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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 August 9, 2023
Release View
The following deliverable has passed its final review, therefore we are toggling its status to Committed for Alpha 3.20.0:
Physicalized Cargo Updates
Adding new functionality to accommodate the release of the MISC Hull C. This includes both automated cargo loading at LEO stations as well as SCU containers up to 32 SCU.
Progress Tracker
With this update, we wanted to make you aware of a few upcoming team changes on Star Citizen. To better support upcoming tasks, and to accommodate the additional development resources coming in from our Montreal studio, the US PU Gameplay Feature and Systemic Services and Tools teams are being reformed into a pair of new teams. These teams will be the NA PU Gameplay Feature Team and the Economy Team. The majority of USPU and SST's tasks will be given to these new teams, along with a few going to other teams. We'll have more info on these teams, their deliverables, and their schedules in the future, but for now we're updating USPU and SST's schedules to end in Q3.
Additionally, we're also introducing the Vehicle Gameplay Feature Team. This team will have a focus on the persistent universe and its vehicles, with our existing Vehicle Feature Team remaining on Squadron 42. All three of these new teams will have their schedules updated on Progress Tracker very soon, but we wanted to give you an early heads up.
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.
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 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 08:02:2023
REF: CIG UK, CIG DE, CIG LA, CIG TX,
FAO Squadron 42 Recruits.
Welcome to July’s Squadron 42 development report. Enclosed you will find details on the latest progress made across the campaign, including ship UI, weapon aiming, and fire propagation.
Thank you for your continued support of Squadron 42.
Sincerely,
CIG COMMUNICATIONS
AI (Content)
Last month, AI Content made a strategic decision to concentrate resources on a single location, which brought several benefits; one being a more iterative review process, as they now meet daily with leadership and receive detailed feedback, allowing them to raise the quality bar to a shippable level. Additionally, this fostered greater teamwork and knowledge sharing among team members, expanding developer skillsets.
They also progressed with the hangar and mess hall locations. In the hangar, they introduced an overseer behavior that underpins supervisors for the deck crew, ordinance officers, and fuelers. These supervisors dynamically interact with their colleagues using datapads and oversee their work, similar to a ‘middle manager’ role. For the landing officer, they drew inspiration from aircraft-carrier takeoff-and-landing videos to create realistic deck crew actions.
In the mess hall, scripted AI was added alongside random systemic interactions. This allows the team to implement more interesting actions that might be challenging to achieve with a solely systematic approach. For example, a new addition sees NPCs watch and react to a TV show.
Looking ahead, the team will shortly move on to various ship interior locations.
AI (Features)
In July, AI Features improved the quality of various behaviors, including unrestraining. For example, AI can now wake up while restrained and call out to others to come and rescue them.
They also developed interfaces and behaviors for AI-driven vehicles equipped with specific radar gadgets. This enables the AI to locate enemies when they hide or move out of sight.
Work continued on close-combat encounters to ensure that the AI locomotion performance looks good, which included integrating new performance capture animations. Environmental searches were also improved to allow NPCs to evaluate their environment and then attempt to flank the target using cover locations. The team are currently improving the combat behavior that allows NPCs to use MedPens to heal themselves in combat.
AI Features continued to implement buddy AI, including a behavior that enables the buddy to crouch and locomote between cover. Buddies now also have improved reviving, acknowledging when the player is downed or unconscious.
On the animation side, polish was done on a variety of features, including grenade throwing, healing, unrestraining, crouched sharp turns, and weapon reloads.
AI (Tech)
Last month, AI Tech finalized work to allow NPCs to transition between EVA and environments with gravity. This required an update to the usables code, including exposing it to enter and exit location information. Now, NPCs can enter and exit ships through airlocks or hatches by vaulting over ledges. The team also implemented simple behaviors and assignments for entering and exiting ships, which compute a path to a location and utilize the most suitable usable to finish the transition.
On the navigation-system side, AI Tech upgraded navigation links to connect two volumes from different zones, which is needed for moving platforms. The previous implementation only allowed links between parent and child zones rather than between two unrelated zones. Further optimizations and improvements were made for navigation-mesh raycasts too.
AI Tech also picked up the ongoing work on boids. They’re currently working on 2D boids agents, such as rodents, that will move across terrain within the confines of the navigation mesh. They’re also adding constraints to avoid navigation-mesh edges to ensure the boids stay inside navigable areas. Next, they’ll look into boids agents playing animations while moving or idling.
The Subsumption editor received numerous improvements, including a variable-type editor, the ability to copy/paste states while editing a mastergraph, improved views of how mastergraph transitions are presented, an improved activity view for available sub-activities and functions, and a validation panel that presents errors and warning when loading and saving files.
Various features and AI systems received improvements too. For the usable-group coordinator, designers can now specify that a group of NPCs should synchronize when transitioning from one group of usables to another. For NPCs pushing trolleys, the team optimized the PID controller and adjusted the default parameters to stabilize quicker after turning on a path.
