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Join us this week for a Furious edition of Inside Star Citizen as we go behind the scenes with the vehicle team to spotlight both variants of the Mirai Fury prior to their official release for Invictus Launch Week this weekend.
Roberts Space Industries is the official go-to website for all news about Star Citizen and Squadron 42. It also hosts the online store for game items and…
Dating back to the First Tevarin War (2541-2546), Invictus Launch Week marks the beginning of the new recruiting year of the United Empire of Earth Navy (UEEN) and is publicly celebrated throughout the Empire.
Throughout the event, you can try Star Citizen FOR FREE, along with test drive the ships on display at the show. Different manufacturers take over the Bevic Convention Center every two days, so keep checking back to see everything the event offers.
Visitors also have the opportunity to tour an in-service Aegis Javelin destroyer and marvel at the entire Invictus fleet in flight, including the colossal RSI Bengal! Head over to invictus2953.com and our FAQ for more information about the event.
Check out the schedule below to plan your test flights. Have fun and fly safe!
Roberts Space Industries is the official go-to website for all news about Star Citizen and Squadron 42. It also hosts the online store for game items and…
Every two weeks, we accompany the Roadmap update with a brief explanatory note to give you insight into the decision-making that led to any changes. This is part of an effort to make our communications more transparent, more specific, and more insightful for all of you who help to make Star Citizen and Squadron 42 possible.
With that said, let’s go ahead and dive into this week’s Roadmap Roundup!
-CIG Community Team
Notable Changes for May 17, 2023
Progress Tracker
Vehicle Content - MTL
With this publish, we're adding a new team to the Progress Tracker that you may have seen mentioned in recent monthly reports: Vehicle Content - MTL, or MTLVC for short. This team is based in Montreal, and, much like the other two Vehicle Content teams, is comprised of Artists and Designers, and they'll be working on bringing the vehicles of Star Citizen to life.
Additionally, with our next publish, we'll be starting to add the Q4 2023 schedule and its deliverables for Upstream Teams.
Release View
With this publish, we're toggling the Alpha 3.19 column to Released. The RSI Lynx will remain marked as Committed until its release during Invictus Launch Week.
That's all for this week! Join the discussion on Spectrum, and check out the Roadmap Companion Guide for more information on the Star Citizen Public Roadmap.
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Now is the perfect time to explore the vast universe of Star Citizen. From soul-stirring views to heart-racing missions, the Stanton system has never been as inviting for veteran and new players alike. Dive in to experience the latest features, fixes, updates, and quality-of-life improvements added in Alpha 3.19: Call to Adventure.
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Happy Monday, everyone!
Hoist the flags, polish the trumpets, and prepare to salute the fleet as we march toward Invictus Launch Week 2953! From Friday, May 19, through May 30, the Bevic Convention Center on ArcCorp throws open its doors to welcome new and veteran pilots in celebration of the UEE Navy. Don't forget to plan your visit accordingly to ensure you get to test-fly the best military-derived ships, as we're hosting a special Free Fly during the entire duration of the event!
For those of you who can't wait to dive into the electric atmosphere of Invictus Launch Week, Alpha 3.19 is already on the PTU and open to all backers. If you're lucky, you just might catch an early glimpse of the Navy going through its drills.
The Bar Citizen World Tour is well underway, and we're making a stop in Liège, Belgium, this Saturday, May 20 for BE@Con (an epic fan-convention organised by the community!) We heard this will be an action-packed event with activities galore, so come by and say hi if you're about!
Now, let's see what's going on this week:
Wednesday brings about the Roadmap Update alongside its complementary Roadmap Roundup.
You’ve heard the slip-up on SCL, you may have even caught a glimpse on the PTU showfloor: now get the skinny direct from the developers that created this week’s straight-to-flyable sensation the Mirai Fury in Thursday's Inside Star Citizen! Also on Thursday, get a head start planning your visit to the Bevic Convention Center on ArcCorp for Invictus Launch Week with our Manufacturer Free Fly Schedule and Invictus FAQ.
Finally, on Friday, the doors will open to Invictus Launch Week 2953, which runs until May 30! There will be no episode of Star Citizen Live this week, but fret not, we'll be back with more behind-the-scenes looks at development next Friday. You'll also receive our weekly RSI Newsletter directly delivered to your inbox.
Bar Citizen World Tour Event Liège, Belgium (BE@Con Events)
COMMUNITY MVP: May 15, 2023
We're constantly amazed at the contributions made by the Star Citizen community. Whether it's fan art, a cinematic, 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 here. The highlighted content creator will be awarded 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 the chance to see it here!
Whether you're a new pilot or a hardened veteran, this guide to the Invictus Launch Week will set you up with all the information you need to ensure you get the most of this upcoming iconic event.
Head over to the Community Hub and get the low down!
Roberts Space Industries is the official go-to website for all news about Star Citizen and Squadron 42. It also hosts the online store for game items and…
Today on Star Citizen Live, Todd Papy and James Kay walk us through the new player mission while discussing many of the upcoming improvements designed to enhance the onboarding experience.
Roberts Space Industries is the official go-to website for all news about Star Citizen and Squadron 42. It also hosts the online store for game items and…
Roberts Space Industries is the official go-to website for all news about Star Citizen and Squadron 42. It also hosts the online store for game items and…
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Before any update to Star Citizen hits the Live servers, it undergoes a rigorous set of testing phases on the Public Test Universe, or PTU for short. The most egregious of bugs and issues are smashed throughout these phases, thanks to your efforts. We've said it before, and we'll continue to shout it from the mountaintops of microTech: each and every one of you jumping in to test have sincerely made a meaningful impact on the development of Star Citizen, and we could not be more appreciative. Our shared universe exists only because of you and your contributions.
So, let's celebrate!
While we have a robust incentivization program planned down the road, in the short term, we wanted to draw a special spotlight on some of our top testing contributors, with rewards to boot! We plan to continue this new initiative for future patches, with new categories each cycle.
Whether you put in the most time, the best reports, or salvaged every wreck in sight, the players listed below rose to the top during the 3.18.0 Open PTU cycle and are absolute champions! Please join us in congratulating those going the extra mile to bring the 'verse to life. THANK YOU!
Reclaiming the Scuttled
This reward is for players that spent the most time salvaging, giving us valuable feedback on this new profession. For stripping away everything else but data, these players will receive a Drake Vulture.
Thunderfuri
Dany1c1
maori66
On a Trip in Their Favorite Rocket Ship
For going the extra mile (literally!) by having the most completions of all 7 race tracks, these racers take the checkered flag, and take home their very own Origin 350r.
RedLir
tbzz
SpadesCO
Around the 'Verse, Around the 'Verse
These players were in it for the long haul, racking up the most cargo transactions at various locations all around the PU. To recognize their efforts, they'll get to run those future loads with a Crusader Mercury Star Runner.
Max_Capacity
Mijodo
AFuriousNinja
We're All Star Citizen Stuff
These players prove that dedicated testing doesn't have to test your patience, putting in the most overall time spent in-game. They'll be able to take on their next adventure in a Drake Corsair.
Exaga
m0w
Lion-king97
Smooth Operators
Efficient and reliable, these players let nothing stand in the way of getting the job done. For earning the most mission completions, they've also earned an Anvil F7C-M Super Hornet.
ledahut
JonDox
ChockoRocko
Say Hello to My Little Friends With Big Aspirations
Some players blur the lines between managing freight and managing an empire. For selling the most Maze, they'll be able to upgrade their operation with an Origin 400i.
voiDude
LordDeadsea
KNEBEL
Triage Nurse
Assessing a situation correctly is key to the medical profession, and it's equally vital in triaging an Issue Council submission. For having contributions that most closely match the severity assigned by the community, these players will be able to load up with a Crusader C2 Hercules Starlifter.
