, should I report the discovery right away, or wait until I’m done examining the entire debris field? Feels weird to walk away in the middle of exploring it, but I could probably land some grants to hire a proper crew. That would make examining the rest of the debris so much easier, but probably take months to organize. Not sure if I can handle waiting that long before finding out what else is out here…

I should really send my Mom a comm too. She’s gonna lose it when she finds out I was right. Maybe I should take Amaira back to Tanys tomorrow and send it via a secure comm to ensure it doesn’t get hacked. What… a… day!!

Lorenzo Chernov’s discovery brought further clarity to the fog of war surrounding the Battle of Idris IV. Careful examination of the discovered black box revealed that the wreckage was mainly members of the 12th Squadron. Their fate was previously unknown, though many historians assumed they had been destroyed by Tevarin planetary defenses. This site proved they had survived the initial assault and were in the midst of planning a counterstrike when they came under attack from Tevarin forces.

Though the Prowler debris proved to be authentic, no other Tevarin ship pieces were found. While the site clarified the fate of the 12th Squadron, it is hoped that further research may reveal how they were so handily wiped out in this small corner of space. The recovered ship remains have been transferred to the Naval Museum on MacArthur, where plans are in progress for them to be placed on display.

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Quelle: https://robertsspaceindustries.com/comm-link/spec…RED-Scraping-By

Zitat von Star Citizen

Der Spieler "firefly212" wollte von Cloud Imperium Games eine Rückerstattung in Höhe von 4.500 Dollar, die er in Star Citizen investiert hat, und zog deswegen sogar vor Gericht. Aufgrund seiner Erkrankung an Multipler Sklerose befürchtete er, das Spiel…

Quelle: http://www.pcgames.de/Star-Citizen-S…attung-1260965/

Zitat von Star Citizen

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Hello everyone,

Last week we opened up Wave 2 of CitizenCon tickets, which are now available through July 30th. Alongside Wave 2, we also updated the RSI website with a new hub to meet all your CitizenCon needs. We’ll continue to add new content and information as we approach the event.

We closed out the week with the conclusion of our Origin 600i Commercial Contest. With 46 commercials submitted, this was one of the toughest competitions to judge yet. Alas the votes are in and the dust has settled – congratulations to the winners!

With that, let’s see what’s going on this week:

The Alpha 3.2 Flyable Ships promotion ends tonight at 11:59 PM Pacific, so if you’re looking to pick up one of the latest additions to the Star Citizen universe, you still have time.

Every week on Calling All Devs, designers, engineers and other developers from our five offices around the world answer backer questions submitted on Spectrum and voted for by YOU. Today, we shake things up and take full advantage of Live Game Director Todd Papy being in town with an all-Papy themed episode, available to watch now.

Tuesday is lore day! The Lore Team will publish another in-fiction story to help cure your craving for more Star Citizen lore. Check out previously published lore posts here.

Thursday will welcome another episode of Around the Verse where we’ll take a look at the latest Star Citizen news with a project update.

Lastly, make sure to tune in this Friday at 9AM PDT / 4PM UTC for another episode of Reverse the Verse, broadcast live on our Star Citizen Twitch channel. This Friday’s show is coupled with an all new edition of Ship Shape that you won’t want to miss. Word on the street is that there may be some hints about what to expect in this week’s episode of Calling All Devs.

Have a great week! We’ll see you in the ‘Verse.

Tyler Witkin
Lead Community Manager

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The Weekly Community Content Schedule

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MONDAY, JULY 16TH, 2018
Calling All Devs (https://www.youtube.com/user/RobertsSpaceInd/)

TUESDAY, JULY 17TH, 2018
Weekly Lore Post (https://robertsspaceindustries.com/comm-link/spectrum-dispatch)

WEDNESDAY, JULY 18TH, 2018
-

THURSDAY, JULY 19TH, 2018
Around the Verse (https://www.youtube.com/user/RobertsSpaceInd/)
Vault Update

FRIDAY, JULY 20TH, 2018
Reverse the Verse Live – 9AM Pacific / 4PM UTC (https://www.twitch.tv/starcitizen)
Roadmap Update
RSI Newsletter

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Community MVP: July 16th, 2018

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We are constantly amazed by the contributions made by the Star Citizen community. Whether it’s fan art, a cinematic, a YouTube guide, or even a 3D print of your favorite ship, we love it all! Every week, we select one piece of content submitted to the Community Hub and highlight it in this section. The highlighted content creator will be awarded with an MVP badge on Spectrum and be immortalized in our MVP section of the Hub.

Don’t forget to submit your content to our Community Hub for a chance at seeing it here!

Star Citizen Icons for Stream Deck by Replic_TuaniOne

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Replic has taken the time to create a set of Star Citizen themed icons for use with Elgato’s Stream Deck. With their submission quickly gaining popularity throughout the week, it was an easy decision for this week’s MVP!

Details on the Community Hub.

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Quelle: https://robertsspaceindustries.com/comm-link/citi…In-Star-Citizen

Zitat von Star Citizen

From turret improvements to environmental storytelling, get the scoop on what’s happening in Star Citizen now, as well as what the devs are working on for future patches.

Quelle: https://robertsspaceindustries.com/comm-link/tran…round-The-Verse

Zitat von Star Citizen

Humanity’s first maps were of the stars. Created millennia ago, they were dots charting the night sky painted upon cavern walls on Earth. One wonders if those original mapmakers ever imagined that one day their descendants would get to visit those stars?

Though the methods have drastically changed, the Imperial Cartography Center (ICC) carries on that proud tradition of charting celestial objects. This UEE government agency is best known for their Deep Space Scanning & AstroGraphical Stations that search for jump points and for the elite Stellar Surveyors unit that assesses newly discovered systems. Yet, the responsibilities and reach of the ICC extend far beyond those two departments. From working with the Ark to keeping the Starmap current, to tracking the Baer comet as it crosses the Stanton System, the Imperial Cartography Center is essential to modern space travel.

Expanding Space

Once Nick Croshaw successfully piloted his ship through the first jump point, aspiring explorers flooded the stars, obsessed with helping Humanity expand its reach ever farther. However, the nascent days of space exploration were fraught with danger. Experimental and unreliable equipment paired with a vast, uncharted expanse led to the tragic disappearance of many.

Humanity grappled with how to govern their growing domain. The various national institutions had not yet unified, so there were few protocols in place to deal with the discovery of new systems. That led to Nemo’s 2364 discovery date coming into question during a famous legal case where two companies argued over who owned the coordinates for the jump into the system from Fora. Meanwhile, the government hid the discovery of Banshee, in 2317, from the public for years out of fear that its powerful pulsar was a safety concern.

After the United Nations of Earth finally formed in 2380, they incentivized explorers to report their discoveries to the government, but left the private sector to chart new systems. This occurred because a contingent of prominent and powerful politicians was dedicated to keeping the new UNE government as lean and efficient as possible. They believed an industry within the private sector would rise to fill the gap, and they were right.

For a few centuries, this arrangement worked relatively well. Initially, there were numerous cartography companies with the ships and technology to chart systems. However, it wasn’t long before conglomerates acquired the most promising firms and slowly pushed out the rest. A few non-profit and academic institutions survived the culling and continued to provide detailed maps to the public for free or at a nominal cost. But due to a lack of funding, their products often took years to reach the market after a new system was discovered.

For the Public Good

Over the years, the government received an increasing number of complaints against cartography companies for egregious inaccuracies or tiered pricing schemes that made detailed maps inaffordable to many consumers. One particular heinous example was when the Monroe Mapping Concern left a whole asteroid field off a map of Hadrian since they had promised exclusivity to a mining company. This led a number of politicians to lobby for increased oversight. It finally reached a tipping point with the Pallas incident. After discovering Pallas, Gaia Planet Services failed to properly scan the system before attempting to terraform Pallas III. Only then did they discover it was already occupied by the Xi’An, an unknown species at the time. Realizing regulations were needed to govern the charting of new systems, the Government Cartography Agency (GCA) was created in 2531.

Initially, the GCA was tasked with charting and scanning all new systems and ensuring that the most current geospatial information was available to the public. When Ivar Messer empowered himself as Imperator in 2546, he realized that the GCA was in a key position to control the knowledge of the known universe. Not long after he was sworn in, private mapmakers got word to shutter their operations. Mapmaking was nationalized, and the GCA renamed the Imperial Cartography Center.

Under Ivar Messer, an astronomical amount of credits was poured into the ICC. Companies with strong ties to the Messer regime received massive orders for top-of-the-line scanning equipment and were granted no-bid contracts to construct deep-space scanning stations. The ICC quickly embedded itself into a number of government agencies and organizations including, most importantly, the military. Deep-space scanning stations kept an eye on Perry Line systems and, eventually, helped monitor Vanduul clans on the western front. Without any private sector competition, the ICC became an essential agency and earned a degree of autonomy not afforded other agencies under Messers’ rule.

Eventually, the ICC put that political independence to use. In 2715, three years after the fall of Orion to the Vanduul, Messer VIII ordered the system and all jumps to it removed from the UEE’s non-military maps for the public good. ICC Director Loretta De Biasio refused, claiming that it would be more dangerous for people in systems connected to Orion not to know exactly where a clan of Vanduul might suddenly appear.

The Imperator was infuriated by the ICC’s defiance and threatened to drastically slash the agency’s budget. But making matters worse for the Imperator, prominent members of the military came to De Biasio’s defense. Some even threatened to resign if she were fired or the agency’s budget struck with draconian cuts. There’s evidence that retaliatory measures were planned against De Biasio for her disobedience, but Messer VIII was stabbed to death in his bed before they were enacted.

And so even though the ICC was long associated with the Messers, it survived their downfall. The agency had ingrained themselves too deeply into the fabric of the Empire to be discarded. It had also displayed enough independence to avoid the name change many other agencies received to erase associations with a darker time. Today, the ICC scans for jump points from their numerous stations, provides data to The Ark to keep the Starmap current, and much more.

Stellar Surveyors

The ICC is also home to one of the most prestigious scientific organizations — the Stellar Surveyors. This elite unit composed of multi-talented individuals from both the public and private sector are the first to visit and chart new systems after they are discovered. In the early 30th century, their assessment of Stanton convinced politicians that it would be perfect for a system-wide business park. Recently, they discovered the Kabal System only to find abandoned Tevarin cities on Kabal III. They’ve also been up against their most difficult challenge ever — exploring and mapping the Tamsa System and the black hole at its center.

“Charting the Way Ahead” may be the motto of the Stellar Surveyors, but it’s also an appropriate maxim for the entire ICC. Whether standing up the Messers or finding jump points that introduce the UEE to new worlds, the ICC clearly has its sights set on the future.

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Quelle: https://robertsspaceindustries.com/comm-link/spec…tography-Center

Zitat von Star Citizen

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Hello everyone,

Last week the team published the Monthly Studio Report for June, bringing you insight into what all of our studios have been working on. If you haven’t yet, check it out to see what was accomplished throughout June, including the live release of Star Citizen Alpha 3.2.

With our latest contest, we’re asking you to help us celebrate one of the recent additions to the flyable fleet in Star Citizen: the Origin Jumpworks 600i. Craft the next great 600i commercial for a chance to win superb prizes, including a standalone Aegis Eclipse with complimentary Lifetime Insurance.