For NPC perception of audio stimuli, AI Tech began using new functionality exposed by the Audio team, which will utilize the room system to understand if an audio event should be received.
AI (Vehicles)
Vehicle AI focused on supporting Level Design throughout July; vehicle AI has a significant impact on level design, especially for flight chapters, so time was spent looking into issues, supporting designers, and adding new features.
Further work was done to integrate the new vehicle aiming system into AI. NPC pilots will make use of the new system just like players, which has resulted in significantly improved AI accuracy. Though this requires balancing, they now have much more control than before.
Improvements and changes were made to atmospheric flight. Now, when in-atmosphere, AI fly with control surfaces and dogfighting reverts to a more traditional “get-on-your-six” style of combat. As part of this, the team wanted to give players more opportunities to get behind the AI, so now, enemies occasionally make mistakes and break away, leaving windows they didn’t before. This has resulted in a far more enjoyable experience.
Animation
Last month, the Animation team moved from alpha to beta work. This involved improving the visual results of reloads and takedowns as well as basic idles for weapons and knives.
The team continued working on background and systemic AI, taking a larger role in driving visual fidelity. They also kicked off reload animations for enemy spec-ops weapon types and began implementing two high-intensity combat fights.
They’re currently making updates to player-prone animations and adding an increasing number of player interactions to improve immersion in specific environments.
On the facial side, the team continued developing final-quality facial animations for various cinematic scenes alongside supporting new incoming lines for combat and social AI.
Support is also ongoing for two mo-cap shoots: one for narrative requirements and another for ad-hoc social and combat AI needs.
Audio
Audio continued their ongoing task of tagging generic animations with new Foley sound effects. This will add to immersion game-wide, including non-gameplay scenes (such as cinematics) where generic animations are reused.
The team also designed and implemented new weapon sound effects; a significant step to improving the sound across all FPS features. Several gadgets received their initial audio pass in pursuit of having sound on all interactable devices across the campaign too.
Audio also assessed the workload for the planned flight experience improvements, identifying areas of tech that need developing or improving. Alongside this, the Technical Sound team will soon begin writing up a new vibration system to amplify the tension and immersion of dogfights and large space battles to greatly improve the overall flight experience.
Time was spent reviewing all existing ambiance work in preparation for the next stage of development; currently, all base ambiance is implemented, which will be refined with smaller, nuanced details. They also completed the sound design for the large turrets that players can use during an early portion of the game. The cannon effects were redesigned to sound more powerful and “beefier,” while the Gatling turrets received a new barrel spin effect.
Finally for Audio, the Dialogue team spent time on set shooting a selection of scenes and mastering in-game dialogue.
Engine
The Core Engine team progressed with the development of StarBuild, the new in-house code-build system that will replace WAF; last month, they fixed issues and implemented improvements based on feedback from wider dev use.
For MemReplay 2.0, the team introduced VirtualMemoryAreas as a concept to the memory allocation system, which will better track OS committed memory and provide an improved visualization of sub-allocations.
Progress was then made on removing the remaining ‘MapAndWrite’ discard calls in the renderer in preparation for the new Vulkan backend. They also reworked the game-launcher code structure to reduce code duplications and enable Linux-based headless clients, which will help with automatic testing.
The Physics team continued helping the game teams fix various physics-related bugs in the game code. They also updated the new cloth system and Maelstrom, and began improving active and animated ragdolls.
The Entity System team primarily supported various technical initiatives, including RaStar and the Resource Network. This involved exploring ways to create and limit generated locations to provide a rich experience without negatively impacting performance.
Finally, they provided bug fixes for the recently enabled 'async editor loading,' and are currently adding more safety checks for correct entity access.
Features (Gameplay)
July saw work begin on the in-game simpod, where players can load into different simulations to practice their skills.
“This is a fairly involved process, where we need to teleport the player into a new environment, change their loadout and status, change the game mode and game rules, and restore everything back again when the simulation has finished. It’s not like the Matrix - if you die in the simulation, you don’t die in the real world.”Gameplay Features
Elsewhere, a pass was done on formation flying based on feedback from the ongoing mission reviews. This led to various changes, including how players join the formation, the way it flies to match the orientation of the leader, and numerous UI improvements.
Progress was also made on the mini-map, including culling markers outside of the camera view and clipping important markers to the view edge. New markers for dangerous objects, such as grenades and missiles, were added to both the mini-map and Starmap too.
Features (Vehicle)
Last month, the Vehicle Features team worked alongside the Level Design teams to close out various chapters and improve how the game plays and feels.
One of these key areas is the vehicle aiming and gunnery system. As part of this, the team explored options to make aiming more challenging, which is partially driven by the slightly overpowered auto-gimbal system. New aiming modes, dynamic zooming on targets, and other elements will make the combat experience more engaging.