Doctor_DeCosta
EarlGreyVII
WaffleInsanity
Investigative Prowess
An accurate description is the first step in resolving an issue, and these players went above and beyond in their meticulous reporting. For having the most contributions to fixed issues with detailed evidence and comments, they'll be rewarded with an Anvil Carrack.
Vala_Mal_Doran
Moriik
Bondus
Persistent Entities
These players embodied persistence by most consistently updating their Issue Council contributions. These efforts will be rewarded with a fitting prize , the relentless Aegis Reclaimer.
Bondus
TrionCZ
Krovax
Confirmation Bias
Precision is paramount for these players, whose created issues scored the highest amount and ratio confirmed by the community. For always hitting the mark, they'll receive the sharpshooting Crusader Ares Ion.
KantosKan
acidrom
SpaceToka
Consolidated Outliers
While mining with friends can be profitable, there are times when less is more. These players most accurately labeled reports as duplicates, thus reducing clutter and earning each of them an ARGO MOLE.
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Grand Theft Auto 6 soll laut Branchen-Insidern das bisher teuerste Spiel werden: Die Entwicklungskosten sollen angeblich sogar Star Citizen in den Schatten stellen.
Grand Theft Auto 6 soll laut Branchen-Insidern das bisher teuerste Spiel werden: Die Entwicklungskosten sollen sogar Star Citizen in den Schatten stellen.
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This is a cross-post of the report that was recently sent out via the monthly Squadron 42 newsletter. We’re publishing this a second time as a Comm-Link to make it easier for the community to reference back to.
TO: SQUADRON 42 RECRUITS
SUBJ: DEVELOPMENT UPDATE 05:03:2023
REF: CIG UK, CIG DE, CIG LA, CIG TX,
FAO Squadron 42 Recruits.
Welcome to April’s Squadron 42 development report. Enclosed you will find details on the latest progress made across the campaign, including vehicle movement, head assets, and enemy gangs.
Thank you for your continued support of Squadron 42.
Sincerely,
CIG COMMUNICATIONS
AI (Content)
In April, the AI Content team continued to refine behaviors, improve animations, and develop new features. This involved further work on the sleep and bed-relaxation behaviors, which received improved animations. They also polished the various leisure animations that allow characters to watch TV and use the mobiGlas on bunk beds.
A basic security guard was implemented to patrol the Stanton and Shubin Station, which will be iterated on over the coming month. This was also updated to rotate between the tinker bench and firing range for a more realistic flow.
For the deck crew, AI Content upgraded the diagnostic cart, allowing AI to push it like a trolley around a Gladius and interact with the console at various points. They also added new ‘scooch’ animations and created blockout animations for the personnel carrier, including enter and exit animations for the driver, copilot, and backseats.
Development of the fight club and character locomotion continued, with various animation improvements being introduced. For example, the team polished the bouncer animations for the club entrance and improved AI animations for characters in severe pain. Additionally, they set up a new locomotion set for the ‘junkie’ and ‘tired’ characters, which adds variety and visual interest.
Various AI blockout animations for janitorial tasks were created, such as placing and using the bucket and mop. AI Content also made significant progress on the janitor's workflow, with Design and Animation working closely together.
AI Content added variation to the trolley artwork, moving away from the whitebox version. Further expansion was planned too. They’re currently looking to prevent trolley ‘popping’ and improve box placement in the hangar for a more-realistic and less-robotic feel.
AI (Features)
Last month, AI Features progressed with characters using sniper rifles, creating a prototype behavior that allows them to fire from low cover. This uses a new overwatch trait and behavior flow.
They also continued to work on the melee combat behavior for a specific encounter, including synchronized attacks between the player and enemy. This utilizes locomotion that allows the enemy to close in on the player and duck and dive around them when getting ready to attack.
AI Features also continued to support weapon usage from ‘transporter entities,’ which refers to anything an NPC can ride. AI social work progressed too, with the team creating a four-legged creature that players can pet.
AI (Tech)
Last month, AI Tech progressed with navigation and movement system features.
They also completed tasks for the navigation-cost-area modifier, which will mark specific areas and increase or decrease the cost of paths that go through them; this will influence which paths NPCs or ground vehicles choose. Alongside polishing and providing feedback on the feature, a way for entity tags to influence cost area was implemented.
For example, a location with fire will have a high cost for normal NPCs to ensure they avoid it. However, the same area will have a lower cost for NPCs wearing fire protection.
Work also began on ground-vehicle collision avoidance, which involved updating the system to support both vehicle-to-vehicle and vehicle-to-NPC avoidance. This required unifying how agents are separated. Previously, they were separated by agent type (medium characters, large vehicles, etc.). Now, all agent types with different avoidance radiuses and rules are processed together providing they’re in the same navigation volume.
AI Tech updated behavior and tactical-point-system requests relating to transit. They also cleaned up and optimized transit in the movement system, which involved updating the pause-movement functionality logic used when running navigation-link logic. Now, it will only pause the movement request at that moment, and all follow requests will be processed.
On the AI Tools side, improvements and optimizations were made to the usable coordinator. The team also extended the debug AI tools, most notably adding a visualizer for testing tactical-point-system requests.
AI (Vehicle Features)
The Vehicle Feature team completed the new fighter-combat AI-flow design and can now play against NPCs with a reasonable variety of behaviors. They recently moved onto testing and tweaking, though they’ll continue to further modify behaviors based on various character traits. For example, making them more aggressive or cautious, which results in visible differences in NPC behavior. This will be the AI Vehicle Feature’s focus over the coming months.
Time was also spent improving ship-spline following. This involved implementing new algorithms for calculating a ship’s speed along a spline to prevent it from flying off. They also began experimenting with the procedurally generated splines feature, which enables ships to fly around reasonably detailed geometry without colliding with anything. This will be useful for various features, including the ship-recall feature mentioned in last month’s report.
Animation
Last month, the Animation team worked on the spec ops and Screaming Galsons NPCs, Vanduul melee combat, and civilian walk animations. They also created blockouts for blanket use in beds, the janitor, and carrier personnel.
Then, animations were added for a new creature, the AI searching behavior, weapon customization, the player chow line, players using locker doors, and more.
A mo-cap session was held to capture assets needed for the coming month. Two further sessions were also planned - one with a single actor and one with two to capture various combat data.
On the facial side, the team processed a large number of selects for episode one, quality-controlling the captured data so the rest of the team can start working on it.
Engine
Last month, the Core Engine team ironed out tech developed over the last few months, readying it to be integrated into the main development stream. This includes testing the new P4K format, which will speed up the game’s startup. When QA is finished, the Engine team will begin integrating it into the main development stream and enable it for all other departments.
The new internal code-build system, StarBuild, is in the final stages of having Linux compilation enabled. Afterward, the team will start to roll this out internally.
For memory management, the Engine team are continuing to develop an internal tool to better analyze memory usage (and later reduce the memory usage of the game).
For the Gen12 renderer, the team ported the last remaining legacy rendering passes to the new API. They also began deleting the no-longer-needed legacy code.
Improvements to the streaming systems began. First, the team simplified logic to update the per-instance streaming data, which will leave less code to maintain. Additionally, they began moving more streaming logic away from the main thread to background workers; this affects the frame time less and streams objects much faster.
Work was also done on the generic shape system, with the current focus on the editor to allow the designers to set up multiple sub-segments. To improve entity areas, significant code work was done to ensure consistent and non-duplicate enter/leave events are sent in all cases.
The entity lifetime system was also updated to allow the designers to specify areas with different rules. For example, adding aggressive cleanup to areas where gameplay is important, like hangers. Various bug fixes and optimizations were completed too.