With the Drake Vulture concept promotion in full effect until July 18th, we recently released the Q&A on Drake’s dirty bird. Head over to the Comm-Link and see the answers to the top-voted community questions on this unique industrial salvage ship.

With that, let’s see what’s going on this week:

Every week on Calling All Devs, designers, engineers and other developers from our five offices around the world answer backer questions submitted on Spectrum and voted for by YOU. Today, we address questions regarding potential Arena Commander modes, the future of Item System 2.0, and creating missions for ships like the Hammerhead coming in Alpha 3.3. Look out for the new episode on our YouTube channel later today. As always: You can submit your questions for consideration in future episodes of Calling All Devs here.

Tuesday is lore day! The Lore Team will publish another in-fiction story to help cure your craving for more Star Citizen lore. Check out previously published lore posts here.

Thursday will welcome another episode of Around the Verse where we’ll take a look at the latest Star Citizen news with a project update.

Lastly, make sure to tune in on Friday at 12PM PDT / 7PM UTC for another episode of Reverse the Verse, broadcast live on our Star Citizen Twitch channel. This Friday’s show will be an RTV Gamedev. Join Character Concept Artist Jeremiah Lee as we create a new character concept LIVE with input from our viewers.

We’ll see you in the ‘Verse.

Ulf Kuerschner
Community Manager

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The Weekly Community Content Schedule

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MONDAY, JULY 9TH, 2018
Calling All Devs (https://www.youtube.com/user/RobertsSpaceInd/)

TUESDAY, JULY 10TH, 2018
Weekly Lore Post (https://robertsspaceindustries.com/comm-link/spectrum-dispatch)

WEDNESDAY, JULY 11TH, 2018
-

THURSDAY, JULY 12TH, 2018
Around the Verse (https://www.youtube.com/user/RobertsSpaceInd/)
Vault Update

FRIDAY, JULY 13TH, 2018
Reverse the Verse Live (https://www.twitch.tv/starcitizen)
Roadmap Update
RSI Newsletter

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Community MVP: July 9th, 2018

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We are constantly amazed by the contributions made by the Star Citizen community. Whether it’s fan art, a cinematic, a YouTube guide, or even a 3D print of your favorite ship, we love it all! Every week, we select one piece of content submitted to the Community Hub and highlight it in this section. The highlighted content creator will be awarded with an MVP badge on Spectrum and be immortalized in our MVP section of the Hub.

Don’t forget to submit your content to our Community Hub for a chance at seeing it here!

YELA – PART ONE by DeltaEcho50812

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Three days ago, Crusader Security received a distress call from an emergency shelter on Yela. There was a terrified woman on the call, begging for help. But when the security forces arrived, they found nothing but an empty shelter…

Watch Yela – Part One: The Shelter on the community hub.

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Quelle: https://robertsspaceindustries.com/comm-link/citi…In-Star-Citizen

Zitat von Star Citizen

Auf einem Bewertungsportal machte ein angeblicher Ex-Mitarbeiter auf Missstände beim Star Citizen-Entwickler Cloud Imperium Games aufmerksam. Das Problem dabei: Offenbar ist das Firmen-Review eine handfeste Fälschung. Dies behauptet jedenfalls John…

Quelle: http://www.pcgames.de/Star-Citizen-S…review-1260242/

Zitat von Star Citizen

Monthly Studio Report: June 2018

Welcome to Cloud Imperium Games’ Monthly Studio Report for June. This month, the team published Alpha 3.2, made progress on Squadron 42, and continued developing new systems, ships, and features for future releases. With that said, let’s dig into the details.

Los Angeles

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LOS ANGELES

VEHICLE FEATURES

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Mining was an exciting endeavor for the team this month, as they saw it come together to deliver a whole new gameplay element to Star Citizen. Working closely with designers and engineers in the EU studios, the team brought the scanning aspect of mining to life and into vehicles. They’re happy to add to the pool of activities that players can engage in, and hope everyone has fun searching the ‘verse for valuable resources.

Turrets were another large focus for the team this month. Manned turrets received some improvements, such as the ability to focus target a ship and the removal of the counterbalance speed restriction. Players can now also operate remote turrets in vehicles, which was implemented with the Item 2.0 System.

Moving into July, the team will polish what they delivered in Alpha 3.2 and continue work on the many things needed for 3.3.

VEHICLE PIPELINE

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The team proudly launched the Anvil Hurricane with 3.2 and look forward to feedback from the community as they take it out for a spin. A lot of blood, sweat, and tears went into the Hurricane by the Art, System Design, and Tech Art Teams in LA, who collaborated with other global teams to get it flying. Additionally, the Tech Art Team wrapped up their damage passes on the other new and updated ships: the Aegis Avenger, Aegis Eclipse, Origin 600i, and Esperia Blade. They can’t wait for you to blow these ships up!

Meanwhile, progress was made on other vehicles: the Consolidated Outland Mustang Alpha rework is art-complete and currently in the hands of the System Design Team. Additional Mustang variants are close to being handed over to System Design as well. Tumbril Cyclone variants also made great progress on the art side, while the System Design Team is working with Engineering on new tech to support their release. Finally, System Design worked closely with the Art Team in Austin to wrap up their greybox phase of the Constellation Phoenix.

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GAMEPLAY FEATURES

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The Gameplay Team was happy to see the Group System make it easier for players to match up and play together. Currently, the team is polishing the feature to give players the best experience possible. After witnessing the response, the team continues to plan ways to improve upon the ways players can interact with each other.

NARRATIVE

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The Narrative Team churned out a wide variety of content to flesh out and expand the Star Citizen universe. They released lore that highlighted commercials commonly seen on Spectrum in 2948 and featured an interview with controversial new Drake CEO, Anden Arden. Subscribers got to read the exciting final chapter of the new short story Hostile Negotiations, while a trip into the Jump Point archives saw the wide release of an Observist Dark focused on Grim HEX and the second chapter of The Knowledge of Good and Evil. Finally, June’s edition of the Subscriber magazine, Jump Point, explored the development of the Aegis Reclaimer, met the team behind the new mining mechanic, and explored the history of the MISC Prospector.

Behind the curtain, the team worked with design on further defining NPC behaviors like bartenders, bar patrons, security officers, and more. They fleshed out set dressing documentation to add further environmental storytelling to the PU and Squadron 42, wrote new mission text and clothing and armor descriptions. They wrote a number of articles slated to be included in the eventual release of the Galactapedia and provided copy for a myriad of community and marketing materials, including the Vulture promotion page and brochure.

CHARACTERS

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The Character Art Team finalized and released the Legacy Armor sets into the PU, as well as the new clothing that makes up the Olisar collection. The team appreciates the comments from the community – getting direct feedback from the players makes all the hard work worth it.

There are a few mission givers in development that are almost finalized, which you’ll see in the next quarterly release. The team is still committed to releasing everything that’s on the public roadmap, so work on other PU outfits and Hurston’s clothing collection are well underway.

With the PU getting a lot of attention this release, the upcoming month’s focus returns to Squadron 42 and its vast cast of characters. The team is creating levels with every character in a lineup, so they can see which outfit each one wears in a specific chapter.

As we saw in Around the Verse, a lot of development time went into the Vanduul armor, spear, and knife. Progress was also made on the updated flight suit and work was started on another major character.

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Austin

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AUSTIN

DESIGN

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Design was heavily invested on working through several issues remaining for quantum travel. This included helping groups travel together and tuning how quantum splines work to ensure an enjoyable experience when traveling from one side of a celestial body to another. Issues were also addressed to ensure that accidents between a moon’s surface and a ship moving at quantum speed are minimal.

While the majority of the team’s focus has gone towards improving the quantum travel experience, work has also gone into adjusting the economy by tuning rewards for missions, cargo deliveries, and mining runs. Work also progressed nicely on ensuring that bars in future releases feature a well-crafted and intelligent bartender to make the experience fun and believable. Although it’s still in the early stages, Design is excited about the first iteration coming to a PU pub near you!

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BACKEND SERVICES

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The Backend Services Team grew as a new engineer joined to help with the rewrite of Services under the new Diffusion Architecture. Several Services have already been rewritten while support for the legacy architecture continues. This month focused on taking the legacy p-cache and breaking it up into smaller, logical microservices. Much like replacing parts in a moving engine, legacy work still needs to be maintained until the new shiny goodness is ready to go. When implemented, it will allow for better performance, scalability, and functionality.

Here are some of the Services being created to replace legacy work:

• Entitlement Processor Service: handles all purchased and rented items from the website and assures that real game items are created and managed.
• Loadout Service: caches and manages the various loadouts for all ships and the player avatar configuration, including outfits and weapons. Right now, the game servers and clients can only access metadata from objects that are currently spawned on a game server. Usually, the devs want to view data of an item that has not been loaded into a game server.
• Variable Service: solves the loadout problem above by decoupling the metadata from the items and providing a runtime cache and API allowing game servers and other Diffusion services access regardless of the state of the item.
• Wallet Service: deals with changes in currency and manages the current balance in-game. An API is setup to allow for other services to query or modify the player’s balance.

ANIMATION

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Animation was hard at work on the next set of mission givers that will bring more life to the PU later this year. There was also rapid progress on the retargeting of male animations to female skeletons, which brings players closer to being able to choose a female avatar in the PU.

Animation also supported outsourcers by creating master retarget files to process all the motion captures shots for the PU, S42 cinematics, and gameplay. They also helped finalize the Vanduul pipeline, which makes converting motion capture data into in-game assets quicker and easier.

ART

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Ship Art put the finishing touches on everyone’s favorite stroke of lightning, the Anvil Aerospace F8! All that that’s left for them to do is to finalize the Level of Detail (LOD), make some last-minute material/art adjustments, and be on call to fix any bugs that arise during testing. Also, after an official kickoff meeting, work began on some early concepts ideas for the Origin 300i rework.

The team proceeded on the highly anticipated Constellation Phoenix. Extra care has been given at every stage of the process to ensure that the quality and luxury of RSI is properly showcased. The interior and exterior were fleshed out and are now going through an edit to cut back on some of the busier areas. Next up, the modeling portion in the master bedroom and flight-prep art (interior damage) will be finished, so Tech Art can start with their damage process. Once these steps are done, there will be another lighting pass to get the interior dialed in and closer to completion.

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DEVOPS

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The 3.2 release was especially rewarding for the DevOps Team as it included features they’ve been anticipating for a while. On the build side, they’ve been tuning and supporting the feature streams, which are a subset of the main development branches that the dev teams use. This project helped to further isolate each team’s specific feature work and stopped it from interfering with the work of other teams. This led to significantly more builds, as each feature team gets their own on top of the test and general use builds. For this month alone, over 200 unique builds were generated. Overall, the build support improvements have been very helpful and well received, but the team is still working out minor details and constantly tuning the branches for the best output.

The Publishing Team supported daily deployments to Evocati and PTU, and assisted the dev teams with the collection of server performance and bug reports. Server reports are typically more fun on a big publishing month because there’s so much new data to track and report. As many have already noticed, the team increased the pace of publishes again, completing 16 PTU deployments in June. These additional publishes helped the dev team work out the final touches of new features. The team also ramped up the servers in anticipation of Alpha 3.2 release and can’t wait to see them fill up.