Control surfaces was finalized last month, with the team making UI changes to show additional information, including stall speed, selected mode, and thruster and control surface. Further control options will be considered following playtesting.
Vehicle Features also began supporting the Physics teams with physical damage tech, which requires a lot of lower-level vehicle-system refactors. This will update vehicles to use much more modern systems in the engine and work far better with physical damage and other recent features.
July’s work on multi-function displays (MFDs) focused on scanning. This is by far the most complex MFD screen, showing information from the scanned target and allowing players to find out about its internal components by utilizing a deeper scan. This is now working as intended.
Turret seats are currently being converted to use the new MFD system. Turrets also have a modified version of the vehicle self-status MFD, which shows more turret-relevant information.
Another smaller UI element worked on was rearm and refuel terminal located at some landing pads. This required a few new UI tech elements, which were resolved.
Lastly, the vehicle loadout terminal is now largely functional, allowing players to see all the items available in their profile and equip them onto their ships in the Idris’ hangar. Vehicle Features are currently working with the UI team to finalize how this terminal will look.
Gameplay Story
At the start of July, Gameplay Story completed the setup for the air-traffic controller (ATC) operator seat. They followed this by updating all their scenes that involve operator seats to work with the approved metrics.
“This was quite a big undertaking but it was great to see so many scenes that have been blocked for a long time finally get to a finished state.” Gameplay Story Team
Alongside this, they did an implementation pass for a scene in chapter 12 and used new mo-cap to update the start of a scene in chapter 14.
Recently, Gameplay Features joined a large strike team to review and improve animations on the Idris. Last month, this involved creating new TrackViews for deck crew entering the Gladius' cockpit, checking the Gatling gun, and testing the main thrusters.
Graphics & VFX Programming
Several new features were added to the Global Illumination system last month, including the initial implementation of temporal smoothing for screen space probes, which will produce more stable results at a lower cost. G-buffer support was also added to environment probes to provide a cheap scene representation for secondary light bounces. In addition, new debug modes were added alongside a new mechanism to gather lights for the GI system.
A basic implementation of Temporal Super Resolution was completed, which will continue to receive fixes and improvements as it’s integrated into the graphics engine.
AMD’s memory allocation API was integrated into the Vulkan backend, improving the system’s stability, streaming speeds, and buffer read times. A reduction in streaming/rendering dependencies has improved performance, and new parameters will allow the devs to modify the RenderGraph’s ShaderStage and ownership state. These features were added alongside ongoing bug fixes to visual regression tests with a focus on the render-to-texture system.
As part of ongoing UI refinements and unifications, the silhouette/highlight feature is currently being improved with a softer and brighter outer glow. The mini-map also received a ping effect, which will blink around objectives for improved in-game navigation.
The Feature team is working to bring the new unified water shader to the game, adding details such as puddles that splash on impact and fixing collision-detection issues on large water volumes. A new system to manage water simulations is also in progress that will activate regions upon collision, deactivate them when they have settled, and constantly monitor and protect performance by limiting active simulations. Meanwhile, a new hash-map system for allocating water buffer regions and large surface-area-friendly water volumes is actively being worked on so the new unified WaterBuffer system can be enabled by default.
The WorldBuilder system saw a variety of improvements last month, including a major refactor to the high-level logic that runs background jobs, which should significantly reduce latency, avoid stalls, and simplify the code. In addition, planet ocean patches no longer render in duplicates, and the planet streaming system was fixed for Gen12.
The VFX Programming team fixed issues impacting damage maps; attached objects now correctly update their damage maps and an issue causing unexpected data to appear in snapshots is being investigated. For VFX-specific work, an issue preventing grouped child effects from spawning correctly was addressed, and bugs on separator tags and external referencing were fixed.
Multiple Squadron 42-specific issues were resolved too, such as gas-cloud lightning problems, inconsistent damage maps, and a crash in chapter seven. In addition, planet effects now use a LOD cull to prevent unnecessary simulation when an object is out of bounds, and the team added functionality to allow plasma ammunition to attach to characters.
Level Design
Level Design’s main focus throughout July was interstitials, including bug fixing and maintenance. With all of the team’s scene content now in-game, they moved on to ensuring scenes reach the expected quality threshold and addressing specific details. For example, ‘Are characters in their correct outfits, are they aligned to the environment/props, do the interrupt/rejoin points work as intended, are they head tracking, do they work from various approach angles?’
This significant undertaking requires working closely with the Cinematics, Gameplay Story, and Character teams to iron out various issues.
Outside of scenes, progress was made on fail states. For example, punching a colleague will see players taken to the brig and getting a dressing down from a superior. Work continued on save and checkpoints too.