The Physics team added winch support to the rope system, which allows them to switch between fixed and pulley attachments.
Geometry parts are now assigned a unique ID to enable them to be queried by name. As a side effect, this puts more requirements on debug names, which will make them more expressive and globally unique. Additionally, the individual physical collision of geometry parts can now be disabled.
Improvements were also made to physically based wheeled vehicles on how they handle contact with hard surfaces. A new specialized AABB tree was introduced for use with signed distance fields, which favors a fast tree generating speed at the cost of slower culling code.
Lastly, various bug fixes and optimizations were done.
Features (Gameplay)
Last month, the Gameplay Features team continued working on new mobiGlas apps, including the ship-status home-screen widget, notifications, and collectible screens.
They also revisited the character customizer to add the next layers of functionality, including face sculpting, and implemented usability feedback.
Further optimization work was completed. For example, a ship’s crew can now snap to a new schedule with minimal reloading when players come back from a mission or time has passed via sleep. TrackView received improved playback threads both in-client and in the editor tool too.
A new way to animate light volumes was added. Now, the team can turn groups of lights on or off using planar, radial, or random sequences.
Objective markers were also added to the Starmap so that they’re always clamped and visible, even when off-screen or merging with another entity.
The drone/vehicle remote-control interface was further iterated on too.
Features (Vehicle)
Last month, the Vehicle Features team progressed with various UI features. As part of this, the multi-function-display (MFD) system now supports comms calls, which was completed for the wider company to use when playing the game. This involved completing the aspects needed to play through the game with the new MFDs, fixing notable bugs, and creating documentation to help testers.
“This is just about complete now, so we’ll move onto implementing more MFD views, such as the scanning/radar screen and IFCS ship system screen.” Vehicle Features Team
The new vehicle heads-up display (HUD) is nearing completion. Further iteration is underway on the visual layout, though it’s largely functional and widely in use. This work also extended to the turret UI, which received new visuals and functionality to improve the overall experience.
Vehicle UI then supported the development of in-game markers. These tasks include adding radar-contact markers to vehicles, mission objectives, and quantum destinations. As this encompasses several different systems, the main goal is to ensure the intended flow through the game’s levels is clearly communicated.
Away from UI, Vehicle Features finished the wingman commands mentioned in last month’s report. This led to various design changes, including the addition of commands to help players manage their wingmen correctly. They also implemented AI tasking to enable the wingmen to follow directions. Supporting character dialogue is currently underway.
Control surfaces were further developed last month, specifically autopilot. This required a custom autopilot setup that behaves differently to thruster flight, as control surfaces are highly dynamic and the new flight model varies greatly depending on atmospheric conditions. This new control mechanism flies the ship in a similar way to real-life fly-by-wire systems. Last month, it was heavily tested and is currently nearing completion.
Gameplay Story
Following on from last month, Gameplay Story began April creating another series of animations for the Gladius deck crew. For this, they reused various assets from the first series and adjusted skeleton animations and distances.
After this, they progressed with minor updates across a wide range of scenes, including updating 20 scenes with either new poses, prop updates, start/end times, or general polish and maintenance.
“All of this was a considerable body of work and it felt great to accomplish so many updates.” Gameplay Story
A new scene was also implemented into chapter four, and significant updates were made to several scenes using new motion capture.
Finally, Gameplay Story began discussing scenes in chapter 19 that had not previously received much attention.
Graphics & VFX Programming
Last month, the Graphics team worked towards enhancing the game’s realism, functionality, and developer workflow with a range of long-awaited features and upgrades. For example, streaming locally compiled skinned meshes is now possible, which provides much quicker loading and replication of the release build. The editor also received a new HUD feature that indicates when resources are being compiled.
Water volume finetuning began for use on planets, specifically with atmospheric and fog volumes. These integrations are part of the Q2 water deliverables, which include water ripple simulations for all bodies of water (even down to puddles).
A series of performance and compatibility improvements were made to the core renderer. This included the removal of some legacy CPU-to-GPU buffer management synchronization, which could cause hangs in Nvidia drivers.
The team also began moving volumetric fog and gas clouds to Vulkan. They’re currently looking to enable the feature following essential compatibility, functionality, and visual quality-control fixes.
The UI Tech and Graphics teams made considerable progress on the interior map. Last month, the map’s core visual features were completed, with the current focus on performance improvements and polycount optimization. A temporal super-resolution prototype was integrated too, paving the way for improved resolution and clarity across the wider game.
For the ongoing development of fire tech, a new shared resource manager now efficiently manages 3D-texture data across multiple fire emitters associated with a single voxel grid. As part of this, the voxel grid received several important bug fixes, including one for an out-of-bounds issue caused by discrepancies between the iteration and preliminary code. This fix ensures accurate and consistent rendering of voxel-based elements within the game.
Narrative
Last month, Narrative began sweeping through the scripts for the entire game to ensure they’re still in line with the latest playthroughs. They also prepared for a number of mo-cap shoots to pick up additional content that was called out, which led to scripting, capturing placeholder recordings, and testing material to see if the content is ready to be captured.
Outside of scenes, Narrative captured wildline sets for the various gangs that players will encounter in both FPS and flight sections of the campaign. They also captured wildlines for population NPCs (known internally as ‘redshirts’), who utilize dynamic conversation content to fill the gaps between the silent masses and scripted characters.
Away from scripts and performances, the team started working through the vast amount of text that players will encounter. This includes everything from the moment-to-moment mission objectives, after-action reports that summarize the player’s performance in the mission, environmental narrative (i.e. messages on terminals), and Galactapedia entries.
Tech Animation
In April, Tech Animation made significant progress on head-asset processing. This involved developing a semi-automated system that has not only reduced turnaround time but also improved asset quality.
The team also continued with DNA integrations, collaborating closely with other teams to integrate their data with the rest of the codebase. Support also continued for the various Feature teams.
UI
The UI team spent part of April on a visual overhaul of the radial menus and weapon attachment screen. Starting from existing functionality, they created concept art to see how they could make the screens appear “next gen.” Then, they created in-game prototypes using Building Blocks to prove that the 3D effects were achievable. The remaining task is to connect the prototypes to the game data and get them working with the various screen sets.
UI continued to work alongside the Vehicle team to tweak the layout of vehicle HUDs based on feedback from the game director’s playthroughs.
Last month, tweaks included adding a visually improved pitch ladder. They also updated the visuals for some of the weapon screens and created some interesting concepts for use towards the end of the campaign.
UI Tech kicked off work on the new interior and mini map. This is another large cross-team initiative that will ultimately improve the overall gameplay experience.
VFX
Last month, the VFX team continued to provide effects support for several locations.
“Work also continued on a particularly complex destruction sequence, which has been quite challenging to complete due to the sheer physical size of it!” VFX Team
Finally, the team began to focus on weapon effects. This is a cross-project task to improve the overall quality and consistency of weapon VFX across SQ42 and the PU. It will also support new gameplay requirements, including damage and wear.
Roberts Space Industries is the official go-to website for all news about Star Citizen and Squadron 42. It also hosts the online store for game items and…
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This article originally appeared in Jump Point 6.06.
MISC Prospector
DEVELOPMENT HISTORY
The MISC Prospector is the most famous (and possibly most tortured) project to come out of MISC High Industrial’s infamous Project Cold Boot, an engineering team organized to develop additional revenue streams from existing MISC assets using limited resources. Development of the Prospector began in 2910 as an outgrowth of a review of the Freelancer light transport project. Having already seen success modifying the base Freelancer for both survey and fire suppression missions, MISC was keen to study even more unlikely uses for the chassis. To that end, MISC’s management reluctantly agreed to write off nine Freelancers which were transferred to the Cold Boot team. Three were complete and space tested, while the others were left in various stages of construction and shipped alongside their intended components.