PLAYER RELATIONS

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The Player Relations Team coordinated with Evocati to test Alpha 3.2 on the PTU and prepare it for live service. They focused on the core features of 3.2, including scanning, mining, ESP improvements, quantum linking, and the new ships.

Now that 3.2 is live in the PU, the team would like to remind all backers of the new Knowledge Base. They’ve added quite a few guides for the update, and now have over 90 articles published. Players should check back regularly, as it will continue to grow with new ‘How To’ articles, patch notes, and live service notifications.

Finally, the team wants to encourage everyone to continue using the Issue Council (IC) to help triage and rate bugs/functionality. They’ll use your feedback to prioritize future updates, plus IC participation makes you eligible for earlier PTU waves.

QA

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QA helped push the 3.2 builds to Evocati and PTU, which included publishing checklists for build patches that went to the PTU.

On the game side, QA focused on the 3.2 features, bug regression, and performance testing. Things tested included the mining feature, the new ships, the Avenger rework, quantum travel, the group system, and kiosk purchasing and player wallet updates. They also tested updates to the Editor and Subsumption tools.

On the leadership side, it was business as usual coordinating testing priorities with counterparts in LA, UK, and DE.

Wilmslow & Derby

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WILMSLOW & DERBY

GRAPHICS

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The Graphics Team focused on bugs that covered a wide range of topics, including fixes for SLI/Crossfire, missing LODs on mining rocks, and flickering shadows. They also added a few minor features to improve the overall player experience, such as adding drop shadows to all transparent ship UI screens, adding brightness/gamma/contrast support, optimizing the glass shaders, and fixing multiple issues with RTT on the ship-targeting UI which reduced the cost by a factor of 10.

After fixing the 3.2 bugs, the team’s focus has shifted to Object Container Streaming, which is crucial to ensuring this critical feature isn’t blocked.

UI

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UI supported the 3.2 release at full tilt, working on the Item Kiosks to add as much as possible ahead of the live release. Alongside this, the team supported the Mission Team by creating new screens for Comm Array missions, provided the Gameplay Team with quantum travel UI elements, and helped the EU Vehicle Team with their work on overclocking.

UI also focused on critical bug fixes ahead of 3.2. This included multiple issues with the ATC system, such as making the UI clearer for color blind players. Changes for the PMA/VMA included making select ship items uneditable and ensuring all armor pieces are displayed correctly.

ANIMATION

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The team worked on the new Spec Ops AI combat set and prepared it for full implementation. This set includes cover, high and low enter and exits, peeks, stepouts, blindfires, reloads, and grenade throws. Iteration and feedback on weapon recoil continued with the goal of providing a solid first-person experience across the full range of weapons available in S42 and the PU.

Preparation started to replace the AI base locomotion sets with finalized data. New capture footage was reviewed with an eye to implement improved AI motion sets and visuals.

Further animation work was completed on Master-at-Arms Chakma to fill in any gaps that the Design Teams had in implementing his behavior for Squadron 42. Work on the Vanduul concentrated on close-combat and weapons.

Player grips now allow varyingly sized objects to be held and carried in a more flexible manner, whether it be one or two-handed props.

Finally, the team completed general bug fixes for the 3.2 release.

GAMEPLAY STORY

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The Gameplay Story Team delivered previsualization (pre-viz) for 150 scenes that the Design Team requested, which was achieved a week earlier than expected. This gave the team a couple of weeks to do more in-depth implementation work on high priority scenes. Pre-viz work on the remaining 66 scenes will happen during the first few weeks of July.

ENGINEERING/PROGRAMMING

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The Squadron 42 Gameplay Team worked with Cinematics to implement more functionality in the trackview tool to get new cinematic scenes working. Among other things, these changes improved the ability to animate the player by blending them into a cinematic sequence, gaining control over the player’s camera, and allowing a set amount of player-controlled head-look.

The Actor Team got one-handed grips working with props of all different sizes and shapes. They started with two different grip types, one for round objects like a bottle or a cup, and another for square items like a book or datapad. The animators created two versions of each grip, open and closed, and the code can blend between the two allowing the player to hold props of different and awkward sizes without the need for multiple animation assets. The programmers have also been improving the animations used when moving from standing to running and back again. They are trying to keep the response times fast by reducing the amount of foot sliding and animation glitches.

The Social AI Team held a mini summit with the Lead AI and Lead Engine Tools programmers and the AI team in Frankfurt to discuss the latest usable tech and the next steps in development. They are now looking to create a visual tool to help the workflow of setting up usables and reduce the amount of knowhow currently required.

The EU Vehicle Team continued development of overpowering and overheating items with a focus on the quantum drive, shield, and cooler. They also expanded item wear to account for overheating.

The Core Gameplay Tech Team moved Object Container Streaming to the stage where they can turn on the background loading of individual entities. Now, it’s up to QA to find out what bugs come from this change. They also worked on the base functionality of loading and unloading individual object containers. The individual features teams have done a fine job of making their entity components thread safe, as well as moving the Lua script over into C++, all of which is required for Object Container Streaming.

SHIPS

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The Ship Art Team finished the remaining tasks needed to get the 3.2 ships ready for release. They also created trailers for the Esperia Blade, Aegis Avenger, and Eclipse, along with promotional shots for the Origin 600i. Other work included whiteboxing the Origin 890 Jump to establish the final room layout and proportions, and R&D work on future Banu ships, with a focus on the Defender. Finally, the Hammerhead is getting a damage pass for the exterior and LOD pass across the interior.

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AUDIO

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The Audio Department worked on all four of the 3.2 flyable ships trailers. They supplied the music heard in the Hurricane and Blade trailers, music and SFX for the Eclipse trailer, and music, SFX, and dialog for the Avenger.

The Audio Department also supported the 3.2 mining feature with regards to UI, mechanical SFX, and beam SFX. Additionally, there was a focus on re-balancing audio in line with the IFCS 2.0 update.

ENVIRONMENT ART

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The UK Environment Team has been finalizing assets for the new ship hangars, as well as making passes on their dressing, branding, and props. They prepared for upcoming sprints, including sprints for new habitation modules and security checkpoints. Elsewhere, the team investigated and began to whitebox ideas for new small points of interest to populate Hurston beyond Lorville. They did all this in addition to supporting the Alpha 3.2 release with usual bug fixing and maintenance.

VFX

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As 3.2 drew to a close, the team completed flight ready effects on the remaining ships, including the Esperia Blade and Aegis Eclipse. They also worked on effects for the Avenger and Eclipse trailers. They finished off the remaining 3.2 weapon effects, including the Kastak Scalpel ballistic rifle, and continued to fine tune and fix any issues with the recent weapons 2.0 conversion. The team collaborated with the mining and scanning/radar feature teams to ensure the effects were as polished as possible. They also worked with the Graphics Team on numerous developments to the GPU particle system, including improved ‘spawn chance’ and more robust parent/child hierarchies.

Frankfurt

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FRANKFURT

ENVIRONMENT ART

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The Environment Art Team continued their push on Lorville Section One Nine (L19), bringing more and more areas to a final state. With L19 coming alive, they’re kicking off production on the surrounding areas, including the procedural tiles that represent the wider city. Regarding organic environments, the team wrapped up the first pass on the Hurston biomes and moved onto defining Hurston’s four moons. Each moon has its own look and feel and reflects some of the elements found on Hurston itself. These new moons are an example of the planet tech system’s flexibility – being able to reuse, remix and create new locations using all elements built to date saves a lot of time, and the process is getting faster as the tools and assets mature.

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BUILD ENGINEERING

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The DevOps Teams in ATX and DE are coordinating a suite of tools to accommodate the various Feature Teams. This includes extending the existing auto-integrators behavior, which involves enabling classic chronological integrations as well as parallel, non-chronological integrations based on an acyclic dependency graph. This is similar to what’s used in code compilation to determine the ordering of tasks. Any stream of changes flowing via auto-integration can communicate directly to whoever the owner of the changelist is, or be deferred to a single stream stakeholder if they choose to oversee the resolution of integration conflicts themselves. As new options are added, a counterpart API is being rolled out to enable complementary tools to hook in. The first tool to hook into the API is a merging tool that handles laborious integrations from feature stream teams back into game-dev.

LEVEL DESIGN

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The Level Design Team focused on areas of the Persistent Universe, including the flagship landing zones of Lorville and Area 18, and the Rest Stop space station layouts generated by the procedural tools. They completed a versatile whitebox version of a security checkpoint that can be easily adapted to locations of different sizes and security levels, and revisited the interiors of the Refinery space station.

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TOOLS

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The Engine Tools Team improved the general game editor stability and usability, and fixed bugs for the 3.2 release. They added the Look Development Mode for artists to unify and isolate light setups for assets. Artists and Designers can now select any asset in any level and activate this mode to have a consistent light environment for tweaking their materials – it’s important to have a consistent and neutral material setup across all assets as it results in much higher visual quality. The Look Development Mode supports a flat light setup for tweaking materials to get as close to a neutral in-engine light environment as possible, along with a presentation mode to get the best visual quality out of a given asset. With the push of a button, this in-engine mode works with all asset sizes, from little props to capital ships. It’s a great tool, as it avoids error-prone and inconsistent manual light setups, so saves time on tweaking the assets for the game.

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QA

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The QA Team started June by joining the EU Gameplay 5 Feature Team. One QA member was embedded with the team to attend weekly sprint and planning meetings and work closely with Developers to identify and resolve issues related to the Transit system. The Transit system includes elevators, metros, trams, and similar methods of transportation. Memory testing with the logging of Environment Variables enabled is also underway. In the first run-through, QA assisted the Engine Team in identifying a memory leak within particle emitters. The Graphics Team quickly created a fix and confirmed it once the changes were checked in. This type of testing will be a regular occurrence to ensure the team can stay on top of any potential future memory issues.

In addition, they continued to test new versions of the Subsumption Editor, as well as stay on top of regression and inputting new issues encountered by the development team. The new Subsumption versions consisted of fixes that needed verification as well as a new option to allow subsequent messages to be skipped when there are multiple invalid callback functions generating warnings upon initialization. Functionality in how Activities read information from the platforms has also been improved. A developer can now directly edit an NPC’s schedule loadout via the Activity the platform is being called from. Physics refactoring has also started to pre-emptively catch any new issues from the introduction of these new changes. QA will be doing a weekly Physics smoke test every Monday to test the PU, Arena Commander, and Star Marine in the Game-Dev branch. Then, a report is generated and sent for review and any new issues introduced from the Physics refactor are addressed.

ENGINE

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The Engine Team continued with Physics optimizations that allow for more overlap during terrain patch physicalization. They also optimized raycasting when flying over the planet grid along with shadow batch processing. Look Development Mode was introduced to the engine to enable the team to test shading setups in a controlled environment. They improved horizon SSDO quality and performance, which is now enabled by default. They started streamlining the asset pipeline flow for consistency in shading, cleaning up asset presets, and changing the plugin to improve consistency.

For general code development, they supported the inline function expansion in callstacks presented via JIRA and Sentry, and improved support to compile Linux targets through Visual Studio. They completed the first iteration of the mining painter, continued to work on the telemetry system, and made skinning and vertex processing improvements.

WEAPONS

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The Weapons Art Team completed all work, bugfixing, and polish for the 3.2 release. This included work on the Gemini F55 light machine gun, Klaus & Werner Demeco light machine gun, Kastak Arms Scalpel sniper rifle, and the Associated Science and Development distortion repeaters (size 1-3). They also spent time on Vanduul lances and knifes.