Narrative
Narrative’s focus in July was preparing for the two upcoming performance-capture shoots. Dialogue is used to support so many gameplay features that there have been a lot of recent reviews to ensure that the tutorials, instructions, and help that the various characters provide are in alignment with the gameplay experience. The team also identified several dialogue triggers that occur more frequently than initially estimated, so they went back to capture more line variants so that players won’t have to hear the same audio quite as frequently.
“These recording sessions also mean that much of the team’s placeholder dialogue will soon be replaced by the actual performances. People across the studio are making sure to enjoy these inspired temporary performances by fellow team members while they still can.” Narrative Team
Additionally, the team supported localization, assisting with subtitle validation. This process will be ongoing as some of the more recently captured audio still needs to go through the pipeline. It’s important that the actual audio recordings are validated to the script to ensure that the subtitles are as accurate as possible, as often during the recording process, actors will slightly adjust lines to make them sound more natural.
Research & Development
In July, further updates were made to atmosphere and volumetric cloud rendering. Guided sampling used in the cloud raymarcher was updated based on last month's improvements to transmittance profiles. The profiles themselves received additional filtering (stochastic resampling) to reduce occasional block artifacts due to profile reuse. Moreover, the temporal render mode currently being developed for atmosphere and volumetric clouds was switched to a low discrepancy-based sequence of sample offsets that are used to set up rays for raymarching over time. Based on recent research publications, cloud shadow maps can now be stochastically filtered, which considerably improves performance and render quality. The new temporal render mode will use the stochastic texture filter by default.
UI
July saw the UI team iterating on display layouts for Squadron 42’s flyable vehicles to ensure they all look and feel unique but retain the ease of use built on throughout the project. The concepts for the second main vehicle in the game are now signed off and ready to add, and UI are working closely with the vehicle artists on the cockpit for the third.
The MultiTool UI was also updated to make it much simpler and cleaner, while improvements were made to the AR markers and health widget. UI also updated several interaction menus and continued developing one of the key 3D displays in the game.
The Core Technology team improved Building Blocks’ runtime performance, as the recent addition of new UI assets led to an increase in size and complexity. This involved coding more aggressive solutions for skipping hierarchy section updates, which led to a reduced CPU footprint and significant performance gains.
The team also continued adding new features to Bindings and Building Blocks, including a color picker, pagination widget, and stepped lines for the designers.
Finally, UI worked alongside Graphics to develop a new internal map system to help players navigate the game’s complex cities, planets, and capital ships.
"This will be a real game changer for players and we're really excited by its progress."
VFX
Last month, the VFX team continued to focus on fire propagation. With the shader improvements from the previous month adding greatly to overall visual quality, the artists created new fire particles (including looping fire texture sequences) to work in harmony with the shaders.
“The results, though still work-in-progress, are very encouraging!”VFX Team
Further improvements were also made to gas-cloud lightning effects, including a new option to allow lightning to follow a moving vehicle.
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 6.10.
Constellation Phoenix
DEVELOPMENT HISTORY
The Phoenix is a variant of the standard Constellation platform developed as Roberts Space Industries’ first luxury-market spacecraft. When the development of the Phoenix variant was first announced in 2935, it seemed to be an unusual direction for Roberts Space Industries, a company that had made its name offering affordable spacecraft “to the people”. The Phoenix’s origin story is appropriately unusual: the variant project began following the brief success of a Spectrum series called Spacecraft of the Elite. The series premiered in 2932 and showed off top tier luxury spacecraft owned by the rich and powerful, which spawned a ‘custom interior’ design trend for spacecraft. This led to the creation of numerous luxury brands dedicated to enhancing more common spacecraft designs. It also landed at exactly the time Roberts Space Industries’ Astro Development Team (ADT) was studying options for a fourth production variant of the time-tested Constellation.
The development team (led by longtime RSI designer Jules Parliegh), began by taking a stock 2934 model year Constellation Mark III chassis and outfitting it with new interior supports. The final prototype seems unrecognizable when compared to what would ultimately become the first Phoenix, but this test was focused solely on under-the-deck modifications that would go on to support the eventual overhaul. The major challenge at this point wasn’t so much the luxury styling as it was adapting and reworking the ship’s design to support a wider variety of changes. Incorporating the hot tub, later made famous by the variant’s marketing campaign, required a major revision of the stock plumbing and waste disposal systems. The makeshift prototype was also outfitted with improved shields and privacy systems in the expectation that a luxury spacecraft would likely need such protections to stand out in its much more specific role.