The Cold Boot team began by spit-balling potential roles for a purpose-built Freelancer variant, which ranged from ordinary combat support drones to fire suppression spacecraft. From nearly three hundred rough concepts, the team voted to divide into three design groups to pursue more advanced physical development of the top three options. The first was a business oriented design dubbed the ‘Freeminder,’ which was to be a secure data relay ‘brain ship’. The second project opted to angle for a military contract with an armored space-to-ground reconnaissance vehicle called the Observer. The third, and considered the most unlikely to go forward, was to be a dedicated mining ship nicknamed simply ‘The Miner’.
The mining ship was least likely to go forward for a very simple reason: in 2910 there were very few small mining ships. This was not for lack of technology, but rather both terrestrial and asteroid mining were simply considered to be large-scale propositions which could only be profitable when funded by major corporations. In a world where 400-meter mining platforms could strip small asteroids in a matter of hours, there was simply no thought that an individual operator would ever pursue mining. MISC was, essentially, co-opting the Roberts Space Industries ‘common man’ approach to ship sales with a ship that had no proven audience.
By 2914, the first two conversion attempts had petered out entirely. The Freeminder team proved unable to produce an effective prototype, with the Freelancer’s internal space unsuited to shielding the number of system blades needed for the project. The Observer concept had proven spaceworthy in simulations and a great deal of work had been done constructing the alternative, transparent nose cone for the physical build when word that the rumored ground reconnaissance contract had been withdrawn due to a shifting military budget. The incomplete prototype remained on display at MISC’s Los Arenas laboratory for years and was eventually scrapped. Although the Miner had proceeded to the physical prototype stage, its situation seemed equally dire. The first prototype, retroactively designated ‘Prospector Proof of Concept Demonstrator A-1’, was an unpleasant and ungainly beast. The team found themselves unable to budget for custom-manufactured mining equipment and was instead forced to adopt an off-the-shelf solution: the smallest size of a Daylan Kruz laser-head emitter, a component roughly the size of a Freelancer’s entire cockpit. Rather than being integrated into the design, the emitter was nano-welded tandem to the cockpit and attached via four metal booms. This created an unwieldy spacecraft without the aerodynamics necessary to function predictably in an atmosphere. Initial test flights were conducted via carrier spacecraft, with the prototype miner being dropped into space close to asteroid targets.
What the A-1 technology demonstrator lacked in looks or handling, it made up for in functionality. Over the course of twenty-six flights conducted by MISC test pilots, the A-1 racked up success in a number of areas considered necessary for the program to continue. These flights proved that the Freelancer’s stock drive could power a mining apparatus, that the hull could be modified to load ore and other materials while in flight and that, with some practice, a trained pilot could very effectively conduct more delicate, high-value mining operations using the ship’s thrusters. The prototype program continued with four of the Freelancer chassis ultimately being converted into increasingly advanced demonstrators (designated A-2, A-3, and B-1).
By the space trials for the final demonstrator, the B-1, the mining attachment had instead been integrated into a large sheath astride the underside of the cockpit. The result was a mechanism that the pilot could very effectively maneuver, giving him the ability to make the kind of delicate mining maneuvers for which larger ships had to deploy specialized surface craft. The management at MISC-HI was elated at the prospect of joining the ranks of spacecraft manufacturers producing lucrative mining ships and saw the potential for the ship to create a new market for independent mining crews (many of whom would lease these ships at extremely positive corporate rates of return). The board was ultimately so convinced that they removed the effort from Cold Boot entirely, funding the project and assigning a team of top engineers to develop it into a distinct design rather than a Freelancer conversion.
Over the next eight years, MISC-HI internal teams worked together on two projects: The prime design team focused on developing a unique Freelancer-inspired spacecraft hull that, while using many off-the-shelf parts, would be constructed ground up and organized to best support how they envisioned small-scale mining would be most effective. Meanwhile, a handsomely funded research and development team focused on the biggest technological hurdle to the project: miniaturizing a mining array to the point that it could be stored within a small ship’s fuselage while still giving it an effective energy output. To meet this task, MISC licensed the Daylan Kruz design and relentlessly cut down and miniaturized components in a painstaking, multi-year process.
The ship, now named the Prospector, began proper space trials in 2923 after an extended time in jump tunnel simulations. Live testing went extremely well with only limited teething difficulties resulting from a late-in-process software update. The base ship was ready for flight some six months before the first version of the drill was completed, so the initial test flights focused on handling and were flown with only a weighted simulation. Late in the year, the first mining assembly came off the line and delighted thousands of aerospace engineers by slotting into place aboard a Prospector hull and then immediately humming to life.
MISC unveiled the Prospector to the galaxy in what it called a ‘special preview showing’ at the 2924 Intergalactic Aerospace Expo. The crowd reaction was harsh, with reviewers praising the design but strongly (and often cruelly) criticizing the existence of the ship in the first place. No one, went the refrain, would ever need such a specialist spacecraft. As a result, there was almost no interest from buyers at the show and pre-orders for the next Freelancer immediately outshone the Prospector.
Although MISC’s management opted to continue the expensive planned 2925 model year rollout for the commercial model, many employees privately expressed doubts because of the media’s reaction. Where Roberts Space Industries was given carte blanche to ‘sell the dream’ with every new design, it seemed no one was willing to think of MISC in the same way. Sadly for MISC’s stock prices, the media reaction was prophetic; sales of the Prospector hit rock bottom shortly after launch and stayed there for two full years.
Then came the Chessex Lode, a massive discovery of previously ignored raw materials on Ferron II. News reports around the Empire reported on the lode’s discovery, the most valuable of the year, which had been made using precision instruments deep in a canyon of a planet that had been effectively ignored for years. Making the story all the more appealing was the fact that it was not Shubin Interstellar or another large mining outfit with the new mineral claim. Instead, it was Chloe Raznick, owner and operator of one of the first 2925 MISC Prospectors off the assembly line. She had made the legal purchase of several hundred parcels of former military ground testing area in the hopes of salvaging expended shells and claiming the small bounties on radioactive debris collection. In the process of surveying her lot, she discovered a deep chasm into which she navigated her Prospector. The rest was history and Raznick was an overnight sensation, charming the Empire and impressing trillions with her graceful entrance into a world of excess riches.
Within days of the discovery, Prospector sales shot through the roof as people rushed to try their hands at this new career. Just as the Cold Boot team once predicted, the Prospector had given rise to a new class of miner; and now their work had equipped those independent miners to take on the galaxy. Since 2925, MISC has made several iterative updates to the basic Prospector with two models (2929 and 2938) being considered the most significant. The 2947 model is planned to incorporate a completely reworked mining array and a new system for ore storage, which is significantly more efficient than the original.
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Happy Monday, everyone!
Last week, Jumptown 2.1 debuted, introducing the newest improvements to our community-inspired dynamic event. Tens of thousands of you flocked to the lucrative drug labs, and the initial data is showing, well... a lot of carnage! Don't miss out on the fun and jump in today, as the doors close on Jumptown 2.1 tomorrow, May 9 at 1 PM Pacific / 8 PM UTC.
In the meantime, Alpha 3.19 is active on the PTU servers, and we recently opened access to all backers! We invite you to join us in putting the latest Star Citizen patch through its paces, as the UEE Navy is already approaching the Stanton system for Invictus Launch Week 2953.
The biggest event of the year will take place May 19-30, with all of Stanton celebrating Invictus Launch Week. Get ready for epic opportunities to experience the UEE Naval fleet up close and personal. We'll also launch an exclusive free fly throughout, welcoming new pilots to the 'verse throughout the event. And for you veteran pilots, this is a great chance to take to the skies in military-themed ships you may haven't piloted before.