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VFX

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The VFX Team worked on and optimized the 3.2 mining feature. They tackled effects for the fracture beam, the tractor beam that sucks up rocks, and for various rock impacts and explosions. They also worked on the cinematic destruction pipeline for the soft body destruction simulations. They smoothed out the pipeline for importing the soft body simulations from Houdini into 3ds Max, and then from 3ds Max into the engine. This will be used for bespoke, cinematic destruction sequences.

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SYSTEM DESIGN

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The System Design Team worked to make enemy ship AI more fun to engage with. Initially, it was built as realistic as possible, but that doesn’t always make for the best gameplay. For example, a computer is extremely good at using the decoupled mode, far better than any human. While this is technically the best solution for fighting in space, it also feels unnatural and unintuitive to the player. They want to strike a balance between realism and giving the player a fun, challenging experience by cutting down the number of unnatural maneuvers the AI can perform.

The team also focused on FPS AI for multiplayer, making sure they function similarly to the single player mode. The push with the Vanduul reached its completion and their behaviors are almost locked down. A lot of work went into how the Vanduul navigate the environment, attack, defend, melee, and react to various weapons. They also spent time on civilian and guard behaviors, adding as much life into them as needed. The team primarily focused on designing modular conversation vignettes, which are blocks of randomly changing dialogue that can be controlled by various AI parameters like morale, hunger, etc. Basically, it’s a giant tree of animation/line clusters. The AI simply navigate through them and every time there’s a vignette, it produces a different outcome based on those parameters, so the same combination of lines will be a rare experience. They also put finishing touches on planetary mining. While some improvements are still needed, they believe it’s at a point where players can enjoy it.

AI

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The AI Team was busy implementing new functionalities and fixing/optimizing existing systems. For Subsumption, they introduced the concept of global variables: for single player campaigns, designers might require the definition of generic variables available across different missions. Global variables are visible globally on the various missions and can be saved so that the game status can be preserved and restored for the players.

They also improved the way entities can receive ranged events. A ranged event is started when an entity is in proximity of another event. The proximity can be specified by designers in the definition of the event.

They introduced a new Subsumption task that can mark the entities to be notified so that the game code can efficiently calculate ranges only for the specified objects of the world. Work was done on improving and generalizing the way assignments are handled by entities. Assignments are a sort of command or suggestion designers can send to the AI entities. They can vary from ‘attack my target’ to ‘move to the specified position’, etc. Assignments are a very generic way to influence systemic behaviors and can be used to both script mission flow and/or give AI entities commands. The mastergraph is now responsible for bringing the assignment request to the execution phase, unless the behavior is defined to override the handling of the scenario. For example, while throwing a grenade, the behaviors might wait to handle an assignment that requests his relocation, while if the NPC is just patrolling, it can immediately fulfill the request.

The team had numerous people visit from the UK office for a week of meetings regarding the useable system. They discussed numerous use cases and possible improvements on the system and worked side by side on both existing and new code. Items that came from the meeting to be implemented are a new tool to speed up the usables pipeline, as well as new functionalities in Subsumption to describe complex scenarios of NPCs interacting with the environment. This ensures that their behaviors maintain a simple logic while the complexity remains embedded within the system itself.

Ship behaviors received significant improvements for the future Alpha 3.3 release. The team started implementing different behavior strategies associated with different ship types, so pilots can use the best capabilities of their specific vehicle. They also improved the way accuracy is calculated, so that ships attacking enemies feel more natural and are respectful of the new skill levels recently implemented. Human combat is also being polished. The team is currently going through as many use case scenarios as possible to validate the system works as intended.

TECH ART

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The Tech Art Team worked on the Sandbox-Editor-to-Maya live link tool for synchronizing animations between the Digital Content Creation (DCC) and the game’s editor which, for this particular purpose, is essentially used as a rendering backend. Now that the underlying interprocess communication and object serialization frameworks are in place, animators will soon be able to see their changes on in-engine character assets live within the Maya viewport, rendered with all the advanced shading effects that the game engine provides. This will not only allow them to create better animations in less time, it will also facilitate animation asset and rig asset/deformation quality control and make for a much more immediate and precise workflow. They also integrated Motion Based Blending into Maya to enable the animators to easily remove any potential foot sliding after changes were made to an animation.

They implemented a ‘light rig’ switch into Maya that improves performance in heavy scenes and, in return, raises the frame rate during replay to make it easier for animators to work in heavily populated scenes.

Multiple FPS and Ship Weapon bugs were also addressed for the 3.2 release.

LIGHTING

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The Lighting Team focused on tasks and bugs related to the upcoming 3.2 release. In addition, they collaborated with the Environment Art and Level Design teams on Lorville. Their current goals are to provide a first pass for lighting and atmosphere across all areas, as well as ensure that the level is built to allow for easy optimization and better performance in the future.

CINEMATICS

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The Cinematics Team worked with UK Gameplay Engineers to create a Cinematic FreeLook control system that works with Star Citizen’s unified 1st and 3rd person character rig. Cinematic FreeLook allows a player that’s locked in position during a 1st person cinematic to look around freely. Cinematic designers can specify up/down/left/right limits and steer the player’s headcam towards specific things, like a character, vista, or an important event in the distance. The original Cinematic FreeLook system was limited as the player’s body was not fully considered, so looking too far in one direction meant the player could potentially see part of their own face inside of their helmet. This new system allows the player to work in 1st and 3rd person with performance capture on the body/head, additive animation of the headcam rotation, and Cinematic FreeLook active. The FreeLook system works with the mouse and gamepad thumbstick input, as there are areas that slow down control towards the edges of the ‘look window’ and a smooth re-center after a specified time with no input.

They also gained the ability to run Mannequin fragments on any NPC in Trackview, which will create seamless blends between locomotion and those performing in scenes via Trackview. The Cinematic Animation Team also worked on testing how far they can technically push the Walk & Talk AI conversations. The goal is to retain the performance that the actors brought to these talks while running numerous real-time additives, such as layering upper body performance capture on top of a personalized per-character locomotion walk set. The tests have so far yielded positive results.

Platform: Turbulent

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PLATFORM: TURBULENT

This month, Turbulent wrapped up the Friends feature in Spectrum, provided support for the latest Drake concept, and finished the services build for groups system 3.2.

SPECTRUM

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The team deployed two Spectrum builds, ‘3.7.13-friends.2’ and ‘3.7.13-friends.3’. The main features included the addition of friends, friend requests, and the Message of the Day (MOTD). Lobbies can now have a MOTD that appears at the top when someone joins.

Friends and friend requests are now complete and easily accessible through an entirely new Quick Access Sidebar. Also, included in this sidebar are Notifications, Search, and Lobby Users. When someone receives a friend request, a transient pop-up appears and an orange dot is displayed next to the friend icon on the Quick Access toggle button. Friends can be grouped by common Organizations.

Additionally, the author of blocked thread replies can be hidden as an option under general account settings. A special thank you to the Spectrocati and everyone who helped test these new features!

RSI PLATFORM

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The RSI Team supported the reveal of the Vulture, Drake’s latest ship. The Vulture is a light industrial salvage vessel that needs just one crew member. The Design Team had a lot of fun developing the page to house this rugged workingman’s ship. They also added new controllers in your account settings to allow better management of the content you want to receive in the weekly newsletters. Go to Account/Settings to pick and choose your RSI content.

GROUP SERVICES

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Turbulent made multiple releases supporting the backend control for services. Each iteration of the service was followed by a round of support during QA. The work Turbulent did creates and disbands groups. It handles all the requests for invites, accepts invitations, and declines invitations to a group. It then tells the service that these players should be grouped together. This service also controls the necessary permissions around leadership of a group, including transfer when the leader leaves the group or chooses to move it. Additionally, they added a kick function if a member of the group is offline for a certain period.

Community

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COMMUNITY

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With this monthly report, the team says goodbye to the second quarter of 2018 and welcomes Star Citizen Alpha 3.2!

Maintaining the quarterly release cycle, the team was proud to publish another content update, with players exploring the new content since last Saturday. From group systems to quantum linking and mining, it feels fantastic to see people having fun in the game on Twitch and YouTube.

Thanks to all the dedicated testers who helped make this release possible. The entire CIG team sincerely appreciates your efforts during Evocati and PTU phases.

While Cloud Imperium Games wasn’t present at E3, the latest PU trailer was shown at the PC Gaming Show, showcasing the beauty of the ‘verse. Watch it on our YouTube channel if you haven’t yet.

If you’re a content creator, there’s currently a contest running that celebrates one of the recent editions to the flyable fleet in Star Citizen – the Origin Jumpworks 600i. The team is looking for player-made commercials showcasing the beauty of this multi-role luxury vessel. Running until July 15th, it’s your chance to grab one of the fabulous prizes on offer, including a standalone Aegis Eclipse with complimentary Lifetime Insurance.

The Community Team has been planning a wide variety of activities for you to participate in throughout the year and into next, all coupled with sweet prizes. So even if this contest isn’t for you, there are some exciting opportunities coming for you to leave your mark in the Star Citizen universe. Seriously, there will be more contests in 2018 than EVER before!

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The team is always amazed by the contributions made by the community – whether it’s fan art, a cinematic, a YouTube guide, or even a 3D print of your favorite ship. This month, they brought back the MVP (Most Valuable Poster). Every week, the team will select one piece of content submitted to the Community Hub and reward the content creator with an MVP badge on Spectrum and a mention on the MVP section of the Hub.

This month, Centurion subscribers received a limited Voyager-edition Klaus & Werner Arrowhead sniper rifle, while the Imperators netted an exclusive Pathfinder variant. The mighty Aegis Reclaimer spearheaded the ship of the month program that gives subscribers the chance to try out a new vessel.

With the Drake Vulture concept promotion still in full effect, the team recently released the Q&A on Drake’s dirty bird. Want to rip wrecks apart like a pro? Head over to Spectrum to see answers to the top-voted community questions on this unique industrial salvage ship.

Finally, the team keeps getting asked about the availability of CitizenCon 2948 tickets. The good news is that they will be available again shortly if you haven’t already snagged one. Make sure to follow Star Citizen on Twitter, or subscribe to the newsletter to find out when the next phase of ticket sales is available. CitizenCon in Austin, TX, is the perfect place to chat with the developers and get the latest updates on the development process. It’s also a chance to meet with org mates and old friends, or make new ones and recruit members for your crew.

Conclusion

WE’LL SEE YOU NEXT MONTH…

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Quelle: https://robertsspaceindustries.com/comm-link/tran…eport-June-2018

Zitat von Star Citizen

Q&A: Drake Vulture

Following the launch of the Vulture from Drake Interplanetary, we took your community-voted questions to our designers to give you more information on the recently unveiled light industrial salvage vessel.

If you haven’t watched our recent Ship Shape on the Vulture, you can do so here. Then, on Reverse the Verse, John Crewe, and Paul Jones answered questions about the Vulture live on Twitch.

Special thanks to John Crewe for answering the top-voted questions.

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Does the Vulture have any special synergy with other Drake ships like the Caterpillar? For example, the rear of the Vulture looks like it could easily back up to the Caterpillar‘s front air-shield door for easy offloading of salvage. (fan image example)

There are no particular plans to have any synergy with other Drake ships as suggested in the image, however the idea is interesting and should work in theory with the Caterpillar and other ships of a similar arrangement.