BUILDING PARTNERSHIPS
With a prototype in hand, Roberts Space Industries turned to another major challenge: how to redefine their workman-like multi-crew vehicle as a luxury object that would appeal to those who would traditionally choose an Origin design. Their solution was as much marketing as design. To make the Phoenix work, the ADT understood that they needed to partner with long-standing luxury brands instead of simply presenting their vision as the ultimate in high-class space travel. To that end, the company brought in a roster of household names known for producing the best of the best:
Designer Emil Quast, best known for his decadent design of Terra’s ‘Flowhaus’ public assembly building was brought in to design the Phoenix’s luxury interior. ADT designers had initially constructed their own concept plan featuring plush leather furniture and extreme soft lighting. Quast threw out the existing designs, refusing to even look beyond the first page of the plan and instead created the first iteration of the elegant cabin the Phoenix is known for today.
The Wintle Design Company, most familiar for offering high-end luxury craft goods, was given the task of equipping the master suite and the first version of the hot tub. Wintle spent 18 months researching the creation of what they called a ‘complete sleep system’ to replace the standard Constellation fixtures, aimed at adding every comfort possible to the typically utilitarian process of sleeping starside.
Kruger Intergalactic was brought back to create an updated version of the P52 Merlin bundled with standard-model Constellations. Their team developed the high-performance P72 Archimedes to replace the Merlin, although tooling delays caused initial production Phoenixes to ship with a Merlin instead. While the Merlin was purchased under license, RSI opted to buy exclusive rights to the Archimedes in order to prevent its use by other manufacturers.
Atuvo, creators of the Foodsparce System, provided a licensed reworking of their signature Atuvo state table and kitchen system. Atuvo’s engineers spent months refactoring their existing food technologies to fit into the small area allowed on the Phoenix due to a contractual obligation to make sure the resources available aboard the Phoenix were identical to those found in the finest kitchens. One partnership did not work out as intended: luxury vehicle builder Kremner Ltd. was charged with developing a replacement for the RSI Ursa Rover. Kremner Ltd. declared bankruptcy in the middle of the development process, forcing the team to scramble to find a replacement. RSI’s own vehicle team ultimately developed the Lynx Rover variant specifically for the Phoenix.
To make the first production prototype possible, RSI gathered all the involved licensees (over one hundred in total) at their development facility on Earth. Representatives from each company were incorporated into the ADT process for the remainder of the Phoenix’s development cycle, allowing them visibility over not just their area of the ship’s design, but to provide feedback on everything else being built. The prototype construction stage took roughly two years and concluded with space trials for a unique variant of the then-current Constellation Mark III. The Mark III Constellation had fewer hull changes for variants than the Mark IV, allowing more custom experimentation during the prototype phase.
The Phoenix development team was also given unprecedented access to the work of the much larger Constellation Mark IV team, with the expectation that the variant would premiere as part of the launch planned for 2942. Delays relating to the Mark IV rework moved the launch to 2944, giving the Phoenix team an opportunity to soft launch the design. Starting in 2941, Roberts Space Industries’ representatives were allowed to offer interested parties Mark III conversions that introduced the Phoenix concept. The Mark IIIs were upgraded to Phoenix status in the lab at Valatie using factory-fresh base Constellations. Only a handful of conversions were constructed, with most purchased by RSI’s trusted partner corporations for executive operations.
Production of the Phoenix variant of the Constellation Mark IV began in earnest in June 2944 alongside a media blitz intended to remind buyers of Roberts Space Industries’ prestigious history. The company produced advertisements featuring their original model Quantum Drive and sponsored multiple documentaries focusing on humankind’s early interstellar expansion. All production model Phoenixes are constructed to base specifications alongside the other model Constellations at RSI’s Albany plant and then ferried to a special facility at Luna for the installation of their interiors and other unique features.
The first Constellation Phoenix sold went to rock star Ellroy Cass. The ship was commissioned by the then-head of RSI Outreach, Thar Obson, and personally delivered to Cass. Orders for corporate executive fleets and private citizens seeking a luxury experience came in quickly, selling out the first year’s production allotment of Phoenixes in a matter of days.
A single ‘centennial’ Constellation Phoenix has been constructed in honor of a 2946 production milestone for the entire Constellation range. This unique Phoenix features a metallic gold livery and an interior exhaustingly detailed in 24 karat gold. This Phoenix was not offered for sale and the only example remains owned by Roberts Space Industries, who have occasionally used it for trade shows and other marketing pushes.
In 2948, Roberts Space Industries premiered a variant-of-a-variant, the Constellation Phoenix Emerald, as competition with Origin’s new model of 600 series spacecraft became more serious. The Emerald featured a ‘lucky’ green paint scheme and a variant interior cabin design. Emeralds were produced in extremely limited numbers and have not become part of the normal production process. Market analysts believe that Roberts Space Industries is happy with the positioning of the Phoenix despite increased competition from Origin and others. Less than one percent of Constellation fuselages become Phoenixes, and although the model generates between five and seven percent of the total profits for the line depending on year, it is expected that the company will continue to produce Phoenixes for the foreseeable future.
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Happy Monday, everyone!