For the next stop on the Bar Citizen World Tour, we look forward to joining you for a fun event in Sacramento! So if you're also in town this Sunday, May 14, and ready for good drinks and great times, be sure to stop by!
And last but not least, System 7, by Atmo Esports, kicks off race #4 of this spectacular annual event this Saturday. Cloud Chasers will hit the streets on the Residential Platform of Orison, creating a high-speed course that could bump racers to their demise.
The multitude of weekly player-driven events reflects our players' unwavering creativity, making this community unique and outstanding. We invite you to share your public events with all of us on Spectrum and the Community Hub.
Now, let's see what's going on this week:
On Tuesday, the narrative team is back with the latest issue of Whitley's Guide, providing you with all the background information on the trusted MISC Prospector.
Wednesday, we'll repost last week's Squadron 42 monthly report newsletter as a Comm-Link.
Thursday, we’re back with another episode of Inside Star Citizen following the latest Star Citizen developments, this time with a special spotlight on the unique and diverse settlements coming to the 'verse soon, and more!
On Friday, there will be another episode of Star Citizen Live, which will air at 8am Pacific / 3am UTC. Keep your eyes open for more details to come. Furthermore, you'll find our weekly RSI Newsletter directly delivered to your inbox.
Have a stellar week both in and out of the 'verse!
System 7 Racing League Race #4 Cloud Chasers (System 7)
SUNDAY, MAY 14, 2023
Bar Citizen World Tour Event Sacramento, CA
COMMUNITY MVP: May 8, 2023
We're constantly amazed at the contributions made by the Star Citizen community. Whether it's fan art, a cinematic, 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 here. The highlighted content creator will be awarded 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 the chance to see it here!
Ab'u and the Kid
Ometsuke proves that Star Citizen fan art doesn't always have to be digital and made an unequal couple of aliens with Super Sculpey and painted them with acrylic.
If you immediately fell in love with them as we did, jump over to the Community Hub and leave an upvote for our artist.
Roberts Space Industries is the official go-to website for all news about Star Citizen and Squadron 42. It also hosts the online store for game items and…
Which upgraded feature are you most excited for? Join us this week on Star Citizen Live as we bring in guests from the EU PU team to discuss more about improvements you can expect from the mining, salvage, and tractor beam experiences coming to Alpha 3.19!
Roberts Space Industries is the official go-to website for all news about Star Citizen and Squadron 42. It also hosts the online store for game items and…
If you’re from around here, you’ve no doubt heard about Jumptown. Local legends tells of the infamous “hidden” drug lab on the icy moon of Yela, and the bloody conflicts that raged there as local factions vied to control its production or its fate. Now, years later, more drug labs have been uncovered in various locations around the Stanton system, and this time the firefights will be deadlier, the spoils richer, and the stakes higher than ever before.
In 2019, the Star Citizen community discovered a lucrative drug lab on the surface of Crusader’s moon Yela. What followed was completely unplanned, and surprised everyone - including our development team.
Tens of thousands of players flocked to the outpost, with split motives in mind – eager outlaws and less-than-scrupulous organizations rushed to acquire and sell this newfound illicit treasure trove at any cost, while more lawful groups chose to lock down the station in a bid to prevent further criminal activity.
This clash resulted in a perpetual tug-of-war between far-flung factions and home-grown heroes over control of the outpost. You never knew what you’d find when approaching Jumptown, which only the most dedicated could locate, since it wasn’t easily pin-pointed on standard-issue maps.
These events were so profound, they ended up becoming official canon in Star Citizen’s lore – a prime example of player actions shaping the future of the ‘verse forever.
Originally released in Star Citizen Alpha 3.16, this dynamic event inspired by the original Jumptown wars, is back with all-new improvements that will challenge you like never before.
Read on for more details about what to expect, and be sure to outfit your force for the impending mayhem.
Inside Scoop
These new labs have a totally redesigned interior, reimagined as a circular floorplan that conveniently comes with fewer doors, making for better sightlines and shooting lanes. A second dispenser can also be found for more expedient drug production.
On the Outside
The entire operation has doubled in size, with a second entrance and multiple windows and skylights to make ambushes hard to come by for those hunkered down inside as well as those attempting a breach from outside.
Multiple Points of Contention
The scofflaws and scalawags of Stanton are getting wiser, rotating the locations of their automated drug-production operations. Jumptown is but one of these facilities, so keep an eye on your mission manager for the up-to-date locations.
Get the Bag
SCU containers are bulky and conspicuous, word around the system is the local scum have started to transport their contraband in smaller, more discrete parcels. Be sure to bring a Multi-Tool with a tractor-beam attachment.
This Dynamic Event can be undertaken by either lawful or unlawful players. The mission itself plays out the same regardless of which path you take, with a few key differences.
To take the lawful path, be sure you have a CrimeStat of zero and then accept the mission from the local security office, marked in your contracts manager as a Priority mission. The drug boxes you collect at the mission site will need to be taken to the closest LEO port. For example, if the mission is taking place at Jumptown, you would take your haul to Port Olisar.
On the lawful path, if you successfully delivery at least one run of contraband back to the LEO port, you will receive an aUEC bonus on top of the price of the drugs you deliver.
To take the unlawful path, you must have a CrimeStat of any level and accept the mission from Ruto. To do this you will need to have a non-negative affinity with the mission giver. Ruto knows how valuable this intel is, so he also asks a buy-in for the mission.
On this path, all contraband must be taken to an unlawful trading post to be sold off, regardless of where the mission is taking place. The unlawful path will provide a bonus to the price of each successfully delivered drug box.
Accept the Mission
Open the Mission Manager in your mobiGlas and navigate to the Priority category, either under the General tab for the lawful path or Personal for unlawful. This will give you both the coordinates of the drug lab and where to sell the packages.
Fly to the Lab
The drug lab will be marked on your HUD and the Starmap. It may be in Crusader, microTech, or ArcCorp space. If you're on the lawful path, you'll be taking the drugs to the corresponding LEO stations (Port Olisar, Port Tressler, and Baijini Point, respectively), which will also be marked on your HUD. If on the unlawful path, you'll be traveling to Grim HEX for your payout.
Grab the Contraband
Once you arrive at the lab, your goal is to find the drug spawner inside (pictured here). This device will pump out one box of contraband every 30 seconds. This timer doesn't start until you grab the previous box, so you'll have to hold your position against anyone else looking for the same payday if you want to maximize your earnings.
Jumptown Schedule - 3.18.2
Each time listed represents a location change, and each location runs approximately 24 hours. The final location will run until May 9 at 1 PM Pacific / 8 PM UTC.
May 5, 2023 at 9 AM Pacific / 4 PM UTC
May 6, 2023 at 9 AM Pacific / 4 PM UTC
May 7, 2023 at 9 AM Pacific / 4 PM UTC
May 8, 2023 at 9 AM Pacific / 4 PM UTC
Jumptown Offers
Whether you need to get your troops in or get your drugs out, take control of the battlefield with these curated Assault Packs with ship paints, or browse a plethora of Jumptown heavy hitters below.
Roberts Space Industries is the official go-to website for all news about Star Citizen and Squadron 42. It also hosts the online store for game items and…
Join us at the starting line of the upcoming microTech PTV racetrack, now more treacherous than ever, while we drive between regularly scheduled tasks to explore what individual artists work on amidst larger features.
Roberts Space Industries is the official go-to website for all news about Star Citizen and Squadron 42. It also hosts the online store for game items and…
Every two weeks, we accompany the Roadmap update with a brief explanatory note to give you insight into the decision-making that led to any changes. This is part of an effort to make our communications more transparent, more specific, and more insightful for all of you who help to make Star Citizen and Squadron 42 possible.