The Vulture has 12 SCU however, the similar entry level miner MISC Prospector has 128 SCU. With that significant difference of cargo how will profit differ between the ships?

The Prospector has its 128 SCU capacity spread across its multiple saddlebag containers, but cannot hold the full 128 SCU at a single time and must detach these containers to keep collecting material. Each container currently holds 8 SCU so without detaching them the Prospector can naturally only hold 32 SCU at a single time, the current value in 3.2.

Is a scant 12 SCU of scrap material going to be economically viable, considering that scrap usually isn’t worth much as a commodity, plus the cost of fuel burn, cost of demolition charges, and risk of operating a relatively undefended ship in potentially hazardous environments?

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As with all things economy based, we will be reviewing the profit/hour balance and making adjustments where needed. People should not speculate on the viability of the Vulture based on the current ingame scrap metal prices, as these are not the same as what the Vulture will produce. Internally we have discussed the size of the cargo bay during concept and made sure that if we need to increase the size of it, it can be done during production without requiring significant rework, to bring it inline with other profession starter ships. Likewise if we feel the Prospector containers skew the comparison they can be brought down in capacity.

Since the Prospector can scan to locate mineable nodes, will the Vulture have similar scanning tech onboard to tell its pilot what components are still salvageable (salable/usable) and what are not instead of having to EVA out to check manually?

Absolutely, all ships will have scanning ability and certain ships such as the Vulture have enhanced scanners specifically suited to that role.

Does the 12 SCU of cargo space include the space for storing cubes of salvage, or is there a different hold specifically for that?

The 12 SCU cargo space is the cargo grid for both cubes and scavenged items which you wish to legitimately store, of course like in all ships you can place items outside the cargo grids but these have downsides such as not being secure and risking being damaged as well as not being recognized or detected by the kiosk or sales interfaces as legitimate goods for sale.

If intact components will typically be more valuable for low-volume salvaging versus compressed scrap, and the Vulture can only secure those items by pilot EVA, why would players find the Vulture more desirable to use for light salvage instead of better defended and/or cheaper fighter craft/light hauler like the Hornet, Cutlass, Freelancer, or Aurora CL?

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Component salvaging is only part of the salvage career, and whilst any ship could technically do this the Vulture is equipped for the whole process (scraping, processing, and ship breaking) which will maximize profit from your trips versus just grabbing components alone. The Vulture (and other salvage ships such as the Reclaimer) come equipped with dedicated salvage scanners which allow you to identify components and their state much easier than non dedicated ships so whilst you could strip every item out of an abandoned ship into a Cutlass, 90% of them could be such low value such that the Vulture owner would return essentially the same end profit with only grabbing the 10% identified as worthwhile.

An example to use would be Mining in 3.2, players can just fracture and extract every rock in sight but without scanning and reviewing their composition and carefully fracturing, returns will be low versus a player who specifically targets the high value assets.

Given that the initial Vulture concept that the community voted for emphasized a ship oriented towards salvaging valuable components over processing large volumes of low-value scrap material, what prompted the shift towards making the Vulture a low-volume, low-value raw material reclamation ship?

During the concept phase we started out with just the component salvaging process as its key aim, but as we progressed through the concepts it became clear that this wasn’t a particularly interesting or fulfilling role for the ship and as such we decided to make the Vulture a more rounded introduction to Salvage covering all the basic principles.

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Considering the Vulture can only carry roughly a snub-fighter worth of compressed scrap, why were live-aboard features prioritized as a feature versus just making it a daytripper with increased storage space for cargo and/or better tools for harvesting intact components?

Player accommodation and live aboard features will have a role in the future and as such we decided that ships which are entry level should have these basic features to support solo players being able to spend long amounts of time away from base rather than requiring daytripper style planning.

Will there be any risks associated to salvage akin in to mining? I.e. rupturing a fuel line, tractoring in a live wire or causing a structural collapse?

Definitely, like Mining we don’t want it simple to be a click and leave mechanic, but to require some level of skill to control the return on investment for salvaged materials.

What advantage does the Vulture have over another ship that simply removes profitable/intact components and not stay to melt the hull of a wrecked ship?

Please see our answer to question six above.

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Since the Vulture requires some manual cutting of scrap, will it come with the requisite hand tools, or will those have to be purchased separately?

Every Vulture comes equipped with the Multitool which can be used for welding and cutting of objects, alongside a full complement of salvage charges.

12 SCU of cargo … okay let´s try some math.
The Cargo area must be at least 2 SCU wide and 2 SCU in height. So 2 × 2 x L = 12 SCU ; L = 3. So the cargo area should be about 3 SCU long.
For comparison: 1 mid sized power plant (Terrapin for example) is about the size of 1 SCU.
Conclusion: The most profitable job in salvage is to find used components that are still working so cutting them in smaller parts is no option.
So the pilot of the Vulture can store up to 12 mid sized components. Isn´t that a little bit small? Or did I forget an important aspect of salvage?

As mentioned earlier, we’ll be making sure the return is appropriate from an economy point of view and that one method of salvaging is not vastly superior to the other. Components salvaged from a ship are extremely unlikely to be in a pristine condition and their value will drop appropriately, presuming you can find a buyer willing to accept the items in that condition. On the flip side processed and compacted raw materials from salvage will be readily bought by most manufacturing and refineries.

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Are there VTOL thrusters on the ship? The RTV section mentioned the Vulture had VTOL thrusters instead of a grav-lev system, but the ship description only has main, retro, and maneuvering thrusters.

This is just an oversight on the ship matrix and will be updated soon, the ship has 2 dedicated VTOL thrusters in the front nacelles rear of the landing gear plus the rear two main engines will have VTOL capabilities if required. An early concept had them doing thrust vectoring but was left off later images. We may just use an additional integral thruster depending on what can be implemented at the time of production and whether it is required based on the other thrusters on the ship and their capacities.

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Quelle: https://robertsspaceindustries.com/comm-link/engi…A-Drake-Vulture

Zitat von Star Citizen

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Hello everyone,

Last week we released Star Citizen Alpha 3.2 to the live servers, marking our second successful quarterly release. Several new and updated ships were made available for pledge along with the release, and the MISC Prospector became a permanent addition to the RSI Store.

In the 72 hours since release, we’ve seen an incredible amount of community created content submitted to the Community Hub, and we encourage you all to check it out. We browse the Hub regularly, and it continues to be a powerful source of inspiration.

Now, with the release of Alpha 3.2, we look ahead at making improvements and refining the patch, so keep hitting the servers, report bugs to the Issue Council, and hit the feedback forum to share your thoughts on a specific item or feature.

We’ve also got another opportunity for you all to get creative and compete for some pretty epic prizes in our Origin 600i Commercial Contest. The Community team has been planning a wide variety of activities for you all to participate in throughout the year and into next, with no shortage of sweet prizes. So even if this contest isn’t for you, we’ve got some exciting stuff coming, with more ways for you to leave your mark on the Star Citizen universe. (Seriously, we’re doing more contests in 2018 than EVER before!)

Lastly, let me direct your attention to this week’s Community MVP, TexasSkulls, who updated their robust Trading App to accommodate Mining in Alpha 3.2. Congratulations!

With that, let’s see what’s going on this week:

Every week on Calling All Devs, designers, engineers and other developers from our five offices around the world answer backer questions submitted on Spectrum and voted for by YOU. Today, we address questions regarding multi-tools, keybdingins, and more. Watch the full episode here. As always: You can submit your questions for consideration in future episodes of Calling All Devs here.

Tuesday will be dedicated to bringing you an all new episode of Loremaker’s Guide to the Galaxy, this time exploring the Cano System.

On Wednesday, the US offices will be closed for Independence Day, but that won’t stop the content! Look out for an explosive screenshot contest on Twitter, and the release of our Drake Vulture Q&A.

Thursday will welcome another episode of Around the Verse where we’ll take a look at the latest Star Citizen news with a project update.

If somehow Around the Verse wasn’t enough to whet your appetite, buckle in: we’ll also be releasing the Monthly Studio Report for June this Thursday as well.

Lastly, make sure to tune in on Friday for another episode of Reverse the Verse, broadcast LIVE at 12PM Pacific on our Star Citizen Twitch channel. This week, we’ll sit down with Todd Papy to discuss all things Design, so keep an eye out on Spectrum for the questions gathering thread!

We’ll see you in the ‘Verse.

Tyler “Zyloh” Witkin
Lead Community Manager

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The Weekly Community Content Schedule

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MONDAY, JULY 2ND, 2018
Calling All Devs (https://www.youtube.com/user/RobertsSpaceInd/)

TUESDAY, JULY 3RD, 2018
Loremaker’s Guide to the Galaxy (https://robertsspaceindustries.com/comm-link/spectrum-dispatch)

WEDNESDAY, JULY 4TH, 2018
4th of July Screenshot Contest
Drake Vulture Q&A

THURSDAY, JULY 5TH, 2018
Around the Verse (https://www.youtube.com/user/RobertsSpaceInd/)
Monthly Studio Report – June
Vault Update

FRIDAY, JULY 6TH, 2018
Reverse the Verse Live (https://www.twitch.tv/starcitizen)
Roadmap Update
RSI Newsletter

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Community MVP: July 2nd, 2018

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We are constantly amazed by the contributions made by the Star Citizen community. Whether it’s fan art, a cinematic, a YouTube guide, or even a 3D print of your favorite ship, we love it all! Every week, we select one piece of content submitted to the Community Hub and highlight it in this section. The highlighted content creator will be awarded with an MVP badge on Spectrum and be immortalized in our MVP section of the Hub.

Don’t forget to submit your content to our Community Hub for a chance at seeing it here!

Star Citizen Trading App by TexasSkulls

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TexasSkulls has created an application that records prices across all possible trading locations, then displays that information in a relevant way to help aspiring merchants maximize profit during their cargo runs. With the release of Alpha 3.2, Texas has updated the app to include Mining!

Please join us in congratulating TexasSkulls for being this week’s MVP!

Find all the details on the community hub.

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Quelle: https://robertsspaceindustries.com/comm-link/citi…In-Star-Citizen

Zitat von Star Citizen

Die Entwickler von Star Citizen geben den Alpha Patch 3.2.0 frei. Das Update fällt umfangreich aus - das Changelog liegt bereits vor. Demnach könnt ihr nach der Aktualisierung Bergbau betreiben und so Materialien sammeln. Zudem wird mit der Star Citizen…

Quelle: http://www.pcgames.de/Star-Citizen-S…rungen-1259907/

Zitat von Star Citizen

Star Citizen Alpha 3.2 Available!

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Alpha 3.2

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Today, we release our quarterly update to the Star Citizen Alpha Persistent universe, Alpha 3.2. In the new patch, Star Citizen players can use the Prospector ship’s mining arm to gather and sell resources harvested from the three moons, adding new gameplay and a huge resource to the game’s burgeoning economy. This economy comes into play in an entirely new way: 3.2 dramatically expands the number of items players can purchase at in-game kiosks with their hard earned in-game currency.