Today we're kicking off the ultimate in vesselmania with this year's SHIP SHOWDOWN! Who will become the ultimate Champion of 2953 in the most important popularity event of the year? But first, it's time for our flyable and driveable crafts to survive Phase One and get into the top 16; otherwise, the dream of eternal glory will be crushed before it begins. To avoid early termination, your favorite needs your support, creativity, and cheering! Check out the Ship Showdown page for more details and your chance to win a spaceship.
Phase One, running until August 21, is all about spotlighting your favorite vehicle by sharing original content to the Community Hub or Twitter with the hashtags #SCShipShowdown and #StarCitizen. This can be an original song, something physically crafted, an epic in-game or real-life shot, a trailer, a music video... you can even take it a step further and construct the ship in real life if you're up to the challenge! To maximize your fav's chances of advancing to Phase Two and the top 16, upvote, like, and reshare any content of the vessel you want to win.
Now, let's see what's going on this week:
Tuesday marks the return of the Narrative team with 'Jerry: A Half-Told History.'
This Wednesdaysees the latest Roadmap Update accompanied by a Roadmap Roundup. Plus, we'll publish last week's July Squadron 42 Monthly Report email as a comm-link.
On Thursday, Inside Star Citizen's latest episode is a look at the VFX department, their role in development, and an update on their latest work.
This Friday, Star Citizen Live returns with Elliot Maltby from Mission Features, who'll take us through the mission-making process. Don't miss it at 8am Pacific/3pm UTC. You'll also see the weekly RSI Newsletter delivered to your inbox. And don't forget, you have until Friday 06:59 AM UTC to participate in the 2953 Arlington Gang Screenshot Contest to win a beefy battleship.
Have a stellar week both in and out of the 'verse!
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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!
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LeMage's impressive collection of Star Citizen screenshots makes an excellent submission for Ship Showdown's Phase One. However, the question remains, which vessel does LeMage consider their favorite?
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…
Ever wish you had a nice place to keep all your medical supplies in Star Citizen? Lewis from the Interactables Team creates a medicinal case while showcasing their process for building functional containers.
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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Welcome to July’s PU Monthly Report, where you’ll find the latest development progress on everything related to the Persistent Universe.
Read on for in-depth updates on vehicles, locations, AI tech, maps, and more.
AI (Tech)
Last month, AI Tech finalized work to allow NPCs to transition between EVA and environments with gravity. This required an update to the usables code, including exposing it to enter and exit location information. Now, NPCs can enter and exit ships through airlocks or hatches by vaulting over ledges. The team also implemented simple behaviors and assignments for entering and exiting ships, which compute a path to a location and utilize the most suitable usable to finish the transition.
On the navigation-system side, AI Tech upgraded navigation links to connect two volumes from different zones, which is needed for moving platforms. The previous implementation only allowed links between parent and child zones rather than between two unrelated zones. Further optimizations and improvements were made for navigation-mesh raycasts too.
AI Tech also picked up the ongoing work on boids. They’re currently working on 2D boids agents, such as rodents, that will move across terrain within the confines of the navigation mesh. They’re also adding constraints to avoid navigation-mesh edges to ensure the boids stay inside navigable areas. Next, they’ll look into boids agents playing animations while moving or idling.
The Subsumption editor received numerous improvements, including a variable-type editor, the ability to copy/paste states while editing a mastergraph, improved views of how mastergraph transitions are presented, an improved activity view for available sub-activities and functions, and a validation panel that presents errors and warning when loading and saving files.
Various features and AI systems received improvements too. For the usable-group coordinator, designers can now specify that a group of NPCs should synchronize when transitioning from one group of usables to another. For NPCs pushing trolleys, the team optimized the PID controller and adjusted the default parameters to stabilize quicker after turning on a path.
For NPC perception of audio stimuli, AI Tech began using new functionality exposed by the Audio team, which will utilize the room system to understand if an audio event should be received
Animation
Last month, the Animation team focused on improving visual results for reloads and takedowns. They also worked on basic idles for weapons and knives, which are planned for release in Alpha 3.20.
They’re currently making improvements to player-prone animations and adding an increasing number of player interactions to improve immersion in specific environments.
On the facial side, they continued to support new incoming lines for PU pilots and combatants
Art (Characters)
In July, the Character Art team continued working on outfits for the Headhunters and Dusters gangs.
Alongside this, the Character Concept Art team explored ideas for additional Headhunters outfits and prepared handoff sheets for IAE and Luminalia content.
Art (Ships)
In the UK, the RSI Polaris began its whitebox pass with a thorough breakdown of the content required. The team then imported the concept mesh and completed a basic entity setup. A rough interior whitebox was completed, and several issues with the concept were resolved.
An as-yet-unannounced ship continued its LOD0 pass, with the majority of tasks completed and a review scheduled. The team is currently focused on adding tertiary details to the interior and exterior as well as finishing the lighting for each phase.