With that said, let’s go ahead and dive into this week’s Roadmap Roundup!
-CIG Community Team
Notable Changes for May 3, 2023
Progress Tracker
The following deliverables have been added to Progress Tracker:
Ship Trespass
The interior of players' ships are now considered trespass zones for those without permission to enter. Permission will granted via the party system until more complex systems for managing crew and passengers is created. Players trespassing aboard a ship can be attacked by the owner of the ship and any player in their party without fear of committing a crime. This deliverable has been added to the Mission Feature Team's schedule.
New Missions - Retrieve Consignment
A new mission type where players are tasked with locating critical items in consignment lists, then safely extract them. This deliverable has been added to the Mission Feature Team's schedule.
Release View
The following card has passed its final review for Alpha 3.19, therefore we are updating its card to Committed:
RSI Lynx
Building, implementing, and balancing RSI's planetary rover, the Lynx, as a game-ready vehicle.
The following cards have been added to the Alpha 3.20 column on Release View:
Ship Trespass
The interior of players' ships are now considered trespass zones for those without permission to enter. Permission will granted via the party system until more complex systems for managing crew and passengers is created. Players trespassing aboard a ship can be attacked by the owner of the ship and any player in their party without fear of committing a crime.
New Missions - Retrieve Consignment
A new mission type where players are tasked with locating critical items in consignment lists, then safely extract them.
MISC Hull C
Encompasses all tasks, including design, art, audio, and tech, required for the implementation of the MISC Hull-C heavy cargo hauler into the PU.
That's all for this week! Join the discussion on Spectrum, and check out the Roadmap Companion Guide for more information on the Star Citizen Public Roadmap.
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Welcome to April’s PU Monthly Report. Read on for the latest updates from Star Citizen’s global development teams, including Art, Engine, Vehicles, Locations, and more.
AI (Content)
In April, the AI Content team continued to refine behaviors, improve animations, and develop new features for the PU and Squadron 42. This involved further work on the sleep and bed-relaxation behaviors, which received improved animations. They also polished the various leisure animations that allow characters to watch TV and use the mobiGlas on bunk beds.
Various AI blockout animations for janitorial tasks were created, such as placing and using the bucket and mop. AI Content also made significant progress on the janitor's workflow, with Design and Animation working closely together.
AI Content added variation to the trolley artwork, moving away from the whitebox version. Further expansion was planned too. They’re currently looking to prevent trolley ‘popping’ and improve box placement in the hangar for a more-realistic and less-robotic feel.
AI (Tech)
Last month, AI Tech progressed with navigation and movement system features.
They also completed tasks for the navigation-cost-area modifier, which will mark specific areas and increase or decrease the cost of paths that go through them; this will influence which paths NPCs or ground vehicles choose. Alongside polishing and providing feedback on the feature, a way for entity tags to influence cost area was implemented.
For example, a location with fire will have a high cost for normal NPCs to ensure they avoid it. However, the same area will have a lower cost for NPCs wearing fire protection.
Work also began on ground-vehicle collision avoidance, which involved updating the system to support both vehicle-to-vehicle and vehicle-to-NPC avoidance. This required unifying how agents are separated. Previously, they were separated by agent type (medium characters, large vehicles, etc.). Now, all agent types with different avoidance radiuses and rules are processed together providing they’re in the same navigation volume.
AI Tech updated behavior and tactical-point-system requests relating to transit. They also cleaned up and optimized transit in the movement system, which involved updating the pause-movement functionality logic used when running navigation-link logic. Now, it will only pause the movement request at that moment, and all follow requests will be processed.
On the AI Tools side, improvements and optimizations were made to the usable coordinator. The team also extended the debug AI tools, most notably adding a visualizer for testing tactical-point-system requests.
AI (Vehicle Features)
The Vehicle Feature team completed the new fighter-combat AI-flow design and can now play against NPCs with a reasonable variety of behaviors. They recently moved onto testing and tweaking, though they’ll continue to further modify behaviors based on various character traits. For example, making them more aggressive or cautious, which results in visible differences in NPC behavior. This will be the AI Vehicle Feature’s focus over the coming months.
Time was also spent improving ship-spline following. This involved implementing new algorithms for calculating a ship’s speed along a spline to prevent it from flying off. They also began experimenting with the procedurally generated splines feature, which enables ships to fly around reasonably detailed geometry without colliding with anything. This will be useful for various features, including the ship-recall feature mentioned in last month’s report.
Animation
Animation continued discussing creatures, creating a matrix showing the skeleton classes they think should exist and how the creatures could use them.
Art (Characters)
Last month, the Character Art team completed the frontier toxic and desert environmental wear outfits, the Duster faction’s common outfit, and the frontier light helmet.
Alongside this, Character Concept Art prepared handoff sheets for the Headhunters gang and Duster outfits, and began exploring an upcoming Subscriber item.
Art (Ships)
Last month, the EU Vehicle Content team completed the final art pass on an all-new vehicle, and the LOD0 art pass began on one of its variants.
Another new ship passed the whitebox stage; this is nearing completion and will move to the next production stage once an upcoming review is completed.
The team wrapped up on the RSI Lynx Rover, while another upcoming ground vehicle progressed through the greybox stage.
The LOD pass on the Argo SRV was completed. Relating to this, a support pass for tractor beams began, which includes retrofitting the new vehicle tractor beam onto existing supported ships. It also involves ensuring that all valid components can be removed using the FPS tractor beam.
“This has been achieved by adjusting the art and collision on some component bays as well as ensuring there’s a clear path to remove components from the vehicle.” UK Ships Team
A component-bay pass continued on the MISC Freelancer, which progressed to the LOD0 and final-art phase, and the Crusader A1 Spiritcontinued through the LOD0 phase, passing the greybox review gate. Additionally, the C1 Cargovariant entered the greybox stage.
In the US, Greybox on an upcoming vehicle was completed.
“We have redesigned the dashboard and cockpit to allow for better visibility while driving in first-person view. We also did a short pass on optimization, as we found that we may have gone a bit overboard on the detail and needed to pull back a bit, especially in areas rarely seen by the player.”
Greybox on the Aopoa San'tok.yāiprogressed, with several areas being redesigned and fleshed out, including the rail system within the glass canopy. The team also created several iterations of the seat and settled on a design that highlights Aopoa’s use of Xi’an anti-gravity technology. In addition, they progressed on the new dashboard to further push the use of alien tech.
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Community
The Community team supported the Alpha 3.18.1 and 3.18.2 release, as well as the recent Free Fly event. Preparations are in full swing for the upcoming Alien Week, and work continued on the New Player Hub. The team is also working on numerous improvements for the Community Hub - many of which have been highly requested, and more info will be shared soon.
April also saw the kick-off of this year's Bar Citizen World Tour. For the first time ever, members of the Community team visited Phoenix, Arizona in the USA, and followed this up with another visit to Paris, France. Further, as well as supporting a Bar Citizen event in Manchester, UK with over 100 players and 40 CIG staff, several members of the team attended the community-organized convention, Con42, near Frankfurt, Germany.
"The third iteration of this incredible event brought together nearly 600 community members, as well as many from the CIG staff team, who answered some burning community questions in two dev panels! It was a privilege to attend such a fantastic event and meet so many of you in person, and we loved supporting this super-engaging event." Community Team
Lastly, the team has been entrenched in CitizenCon 2953 planning, with announcements and activities to be revealed very soon. They are excited to share what's in store for the epic return of this in-person celebration of all things Star Citizen and, most importantly, the community, so keep your eyes peeled in the coming days for more details!