On the technical side, Alpha 3.2 dramatically improves upon the grouping system, delivering on the Star Citizen community’s most requested feature stemming from a vote in March of 2018. This new feature enables up to fifty players to travel the universe together as they enjoy the game’s more than thirty varying, procedurally-generated, mission types. NPC ship AI has also been improved with new behaviors that give in-game enemies a lot more teeth.

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Star Citizen Alpha 3.2 also adds several new flyable ships and playable weapons and armor, adding to its impressive stable of more than 60 ships and 300 in-game weapons, armor and character items. New playable items include:

• One new ship weapon and three new personal weapons for players to unleash mayhem upon their enemies
• Six updated “Legacy” armor suits created by various in-game entities that hearken back to years gone by
• Kiosk systems – enabling players to purchase numerous in-game items using in-game currency, from remote locations across the Universe
• In addition to the new flyable ships added in 3.2, the MISC Prospector has now been added as a permanent addition to the pledge store
• And more!
  

And of course, you can read the comprehensive Alpha 3.2 Patch Notes here.

3.2 Flyable Ships

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With the release of Alpha 3.2, we're introducing newly flyable ships, as well as updating some older favorites.

The list of new & updated ships includes:

• Anvil Hurricane
• Origin 600i Explorer
• Aegis Eclipse
• Vanduul Blade
• Aegis Avenger (and variants)
  

Please enjoy the trailers below and find even more information on our 3.2 Flyable Ships page here.

Bug Reporting

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Remember, while there’s a lot to explore in Alpha 3.2, the game is still just a portion of the Star Citizen experience! You can help the team improve future releases by reporting bugs and other issues using the Star Citizen Issue Council. The amazing feedback from Star Citizen backers is what has allowed us to interate on the PTU so quickly, and we’re eager for feedback about the Live release as well. You can access the Issue Council here.

Finally, we would be remiss if we did not thank our incredible community of PTU testers for helping make this patch the best it can be! Your dedication is exemplary of the UEE’s finest defenders!

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Quelle: https://robertsspaceindustries.com/comm-link/tran…ha-32-Available

Zitat von Star Citizen

Chris Roberts Traum von einem persistenten Sci-Fi-Universum mit Tausenden von Spielern ist zwar nicht - wie ursprünglich geplant und kommuniziert - 2014 erschienen, soll aber laut den Entwicklern noch in den nächsten Jahren tatsächlich Wirklichkeit…

Quelle: http://www.pcgames.de/Star-Citizen-S…ron-42-1259676/

Zitat von Star Citizen

Writer’s Note: The Knowledge of Good and Evil: Part Two was published originally in Jump Point 2.10. You can read Part One here.

“I know right. Debt ‘s debt.” Eve’ rat know that.

She stop cold. “You think that you are incurring a debt by staying here?”

“Ain’ I? Wha’ I’m suppose think? An I see one an’ ‘m null gon’ jus’ be here an’ . . . null tha’ . . . I won’ be your slave!” Start lookin for way out tha hall ta secure.

I stop cause Mom Super raise her hand. Slow like. Like she do ta quiet tha meal hall ‘fore meal. Hadn’ expected her ta be calm like tha’.

“If I gave a way to repay your debt, would you stay?”

Mom Super got wha’ she talk. Work got, ‘nough ta pay debt. Off some, an’ diff from Bazaar, lock tha’. Bes’ deal ‘m got ta stay with tha Sisters. Rules some, bu’ null like Blues or Bazaar Bosses got. ‘bout now ‘m start figure tha Sisters weren’ part tha Gov. If they’s Gov them give H-kit, like tha Gov.

Problem that. Big got problem when rat got no Hygiene. H-kit got thing like razor. Razor ta shave my head with. Razor I need an don’ have. Head gone ta fuzz a’ready. Tha’ mean ‘lot on streets. Mean rat got i’ in ‘em to go ‘gainst rhyme an’ honor. Mean might give up on tryin’. Creepers and slavers watch ta pounce on fuzz heads.

Walk out tha room an’ rage some ta Mom Super ta get razor. Mom Super ‘most yelled back. ‘fore ran off back ta my room.

‘magined her comin’ through tha door an chokin’ me. I seen creeper do tha’ once.

Mom Super got ask me straight later, “What would you do with a razor young one? Why do you need it so?”

Sisters an’ Mom Super don’ have null clue. I’m hoarse from yelling an wound tight. A’most missed tha ask.

“Wha’ ’m do?! Shave my damn head! Wha’ tha hell else Craz Oldie? Wha’ else i’ good for do with? You know how tha creepers like ‘em?”

“Your hair is a danger to you?” Mom Super ask.

“Hair too long an’ you be gone. Don’ sleep flat for creeps ta get at. Eat food paste or you waste. Know tha rhymes live long times. Stick ta’gether in bad weather. Hoardin’ creds will get you dead.”

Mom Super look ‘round at tha other three Sisters in tha door ta my room. One them reach in bag an’ pull out one sealed H-kit like tha kind I got from tha dispenser once month. Mom Super take i’ an’ hold i’ out ta me.

Snatch i’ null lookin’ at her an’ I head ta corner tha room an’ reflec on tha wall. Big reflec but I don’ need much an sit on floor. Back ta tha door but can see ‘em in the reflec. Them watchin’ as shave tha head fuzz quick like rats got do. Sisters standin’ in tha door outbound one-an-one til only Mom Super left.

“It’s a sad thing to see.” Mom Super say soft. “Red hair is very rare.”

Finish las’ pull move a’fore her sayin’ sunk in.

Turn an’ look at her. “Is?”

“Yes. Very.”

I don’ know, but tha’ look Mom Super got shake me cold for days.

* * *

Interestin’ now tha’ some Sisters would come an’ ask me if could fix some for ‘em. Each nex’ got harder thin’ ta fix. Sometime it some basic an’ big. Sometime it some complex an’ small. Air mover ta some bedrooms stopped. Solenoid switch on machine gone bad. Malfunct ligh’ in tha hallway. Sometimes, mobiGlas like tha kind spacer use. Other time some buggy engine. Eve’ time it got be some’ I neve’ seen or neve’ fix b‘fore. I think ta ‘self tha’ Sisters didn’ know tha’. ‘m learn them tech an’ gear while ‘m work.

Still ain’ got lock on angle Sister play ta. Got think ‘bout Bosses or creepers or slavers workin’ on some rat like. ‘magination come up with like wha’ ‘m hear on street ‘round Bazaar. Ain’ EZ ta stay smart ‘nough ta null trus’ thin’ tha’ sound like street gossip. Eve comin’ from me.

Got parts an’ gear ta fix for days when Mom Super show up a’ my shop.

“Follow me.” She say. Turnin’ she lead me down tha hall an’ back ta main floor and started headin’ ta big door ‘m null got through yet. “Your choice to remain here is a bold one, and you have proven good on your word and not tried to leave again. I believe we should make a gesture of good faith in return.”

Reached tha door. Aft’ she look ove’ her shoulder a’ me she press hand ta tha door release. Pressure seal door slide back an out. Sisters coat norm block view ‘fore I got glint. This time Mom Super step back an’ ‘most push me in.

Light ‘m step into blind me some.

Null tha’ bright jus’ more ligh’ than tha hallway. ‘m look a tha floor. Dark metal like tha hall but cleaner. Null dus’. None jus’ cleaner eve’ thin’ clean. New? ‘bout when ‘m think tha’ my eyes a’just ta light an’ ‘m look up.

‘m couldn’ breath.

Three high a stack rows tall. Leas’ ten meters. Rows wide an’ so long can’ see ’tha end from tha door. Them got books like ‘m in pics. Neve’ see real ‘fore. Oldie info that. VID term, an’ storage media a more types than ‘m know. Figures how some Sisters spend days in here.

Jump some when Mom Super say some an’ break tha quiet.

“You can come in here at any time you’d like, young one. This Library is our most holy place, but the freedom to access knowledge is equally sacred to us. We have been remiss to keep this from you. We have all sorts of information here. What is kept in the Holy Vault is only for members of the Order under seal of the confessional, but all else is yours to explore. The door will now open for you and the Sisters are always willing to help if you need anything.”

“Won’ do much good ta me lady. Can’ read none.”

How come eve’ time Mom Super smile ta me like that an’ I say some she got cry?

She daz like got hit hard, “That’s . . . I had assumed . . . with your skills, I mean. We will have to . . . um . . . How foolish of me.”

Mom Super stared me like. Like ‘m ghos’ or some. She drop her head an’ say some ‘m null hear. When she look ta me ‘gain got look like she ragin’ ‘hind her eyes. Lady move from tha door an’ point ta hallway. She lead though ‘m couldn’ tell where we goin’.

Thought I know tha whole Hall by now bu’ Mom Super stop fron’ door I neve’ been ta. She open i’ an’ make like ‘m suppose ta go in. Small. Got desk an’ VID screen on tha wall. Maybe half size my room.

Mom Super walk ta screen an’ press button ‘n tha side. Flash an’ then i’ come on. Aft’ few boot screens, comp vid Human walk from tha side like ‘em come in ta room like real person do. Got see move top tha screen. Cam doin’ sweep tha place. Done lock on us.

“I’ve brought you a new student.” Mom Super say. ‘most hide her anger.

“Wha’ Lady got ta be rage ‘bout?” ‘m think. “Tha’ her didn’ know ‘m null read?”

Vid screen Lady star’ gabbin’, “A student. One to be taught. Very good. Where shall I begin?”

“The beginning.” Mom Super say.

“Well and good. And you are the pupil?”

Cam move jus’ ‘nough ta know lock on jus’ me now.

‘m look ta Mom Super an’ she jus’ lookin back ta me. Wet eyes some. Figure tha’ ‘m got ta answer.

‘m mos’ cold ta bone. School dead danger ta street rat. Gov Schools free bu’ you spend any ticks there an’ wouldn’ make ‘nough. Some rats starve cause ‘em null make deals.

Know ‘nough ta got numbers. Know ‘nough ta speak straight an’ crook. Know ‘nough ta fix gear. School learned? Like Up folk? Like my cot?

“Sure.” All ‘m think ta say.

Screen prog stat gab ‘gain, “Please sit student, we are about to begin.”

“The program will teach you if you choose to learn from it. It can go as fast or slow as you need. You may consider this part of your work for us as well.”

Tha’ las’ from Mom Super an’ she outbound.

Wha’ got Mom Super raged? An’ ‘m got ta listen ta comp prog? Hell. Teach prog got ta work righ’ then. Null got time ta think ‘bout danger a learnin’ too much. ‘m got new work from tha lady. I neve’ work like this in my life.

* * *

Found new kind of hunger in tha’ room. Sit in tha’ classroom for long stretches. Only leave ta eat or relieve myself. I spend hours more a day there than had ta.

I realize I been starved for information when I’m given more than I can handle but not as much as I want. I’m addict ta it and the drug is free. Learning is no debt. Maybe that why the bosses on the street don’t want rats ta get it. Teach program pushes me hard. It keep lessons comin’ as fast as I complete ‘em.

“High Impact Learning” what teach prog call it. Cumulative points, none percentages. Almost neve’ have to hear lectures. Everything a conversation.

English, Grammar, Ancient Earth History, Math, Biology, Psychology, Sex Ed, Mechanics, Social Studies, Interstellar Commerce, and Physical Activities all covered. Standard Ed for UEE. Even know what the UEE is now.