The Crusader A1 Spirit progressed through final art, with a handful of LODs remaining for its interior and exterior damage. Work also continued on the C1 Spirit cargo variant, with the main differences being minor exterior changes and the cargo room; the latter of which is currently progressing through greybox with most of the core forms refined.
Work on a new ship variant continued, with the dashboard and cockpit receiving attention. The Design team also resolved the placement of physicalized components ready for the Art team to add at a later date. Another unannounced variant continued through its greybox phase too.
In the US,the Tumbril Storm approached the end of production.
<i style="font-style: italic;">“We have built all damage meshes, projected all UV2s, generated most LODs, and are now just polishing up various parts of the vehicle. Lighting is getting another pass and we are working with Systems Design to make most of them procedural so that they will respond to player interaction.”</i> Ship Art Team
Ship Art also worked alongside Tech Art to solve visual issues with the treads.
Elsewhere, tasks were started for an all-new vehicle. The team began by breaking apart the concept and putting together an in-game preview while planning out the work required for the base and its variants. The current plan is to whitebox all the variants at the same time and then select which versions will move into greybox first.
Two new variants went through the LOD0 phase and are approaching content-complete.
The team also progressed through LOD0 for theAopoa San'tok.yāi, filling out item housings and doing heavy paneling work on the exterior. They also came to a solution for the dashboard, which still requires polish, but delivers a unique aesthetic for interaction. They’re currently working with System Design to get the ship’s behaviors to trigger correctly.
Finally for ships, the Origin X1entered the greybox stage. While waiting on the whitebox review, the team are working to solve various aesthetic issues while ensuring the overall ship makes mechanical sense. They’re also exploring new tools to help generate extremely clean automotive-style geometry to maintain the required Origin feel.
Audio
July saw the Audio team progressing with tasks for Pyro, including implementing imperative sounds. They also discussed how they can interrelate existing work with Squadron 42.
Improvements were made to the Flight Experience, including updated vibration tech and impacts. Sound effects were also designed and implemented for upcoming spaceship releases.
Community
The Community team kicked off July by launching Foundation Festival 2953, a month-long celebration of the community, with a Free Fly, referral bonus, video tutorial contest hosted on the Community Hub, and an Organization Spotlight gallery. Furthermore, with a focus on helping new recruits, the team posted updates on the New Player Guide, implemented a New Player Chat on Spectrum, curated media on the Welcome Hub, and encouraged veteran players to support new recruits by offering rewards for using the Guide System.
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Later in the month, Community supported the announcement of Turbulent joining CIG.
The team also prepared for the upcoming return of CitizenCon, the in-person celebration of all things Star Citizen. They announced a collaboration with ATMO esports for the event too.
<i style="font-style: italic;">"CitizenCon is shaping up to be the most epic one yet, with the cosplay contest, community booths, and now, the biggest dogfighting tournament in the 'verse, Fight or Flight, coming straight from the show floor as well! We have many more cool surprises in store for you, and we can't wait to see you there!"</i> Community Team
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Additionally, the team supported various community-driven in-game events, including the Greycat Social and a military-style parade organized by the French community. They also met passionate players out of the 'verse, returning to the beautiful city of Paris for a Bar Citizen, and attending a virtual Bar Citizen.
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Lastly, Community assisted in the introduction of the brand-new Mission Spotlight series and launched a screenshot contest to reward the best images from players that take on the Arlington Bounty missions.
Engine
The Core Engine team progressed with the development of StarBuild, the new in-house code-build system that will replace WAF; last month, they fixed issues and implemented improvements based on feedback from wider dev use.
For MemReplay 2.0, the team introduced VirtualMemoryAreas as a concept to the memory allocation system, which will better track OS committed memory and provide an improved visualization of sub-allocations.
Progress was then made on removing the remaining ‘MapAndWrite’ discard calls in the renderer in preparation for the new Vulkan backend. They also reworked the game-launcher code structure to reduce code duplications and enable Linux-based headless clients, which will help with automatic testing.
Core Engine also worked alongside the Physics and Vehicle teams in support of the MISC Hull C, ensuring it works correctly and fixing bugs with the ship’s unique systems. Additionally, they fixed further fallout from the last integration and made various other bug fixes and optimizations.
The Physics team continued helping the game teams fix various physics-related bugs in the game code. They also updated the new cloth system and Maelstrom, and began improving active and animated ragdolls.
The Entity System team primarily supported various technical initiatives, including RaStar and the Resource Network. This involved exploring ways to create and limit generated locations to provide a rich experience without negatively impacting performance. They also supported the Server Meshing team by adding necessary improvements and fixes.
Finally, they provided bug fixes for the recently enabled 'async editor loading,' and are currently adding more safety checks for correct entity access.