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Engine
Besides support for the ongoing patch release, the Core Engine team ironed out tech developed over the last few months, readying it to be integrated into the main development stream. This includes testing the new P4K format, which will speed up the game’s startup. When QA is finished, the Engine team will begin integrating it into the main development stream and enable it for all other departments.
The new internal code-build system, StarBuild, is in the final stages of having Linux compilation enabled. Afterward, the team will start to roll this out internally.
For memory management, the Engine team are continuing to develop an internal tool to better analyze memory usage (and later reduce the memory usage of the game).
For the Gen12 renderer, the team ported the last remaining legacy rendering passes to the new API. They also began deleting the no-longer-needed legacy code. Improvements to the streaming systems began too. First, the team simplified logic to update the per-instance streaming data, which will leave less code to maintain. Additionally, they began moving more streaming logic away from the main thread to background workers; this affects the frame time less and streams objects much faster.
Work was also done on the generic shape system, with the current focus on the editor to allow the designers to set up multiple sub-segments. To improve entity areas, significant code work was done to ensure consistent and non-duplicate enter/leave events are sent in all cases.
The entity lifetime system was also updated to allow the designers to specify areas with different rules. For example, adding aggressive cleanup to areas where gameplay is important, like hangers. Various bug fixes and optimizations were completed too.
The Physics team added winch support to the rope system, which allows them to switch between fixed and pulley attachments.
For the Alpha 3.18 release and beyond, work went into managing the memory of physics objects. This will allow them to collect every allocation call site as well as utilize customizable upper object limits, which will help to detect leaks.
Additionally, the old error-prone manual ref counting was replaced with a tagged weak pointer approach, which is safer and more friendly to multi-threading code.
Geometry parts are now assigned a unique ID to enable them to be queried by name. As a side effect, this puts more requirements on debug names, which will make them more expressive and globally unique. Additionally, the individual physical collision of geometry parts can now be disabled.
Improvements were also made to physically based wheeled vehicles on how they handle contact with hard surfaces. A new specialized AABB tree was introduced for use with signed distance fields, which favors a fast tree generating speed at the cost of slower culling code.
Lastly, various bug fixes and optimizations were done.
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Features (Arena Commander)
During April, the Arena Commander Feature team focused on Alpha 3.18.x release support, and finalized planning for the rest of the quarter.
The Engineering team supported the code rework for the VMA/loadout customization menus; this will enable it to work better alongside the new spawning technology introduced with Persistent Entity Streaming. Analytics work was also completed, including adding support for features coming later this year.
Finally for Engineering, several new game modes and filters for the new frontend were created to help players find the modes they want from the new game mode selection window.
Arena Commander’s Design team finished two versions of the reworked Defford Link track, which were successfully playtested.
“While only one of these maps can become Defford Link, after overwhelmingly positive feedback, we'll be releasing the other as a brand-new fourth addition to the New Horizon Speedway collection.” Arena Commander Design Team
Design also continued to polish the new Arena Commander frontend, adding filters, detail to the game mode tiles, and video backgrounds to the mode buttons. Finally, designs were completed for an unannounced feature.
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Features (Characters & Weapons)
In April, the Features team began adding EVA fuel to the actor loadout. When implemented, players will use fuel as they accelerate or decelerate while free roaming in zero gravity. If fuel runs out, they can use their oxygen supply as a low-grade emergency supplement to get them to safety. However, jumping from surface to surface using the new zero-g traversal system will not use fuel, making it a viable option for players traveling without thrusters or that are low on fuel. The Multi-Tool tractor beam can be used to navigate environments without gravity too.
The team also worked on flak ammunition. This generates a single projectile that, on explosion, breaks into additional projectiles that fire in random directions. Part of this included implementing the option to add a proximity trigger to any projectile.
Features (Gameplay)
Last month, the EU-based team progressed with the mining update and tractor beam detach/attach feature, which are targeted for release in Alpha 3.19.
For Salvage, development of the ‘munching’ feature began, with the first prototype finished for internal iteration.
For the refinery, the first blockout for the UI screen was created and the gameplay beats of the various refining methods were discussed. The team now have a clear understanding of what the different deliverables will look like and how the actual gameplay will play and feel.
In the US, the Design team implemented the halls for Invictus Launch Week. This was done using new functionality from the USPU team, which not only reduces the setup time but also eliminates the possibility of a significant number of bugs historically encountered during the event’s setup.
In April, the team refactored how in-game ship prices and insurance expedite fees and times are calculated. The process is now automated based on a ship's stats and characteristics, and will continue to evolve as the amount of data factored into the price calculations increases.
As a result of redistributing mineable resources, the team completed their initial pass on refineries. This will change how efficiently each location refines specific ores based on the abundance of mineable resources within that region. Along with this, they’re currently rebalancing the sell prices of refined resources at the Admin and Trade & Development Division offices to account for this new distribution.
“These changes are currently in the PTU, and we'll continue to iterate on the new prices as we review the data we receive from testing.”
Finally, the engineers focused on the new cargo deck and external cargo-loading game loop that will be used to support ships such as the MISC Hull C. This is the first step in a sequence of planned updates to make cargo gameplay more physical and tangible. Fundamental concepts, such as the cargo warehouse and asynchronous buy and sell orders, not only support the Hull C but will be important elements in manual cargo loading within hangars.
Features (Mission)
To add greater variety to in-mission ship combat, the Mission Features team began adding all ships into the enemy spawn pool.
“We used a tool to pit all ships against one another 1000 times to determine a difficulty progression.” Mission Features Team
Work also continued on Salvage missions, with attention given to missions where salvage is used to restore valuable ships for profit.
Development continued on the Package Extraction, Data Heist, and Consignment Retrieval missions. Various ship interiors were also marked up ready for combat.
On the code side, many much-needed fixes were added, while work on players defending their ships is almost complete and will soon begin testing.
Graphics, VFX Programming & Planet Tech
Last month, the Graphics team worked towards enhancing the game’s realism, functionality, and developer workflow with a range of long-awaited features and upgrades. For example, streaming locally compiled skinned meshes is now possible, allowing for much quicker loading and replication of the release build. The editor also has a new HUD feature that indicates when resources are being compiled.
Water volume finetuning began for use on planets, specifically with atmospheric and fog volumes. These integrations are part of the Q2 water deliverables, which also include water ripple simulations in all bodies of water (even down to puddles).
A series of performance and compatibility improvements were made to the core renderer. This included the removal of some legacy CPU-to-GPU buffer management synchronization, which could on occasion cause hangs in Nvidia drivers.
The team also began moving volumetric fog and gas clouds to Vulkan. They’re currently looking to enable the feature following essential compatibility, functionality, and visual quality control fixes.
The UI Tech and Graphics teams made considerable progress on the interior-map feature. Last month, the map’s core visual features were completed, with the current focus on performance improvements and polycount optimization. A temporal super-resolution prototype was integrated too, paving the way for improved resolution and clarity across the entire game.
For the ongoing development of fire tech, a new shared resource manager now efficiently manages 3D texture data across multiple fire emitters associated with a single voxel grid. As part of this, the voxel grid received several important bug fixes, including an out-of-bounds issue caused by discrepancies between the iteration code and preliminary code. This fix ensures accurate and consistent rendering of voxel-based elements within the game.
In-Game Branding (Montreal)
In April, the In-Game Branding team created the interior and exterior signage for Pyro’s Ruin Station and continued supporting the EU Location team.
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Live Tools
The Live Tools team progressed with the design of a new Network Operation Center feature. They’re currently involved in the continuous improvement of the tool, which aims to provide the best experience possible to its users.
The team also began rolling out a new version of the internal error-handling pipeline.
Narrative
The Narrative team spent the month closing out tasks and submitting numerous bug fixes to help get the next patch ready for release. They also continued to give items, clothing, and armor names and descriptions, and worked with Design to improve Salvage missions. They also supported initiatives to help newer players learn the game.