80 to 90 hours a week I work on my school. Would spend more if I didn’t need to eat an’ sleep so much. An’ Sisters still wan’ me ta fix gear. Got hard time ‘tween fix gear like ‘m good at an’ wan’ ta learn book work. Book work start ta win that. I write essays, I listen ta books, I track my health for PE. I even start going back into the library to read books for school.

So much time passes without my realizing.

Got back to the room one night and see myself in the mirror. I stare into it for almost an hour. I been missing the inches I’m growing up and hair I’m growing out. Shit.

It makes the girl looking back at me in the mirror even look like a girl. She looks like me, except with hair and tits. At first I’m scared to notice.

Tits are still small enough they’ll be easy to hide, but I have hair. Does hair mean what the street says it means? Hell, if I can keep street learning from mixing with book learning now. The impulse to shave it off in haste and fear grips me hard. I almost do it. Almost.

Instead, I dare myself to leave it. That seems to work. I dig through my hygiene kit for the comb I never use. I watch fixated as I pull the comb through my hair and feel the tug against my scalp. I’ve been moving it out of my eyes for how long? Crap. I null know. Been dealing with it but always absentmindedly. Never looking in the mirror. I look in the H-kit again and see the razor. Still in its wrapping. Back in the mirror I catch someone that looks like I’m supposed to but different. She has red hair. Touching it is like touching danger itself. It’s part of me. Maybe it’s a warning to the world that I’m more dangerous now.

I fall asleep to the feeling of hair on my neck. It’s warm. They never tell you about that part on the street. They don’t tell you a lot.

Education Levels pass by. I start out at level 3. Don’t even count the months. Day comes, night comes. Frustration and anger. Success and wonder. Don’t care much about how long it takes, the information is what matters. By the time I get to level 10 work, I’m doing the good stuff like tech.

Days do get long though. The Sisters spend most of their time in the Library. If too many of them are in the Library at one time the halls start to feel dead. That pulls me there. The library is the only place in the Hall that feels alive sometimes. Once I started to read some, I started going there and found that books can be alive all on their own. Sometimes the books even have people in them. Some alive. Some dead. Some real, others not. I get to watch those characters live, play, fight and win. The second time I close a book hiding tears, Mom Super catches me.

“You should take a break from the tragedies for a while I think, young one. You might try these for a spell,” she said leading me to a bookcase I hadn’t randomly selected for raiding yet. “They are not as intense but may be to your interests.”

She may be strange sometimes, but she can read me easy enough.

I look on the shelf she’s led me to and only see some old storage drives. They look ancient. “I don’t want to break them.”

“You won’t, dear, they are quite sturdy.”

With Mom Super’s blessing I take one down and over to the nearest terminal. Takes me a second to figure out the connectors and boot sequence for the thing. Old, like most things around here. I get it working and open the primary file. On it are technical manuals for COMM Tech and COMP Tech for a ship I’ve never heard of. Even ship drive schematics from only a hundred years ago. Tear down instructions, maintenance schedules, even revisioning logs from one version of a thing to the next explaining what changed and why.

Everything a spacer might want to know about her ship.

I’m still a gear rat, just with more skills now. It’s not tech to take apart, but I’ve been creating universes in my head for the books I read. I know I can do the same for this tech. That and all the tech jobs for the Sisters. I know how to fix a dead VID terminal from a hundred years ago, and I know how to imagine an’ make things real.

So I study. As I do, more technical data, notes wit helpful hints for using the terminal, even meals all start showing up at my new hermitage at the terminal in the Library. It’s infuriating. Who? What do I owe them? It’s touching. It’s dangerous not to know who I owe what, but I accept it all the same because I have a plan now. Anything that helps is worth taking. When I get out of here, I wont be just a gear rat. I’ll be a pilot.

On my own SHIP.

* * *

One day word comes that one of “our ships” has just entered the system and is returning. It takes me a second to remember that this isn’t a plot from a novel.

“We have ships?” I ask the Sister. “And that word is plural. The Sisters have more than one ship?”

I don’t get an answer, but she tells me that everyone is assembling in the entry hall. Normally, it’s a common side hallway. I’ve never seen anyone enter or leave as long as I’ve been here. It barely registers that the door is there as I join the Sisters in waiting.

Standing among so many people all in one place starts making me uncomfortable. I realize that I’m more used to being alone now. We all stand with the foremost in a semicircle facing the door. I make my way to the front to be near Mom Super. The Sisters close around us making sure not to give me a straight path out the only exit to the place. The door opens inwardly like it did that night years ago. Years. I shiver thinking about it.

A lone figure is standing outlined by dust and setting sunlight in the shadow being cast by something tall outside. A full face helmet covers her head and the rest of her is covered by a space suit. A sleek, black, beautiful, and expensive suit. I immediately try to take inventory of the suit and its status lights. It’s the gear rat in me still looking for something to fix and charge her for. Or maybe I just want one like it.

As my eyes try desperately to make out the suit better, I realize she’s carrying two metal cases. Each about one meter long and half a meter tall. They aren’t very thick, but they are obviously very important by the size of the locks on them.

She steps forward to meet Mom Super and puts down the cases beside herself as they come to a stop in front of one another. The door closes behind the newcomer and, once shut, she removes the helmet.

Long dark hair fall past the shoulders of a young looking woman with tired, teary eyes. As the normal dusk light settles in the hallway, she speaks.

“Mother Superior! I have returned in honor to my Oath, in honor to our order, and freely of my own choice. I bring the knowledge collected on my pilgrimage. Twice copied for us and again two more for our sisters of the other Hall. I return to my sisters the ship given me, the money given me plus a great sum more, and I return myself in hopes of peace and understanding among my sisters.”

The last words echo off the high walls and fall silent. Mom Super just steps forward and hugs the woman. Others attend to the cases. One case heads toward the meal hall. The other, handed to a Sister who heads to the library. As it opens to allow her and the second case in, I see her turn and head toward the Holy Vault, but the door closes before I can see how she gets in.

Other Sisters in the hall start talking about the new woman and calling her the Returned.

The Returned and Mom Super walk toward the meal hall together. It’s too early for dinner, but everyone is following them, so I do too. I catch more conversation about “the sacrament” as we fill the benches. The short table with five stools that normally sits empty next to the Mom Super now has the Returned at it with the case in front of her. She stands and bows slightly, first to Mom Super and then to the room of Sisters.

I think, “Since when do the Sisters bow?”

They’re a religious order, sure, but they aren’t like the Xeno Cults or Tech Worshipers. I always thought they used the religious angle so they’d be left alone.

The Returned unlocks the case with some sort of code, a key, and then a voice print. She opens it and reveals 20 blocks that look like data drives.

Mom Super Calls out, “The Holy Sacrament of New Knowledge.”

The Sisters all reply as one, “Thanks be to God.”

Each Sister produces a mobiGlas from their pocket and puts it on. I’ve seen some of these models before, worked on them. I haven’t seen so much tech gear in one place in years. It’s like watching flowers bloom as each one winks on.

Someone touches me. I jump.

I’m just on edge is all. This is a lot to take in. A Sister I don’t recognize had done it. Her newly revealed mobiGlas is running a boot sequence as she points to the front of the room. Mom Super, calling me over.

I approach Mom Super, and she begins to smile. Never a good sign. Things go craz when Lady does that. She reaches out a hand to me, “Take it young friend. We would not keep this moment from you.”

“What?”

She laughs a little.

“We’re going to share access to the information the Returned has brought us,” she says. “You may search for whatever you like, however you like. We ask only that you share what you find interesting. Just follow the lead of the Sisters. It has been some time since we had a guest present for the sacrament, but it is allowed.”

A weight falls into my outstretched hand. I know what I dream it to be, but what it can’t be.

“This is yours, young one. A testament to your hard studies that have made even the Sisters envious of your diligence.”

A slim black and blue case rests in my hands. Careful inspection shows no maker’s mark or logos. I open it like the treasure chest I know it is.

A mobiGlas. Top of the line model with a blue crystal scrawl along the side. The world starts to go fuzzy.

None. That danger. No! ‘m null cry! If I cry ‘m weak an’ tha ‘thers will . . . I look around through my tears. I see smiling Sisters with whom I have always been safe. Will always be safe. I still can’t let myself. I choke back the tears and look Mom Super in the face. Unable to meet her eyes fully.

“Uh, thanks,” is all I get out past the tightness of my throat. I turn and bolt to my seat; desperately not wanting to be the center of attention anymore.

The same Sister who nudged me earlier whispers that they will wait till I’m ready.

Sheer panic.

I fumble with the mobiGlas and finally get it turned on. In a moment a blinking cursor presents itself on the screen. Ready.

I look at Mom Super, out of breath. She nods.

Suddenly, I feel cold in the vastness of the information I have access to. So much; more than I could learn in a hundred lifetimes.

It takes hours listening to this or that thing a Sister finds or just pushing through one set of data or another. The hardwood benches normally don’t bother me, but four hours of economic reports, social news and statistics is a bit long to just sit around with my legs falling asleep. Mom Super got up then and dismissed us. Before I duck out to my room with my new prize, she calls me over.

Mom Super sets her face hard. Formal. I get a knot in my stomach just recognizing the look of it. “The advent of the Returned brings with it an authority second only to my own. Upon this authority, a proposal of change may be brought to the Sisters.”

Seems like Sister business. I stay out of that stuff. Old habit not to get tangled, that.

“It may not seem so in your situation, dear, but freedom is paramount to us. Free will and the right to choose are more important than choosing the right or moral thing.” she explained. “The information we gather empowers the choices we make. We even share our knowledge or collect private information at times. We choose what we share and what we do very carefully.”

“Even my speaking at your trial was a choice, young one.”

My heart skips a beat at that. We’ve never discussed that day or why I’m here. It’s an unspoken understanding. She doesn’t give answers to the questions I pretend I don’t have. Her eyes are holding back a sadness covered by a smile.

“I made my choice to interfere and bring you here. It upset many of the Sisters, but your being here has convinced the others of an ugly truth many of them do not want to learn.”

I try to look casual as one of my legs threatens to fall asleep again. “What’s that?” I ask, fearing the problem I know now I cause. Tha problem tha’ I am.

“That we have failed the people of this and other planets. That we are called to teach as well as learn. That our Order must teach the children of the streets, advocating for them as they themselves cannot. We must use what we learn and are told to help empower our fellow Humans.”

“Them can’ be taught Mom Super! What I mean is— that street rats teach each other that knowing too much is bad and will get you killed. They’re so scared, everyone believes the rhymes. Hell, there are even rhymes about not questioning the rhymes. And . . .”

She puts up her hand to stop me.

“Which is the sort of thing this Order does not know or understand fully, but you do.”

She takes a deep breath.

“I never intended to make you the focus of this effort of mine to reform the Order, but you have such unique gifts . . .”

Old Lady stops and stares at me. Her sadness is gone and something more like power burns in her eyes now.

“Will you help us create schools for these children?”

Rage, anger, joy, fear, panic, scheming, dread, hope and shock run through me as I consider what Mom Super just dropped in my lap.

“The choice is sacred. We, I, will think nothing different of you no matter your answer.”

Minutes pass and my mind races. Eventually two thoughts rise to the top of the internal chaos: Mom Super needs my help and if the rats learn the power of information, the street won’t own them anymore. They will have power like I never did. Maybe even like I have now.

An anger and a determination like I’ve never known rises in me and my skin bristles. I can pay my debt to the street, my debt to the Sisters, and the debt of every rat from Bazaar to Backtrack.

‘Unique gifts’ is what she called them. Yeah, those I’ve got. A sly grin spreads across my face.

I look Mom Super in the eye and recognize what’s in her eyes now because I feel it too.

“When do we start?”

* * *

I once thought getting to leave again would be a big deal to me, but it’s not. I never felt trapped at the convent. Well, not after I learned to read, anyway. The world makes more sense now, but it isn’t any different after reading about it.

Maybe that’s what happened to the Sisters. They started living in the Library too much, and Mom Super is trying to get them back into the real world.

We work out when and where the first ‘Street School’ day will be. Two Sisters and I gather in the entry hall to take the rail to Bazaar Street. I wear one of the Habit coats to try my best to blend in with the Sisters. The area around the convent isn’t luxury, but it’s not slums either. I see a Blue on the rail and flinch as he gives up his seat for one of the Sisters, like we’re important or something. Strange feelings creep on me the rest of the rail ride. By the time we get there I want off the rail car so much I almost miss how the Bazaar has changed.

The Sisters look to me and I take the hint: I’m supposed to lead them. I start for Work Row. Rats gather in Work Row when they are on hard times or young and looking to become Gear Rats. It’s just a bigger than normal alley, but it serves well enough. Lots of exits for it too. The way rats like it. The way looks different now that I’m taller, but I get us there without any wrong turns.

Seven or eight kids are sitting on ledges and crates. I turn to the Sisters and nod. They nod back, and we move to an area near the middle of the groups where one wall is mostly empty. One Sister pulls out a small projector and places it on the ground. The other moves next to her and connects her mobiGlas. Some of the rats move closer, curious about the tech. They scatter back as I move next to the projection on the wall and pull back my hood.

“We would like to teach you all whatever you want to know,” I say and try to look at as many of them as possible.

One of the older ones speaks up. “Ja Lady? An’ wha’ make think you gots some us rats wan’? An’ wha’ i’ cos’ us? Fancy Up tech you got ain’ free. Lock tha’. I Checked.”

A joke and challenge. What will it cost? How do I say it won’t cost them anything? Free translates to gullible. Why didn’t I think about this before now? I have to answer fast or they might all spook and leave.

“Because . . . ‘cause rat like you ain’ got wha’ we got teach. Know tha’ lock ‘cause ‘m was rat an’ Sisters taught me more than any rhyme. Null cos’. None debt. All i’ takes is time.” It’s hard to try and force what used to come so naturally to me and what I say is a poor combination of the slang and proper speech, but it might work.

The children look around to each other. I think I caught them more off-guard by how I said it then what I said.

“Tha’ craz. You some oldie rat?” A young one says next.

They’re talking! Don’t blow this.

“Oldie rat? Sure. Craz? None that. What you wan’ a know small-y?”

The young one that spoke goes and comes back with someone else, another child that looked sickly. The sickly one showed a lump on his skin.

“Wha’ tha’ oldie?”

It looked like a cyst or rash maybe, but it could be something worse. Shit. “Tha’ bad some. Gots go ta medics, but null do ‘t here. Bazaar Medics got ta pay off bosses. Ride rail three stop and go ta tha medic down the street ta left. Same like got here. Treat you free like medics here are s’pposed. Somethin’ obvious like this them got ta take in and go on it. Lock truth, that.”

I try to give the sick one my rail pass. The other one shoves it away.

“We got creds ‘nough ta ride rails. Sure them gots ta go on it if we shows up, eve’ we rats?”

“Yes. Them gots ta work it. Lock sure.”

The eyes of the whole group judge me and my words for what feels like eternity. Finally the two depart, and the rest of our class stare at them as they go.

The old one pipes up again,”Wha’ else you got ta learn us rats Sister?”

Acceptance? At least for now. I paid our entry fee by helping those two. They’ll let us try. I choke back a memory as I wonder if I would have ever let the Sisters teach me if I’d still been on the street. We got some brave ones.

“Wha’ you want ta know?” I say through a smile.

* * *

Now, I leave the convent with a group of Sisters every week. Some street children, we don’t call them rats, have even made it a part of their routine to show up to school. Not every time of course; being too predictable can get you killed on the street. Some never come back again. Each time that happens, I have nightmares until I see one that has been missing for weeks return again. Never show my relief for fear of scaring them off by singling them out. Street children don’t use names, and even being recognizable is dangerous. Blending into the group protects everyone. I had to stop some Sisters who were developing nicknames and assigning numbers to the kids to track lessons. It would ruin everything if the kids knew they were being tracked with a name or number.

“Is that why you don’t have a name?” One of them asks me.

Direct dmg, that.

I try to recover but my shock was already apparent. I’ve never thought about that before.

“I don’t know,” is the best I can come up with. Then I change the topic back to school things.

To call it school is a bit of a stretch. The Sisters and I meet in a wide alley with some street children. We tried to start with basic language skills, but these kids are too practical for that. The teaching program I used is too rigid for them. The Children want information they can apply right away. So we just teach them what they want to learn or what we think might interest them: their legal rights if they get arrested. The going price for a part on the legitimate market. How to get a free rail pass or medic check. The way to count change and write numbers. The sort of thing a street child can use right now or use to get ahead. It seems to be working. They seem to like it more and are bringing others with them if they come.

The rhymes are the biggest obstacle to our efforts. When I was on the street I couldn’t go a day without one of them saving my life or helping me get by. All the street kids are going through the same sort of life that I had. Now an ‘Oldie Rat’ like me is asking them to forget what some of the rhymes say or even go against them? Sometimes, I hate myself, thinking it might get them hurt or killed.

Mom Super was right about needing my unique gifts too. Street slang is thick and almost incomprehensible to most of the Sisters. Sometimes I’m translating both directions. I’ve started teaching it to the more adventurous Sisters, but it’s slow and frustrating.

I don’t know how it happened, but one evening while working with a new child, teaching him about staying clean, I look up and all the other Sisters have left. We all tend to come as a group and leave as the day goes on. I’m one of the last most days, but I’ve never been alone. I didn’ know why bu’ that got me scared some.

When the lesson was finally done, I put the hood up on my coat and begin walking to the rail station. I’ve got this uneasy feeling, and I start to walk more quickly. I hear a sudden burst of noise to my left and turn my head to look at it, but the hood blocks my view. The verge of panic comes, and I move even faster. The train is there but as I approach the doors close and it pulls away. The next won’t be for 20 minutes.

I gasp for breath as I lean against the ticket kiosk.

What the hell? What am I afraid of? Walking around alone? My mind is just clear enough now to be angry at myself. At least one Street child must have seen my panic and will ask about it next week. Maybe it will even scare some away for a while. Am I really this stupid?

That thought carries me through the next few minutes. The sun is setting, but I try to relax as I wait.

Then someone walks up to me.

“Oh, you ‘lone, Sister? Ain’ i’ late?” the man says.

Strangers don’t just walk up to you in Bazaar Street.

“Or ‘hapse you ain’ Sister. Null tha’. is i’ rat. Yeah. Gear rat. Street rat eve’.” The man had taken another few steps towards me and stopped again when I backed away.

What did he say? All the panic of minutes ago shoots back into my mind and stiffens my spine. I don’ eve’ got a slag.

I turn to look at the man for the first time. He’s rough and poor looking, but better dressed than I’d expected. He is shaved but unremarkable. I see the shadow of a face I remember well.

Boss Dirk.

“Ya remember me? Got. I remember you, Rat. I remember that you owe me.”

TO BE CONTINUED…

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Quelle: https://robertsspaceindustries.com/comm-link/seri…d-Evil-Part-Two

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Hello everyone,

Last week the Public Test Universe opened to welcome First Wave testers as well as Concierge backers and Subscribers. New ships, grouping mechanics and the first iteration of mining could be tested, and according to some explosive clips out there, it seems you guys had a blast!

Now with the PTU being open for all testers since last night, this is the final phase before we can welcome Alpha 3.2 to live. So keep hitting our test servers, let us know in the Issue Council when you encounter bugs, and leave a reply in the feedback forum if you want to share your thoughts on a specific item or feature.

Check out last week’s Reverse the Verse for the latest about grouping mechanics, and remember to #MineResponsibly. Read the 3.2 PTU patch notes to see how mining works and watch the excellent mining tutorials that are out there, before jeopardizing your Prospector.

Lastly, let me direct your attention to this week’s Community MVP, NarayanN7, who created an incredible 600i cinematic. If you’re in awe, inspired and want to put your own Origin Jumpworks 600i into the spotlight, your turn will come soon! With the upcoming launch of Alpha 3.2, the community team prepared a ’600i commercial video contest’, which we’ll be launching in the coming days. Keep an eye out for the Comm-Link!

With that, let’s see what’s going on this week:

Every week on Calling All Devs, designers, engineers and other developers from our five offices around the world answer backer questions submitted on Spectrum and voted on by YOU. This week, we address questions regarding weapon components, firing ranges and the differences between piracy and griefing. Watch the full episode here. As always: You can submit your questions for consideration in future episodes of Calling All Devs here.

Tuesday will be dedicated to bringing you one of the serialized fiction stories that appeared in Jump Point but were never available to all backers before. Be prepared and read up on part one here.

Thursday brings a new episode of Bugsmashers, as well as an exciting new Squadron 42 Project Update in the latest installment of Around the Verse.

Lastly, make sure to tune in on Friday for another episode of Reverse the Verse, broadcast LIVE on our Star Citizen Twitch channel. Stay tuned for further information about who our special guests will be, what time we’ll go live, and keep an eye on Spectrum for the Questions Thread!

We’ll see you in the ‘Verse.

Ulf Kuerschner
Community Manager

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The Weekly Community Content Schedule

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MONDAY, JUNE 25TH, 2018
Calling All Devs (https://www.youtube.com/user/RobertsSpaceInd/)

TUESDAY, JUNE 26TH, 2018
Weekly Lore Post (https://robertsspaceindustries.com/comm-link/spectrum-dispatch)

WEDNESDAY, JUNE 27TH, 2018
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THURSDAY, JUNE 28TH, 2018
Around the Verse – Squadron 42 Update/Bugsmashers (https://www.youtube.com/user/RobertsSpaceInd/)
Squadron 42 Newsletter
Vault Update

FRIDAY, JUNE 29TH, 2018
Reverse the Verse Live (https://www.twitch.tv/starcitizen)
Roadmap Update
RSI Newsletter

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Community MVP: June 25th, 2018

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We are constantly amazed by the contributions made by the Star Citizen community. Whether it’s fan art, a cinematic, a YouTube guide, or even a 3D print of your favorite ship, we love it all! Every week, we select one piece of content submitted to the Community Hub and highlight it in this section. The highlighted content creator will be awarded with an MVP badge on Spectrum and be immortalized in our MVP section of the Hub.

Don’t forget to submit your content to our Community Hub for a chance at seeing it here!

Origin 600i Cinematic by NarayanN7

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NarayanN7 is taking us on a tour on board his 600i. The excellent camera work and music selection left everyone speechless. Well done! Please join us in congratulating NarayanN7 for being this week’s MVP!

Check out the Origin 600i Cinematic on the community hub.

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Quelle: https://robertsspaceindustries.com/comm-link/citi…In-Star-Citizen