Additionally, they began working on upcoming content, including the new Package Extraction, Data Heist, and Consignment Retrieval missions. They also looked at expanding the air-traffic-control dialogue to support new gameplay, including the new cargo features.
Work continued on Pyro, with Narrative helping the Content team develop lore for the system’s initial contracts and how players can interact with the various outlaw groups. Additionally, they planned upcoming work to further develop the game’s xeno-languages.
April also brought with it a batch of new Galactapedia articles alongside a Portfolio exploring the illicit drug WiDoW.
Online services (Montreal)
In addition to bug fixes, performance improvements, and updates to the login-flow code, the Online Services team completed work on changes to long-term persistence (LTP).
“We rely on LTP for players to be able to transfer progression between releases. LTP had to be completely rewritten for Persistent Entity Streaming, as the old implementation had fundamental issues and would not fit with the concept of full persistence. The new system monitors the global player inventory and simply creates/destroys LTP records for aggregates stowed into or unstowed from inventories.” Online Services Team
Research & Development
In April, the R&D team continued to focus on improving the temporal render mode for atmospheric and volumetric clouds.
“The major obstacles to overcome are still occasional noise and temporal artifacts in the raymarched results for various view scenarios, as well as the upsampling of results under the presence of thin silhouettes within a given frame.” R&D Team
Additionally, improvements to cloud shaping were implemented and are currently in the prototyping stage with Tech Art. The goal is to improve the global vs local read of clouds as well as their volumetric look along the vertical profile, all while avoiding shaping artifacts.
These changes should also help break up tiling and overcome certain shaping issues due to limited degrees of freedom when building a 3D volume from noise, a set of 2D textures, and the parameterization used to access them.
Systemic Services & Tools
In April, the Systemic Services & Tools team progressed with the service-beacon refactor and completed several bug fixes for Alpha 3.18.2. They also completed various shop optimizations and began prototyping mission markers for bounty hunting. They're currently preparing to work on the virtual NPC service.
The team planned out the next set of milestones for the Quantum/Odin tool too.
Tech Art/Animation
In April, the Tech Animation team made significant progress on head-asset processing. This involved developing a semi-automated system that has not only reduced turnaround time but also improved asset quality.
The team also continued with DNA integrations, collaborating closely with other teams to integrate their data with the rest of the codebase. Support also continued for the various Feature teams.
UI
In April, the UI Art team improved several Squadron 42 features that may eventually make their way into the PU, including improved visuals for radial menus and various weapon screens.
The UI Tech team worked on several bug fixes and performance improvements and began work on the new interior map.
VFX
Last month, VFX provided support for several props and interactable items, including new types of volatile cargo.
They also progressed with tasks for several locations, such as Lorville and various rock caves. A clean-up pass was also done on some older locations, which involved tidying up the levels' layers and making sure placed particle effects were named correctly.
Roberts Space Industries is the official go-to website for all news about Star Citizen and Squadron 42. It also hosts the online store for game items and…
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Happy Tuesday, everyone!
In the world of 3.18.2, the team has been tirelessly gathering data and rapidly implementing hotfixes (often several times a day!) to tackle the interaction delay issue. We are pleased to report that we have identified the root cause and are already working on some fixes to improve the experience. Your efforts in playing and reporting have greatly accelerated our time-to-fix, and we are truly grateful for your recent activity. Though the journey has been bumpy, we have made significant progress. However, we recognize that there is still much work to be done, and we will remain vigilant in monitoring, adjusting, and implementing further fixes as needed. Thank you!
In case you missed it over the weekend, Alpha 3.19 is now available to the Wave 1 testing group on PTU! Salvage Contracts, new encounters at Ghost Hollow, and more are available to test as we lead up to Invictus Launch Week. For more information on PTU Testing and how to jump in, check out our PTU FAQ on the Knowledge Base.
Our next stops on the Bar Citizen World Tour are upon us! Join your fellow citizens for good beverages, good times, and good....goodies to be won! We'll be visiting Sacramento, California on May 14, as well as Belgium for the Be@Con event on May 20. For details on these as well as additional upcoming events, check out our 2023 Bar Citizen landing page.
Now, let's see what's going on this week:
This Tuesday, Subscribers will receive May's Subscriber Comm-Link and newsletter.
Wednesday, we've got the latest Roadmap update alongside its companion Roadmap Roundup. Plus, catch up on the latest development updates in April's Monthly Report, both for Star Citizen via Comm-Link and Squadron 42 via newsletter.
Thursday brings another episode of our weekly behind-the-scenes series Inside Star Citizen, where we explore more aspects of our continuing development than you can shake a stick at. (Warning: Don't shake a stick at Disco Lando, he frightens easily.)
On Friday, is another all-new, all-live episode of Star Citizen Live, which is LIVE at 8am Pacific / 3pm UTC. Did we mention it's LIVE? There's always someone in chat that asks. You'll also find our weekly RSI Newsletter directly delivered to your inbox.
We're constantly amazed at the contributions made by the Star Citizen community. Whether it's fan art, a cinematic, 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 here. The highlighted content creator will be awarded 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 the chance to see it here!
Greatest Delivery Mission Ever
Borozo put together a "side quest" of sorts at this year's Con42 event, with these incredible recreations of medical supply crates to boot!
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Welcome to an action-packed May! It’s nearly Invictus Launch Week, the annual military event that lets you try out some of the deadliest vehicles in the ‘verse. So, in keeping with the naval theme, this month’s Flair is a selection of Clark Defense Systems combat backpacks, each with a unique camo-inspired design.
If you’re looking for a break from all the naval action, May’s Ship of the Month has you covered. The Argo MOLE is a multi-crew miner that’s far more efficient than several ships working together, so gather a crew and make a fortune ripping rocks apart! As usual, the MOLE is available with enhanced insurance for all Subscribers until the end of the month.
(Flair will be available in the Alpha 3.19 Live patch.)
Clark Defense Systems Night Camo CSP-68L Backpack
The Night Camo edition features a special textured finish and mixes black camo and silver for a subtle-yet-striking look.
Current Centurion-level Subscribers get the Night Camo CSP-68L Backpack as part of their subscription. (Flair will be available in the Alpha 3.19 Live patch.)
Clark Defense Systems Cayman CSP-68L Backpack
The Cayman edition features a vibrant metallic green finish with geometric patterns for a color that changes slightly based on lighting conditions.
Current Imperator-level Subscribers get the Night Camo and Cayman as part of their subscription. (Flair will be available in the Alpha 3.19 Live patch.)
Clark Defense Systems Forest Camo CSP-68L Backpack
The Forest Camo edition features a special digital green camo pattern with silver highlights.
The Forest Camo is available to all Subscribers to pledge for from the Subscriber-Exclusive Store. (Flair will be available in the Alpha 3.19 Live patch.)
If you would like to receive this flair as part of a subscription, you can subscribe before May 9th, 2023, 20:00 UTC.
If you subscribe after May 9th, 2023, you can pick up these and previous months’ flair (going back to 2014) in the Subscriber-Exclusive Store. You can fill in any gaps in your collection and pick up extras to gift to non-Subscribers.
Earnable In-Game
Our goal is to make most items earnable in-game. For this reason, many Subscriber Flair items have been added to the in-game loot table as rare drops from Alpha 3.17. Most pre-2023 items that can be carried by players are available now, with new and future flair being added after a three-month exclusivity window.
NOTE: Some exclusive digital event items, such as those from CitizenCon Goodies Packs, will not be discoverable via the in-game loot system.
Roberts Space Industries is the official go-to website for all news about Star Citizen and Squadron 42. It also hosts the online store for game items and…