Features (Characters & Weapons)
July saw the Feature team experimenting with skill progression, which involves players performing specific in-game actions to make them better at similar activities. For example, building up strength will allow players to carry heavier objects with fewer penalties, while performing takedowns will open access to quicker and quieter action sets.
For player traversal, the team began implementing a sliding mechanic. If a player tries to crouch while sprinting, they will perform a short slide before entering the crouched stance. The speed of the slide is determined by the starting speed of the player and the distance may depend on factors such as the roughness or angle of the terrain. The player will automatically stop when reaching an obstacle, as the prime use case for this feature is to allow players to slide into cover.
Features (Gameplay)
Gameplay Features continued their work on the new vehicle tractor beam, which will also bring improvements to the existing tractor beams. July’s tasks included first iterative test for core balancing and the UI.
Additionally, the team progressed with the Resource Network, which includes features like engineering gameplay and life support.
They also worked on several prototypes for Salvage’s ‘munching’ gameplay and are currently discussing the best-fitting technical solution with all dependent teams.
Finally, they made improvements to mining for Alpha 3.20 based on community feedback, including updates to stability and predictability when mining.
<i style="font-style: italic;">“A big thank you to the very valuable feedback that was provided. Big shoutout to our helpful community!”</i> Gameplay Features Team
Features (Mission)
Last month, Mission Features’ embedded QA testers supported the developer of Ship Trespass by giving the feature rigorous destructive testing.
The Retrieve Consignment missions passed final review and are currently being polished and balanced. Alongside this, the current underground facilities were replaced with RaStar to fix a variety of issues and make iterating on them easier.
Progress was also made on the new Global Event, Blockade Runner. A working prototype was shown to the game directors, who approved its move to development.
The initial planning for cargo missions was completed with all dependencies identified. The team are now looking deeper into the reputation system to improve the wider delivery and hauling mission gameplay loop.
Steal and recover cargo missions were also prototyped and shown to the directors and are making good progress. These will see players either recover cargo from disabled ships or disable and board ships before securing their cargo.
Finally, code work began for reputation. Progression within reputation scopes will give players discounts on various purchases, including items, refueling, and repair. Mission Features also picked up the reputation-based hostility system, which will see NPC orgs more willing to attack those who have a negative reputation with them while providing benefits to those with a positive standing.
Graphics, VFX Programming & Planet Tech
Several new features were added to the Global Illumination system last month, including the initial implementation of temporal smoothing for screen space probes, which will produce more stable results at a lower cost. G-buffer support was also added to environment probes to provide a cheap scene representation for secondary light bounces. In addition, new debug modes were added alongside a new mechanism to gather lights for the GI system.
A basic implementation of Temporal Super Resolution was completed, which will continue to receive fixes and improvements as it’s integrated into the graphics engine.
AMD’s memory allocation API was integrated into the Vulkan backend, improving the system’s stability, streaming speeds, and buffer read times. A reduction in streaming/rendering dependencies has improved performance, and new parameters will allow the devs to modify the RenderGraph’s ShaderStage and ownership state. These features were added alongside ongoing bug fixes to visual regression tests with a focus on the render-to-texture system.
As part of ongoing UI refinements and unifications, the silhouette/highlight feature is currently being improved with a softer and brighter outer glow. The mini-map also received a ping effect, which will blink around objectives for improved in-game navigation.
The Feature team is working to bring the new unified water shader to the game, adding details such as puddles that splash on impact and fixing collision-detection issues on large water volumes. A new system to manage water simulations is also in progress that will activate regions upon collision, deactivate them when they have settled, and constantly monitor and protect performance by limiting active simulations. Meanwhile, a new hash-map system for allocating water buffer regions and large surface-area-friendly water volumes is actively being worked on so the new unified WaterBuffer system can be enabled by default.
The WorldBuilder system saw a variety of improvements last month, including a major refactor to the high-level logic that runs background jobs, which should significantly reduce latency, avoid stalls, and simplify the code. In addition, planet ocean patches no longer render in duplicates, and the planet streaming system was fixed for Gen12.
The VFX Programming team fixed issues impacting damage maps; attached objects now correctly update their damage maps and an issue causing unexpected data to appear in snapshots is being investigated. For VFX-specific work, an issue preventing grouped child effects from spawning correctly was addressed, and bugs on separator tags and external referencing were fixed.
In-Game Branding
Last month, In-Game Branding continued building various assets for an upcoming event and worked alongside Locations on navigational signage for New Babbage.
They also began work on the underground facilities, working closely with the Concept and Sandbox teams on different mockups for the commercial lobbies.
Progress was made on the final touch-ups for Pyro too.
Interactables
July saw the Interactables team closeout and polish their work on Pyro’s consumables and shop and prop content. They also created content for Subscriber Flair.
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Lighting
The Lighting team polished and cleaned-up various locations around Pyro and worked on the system’s gas clouds. Back in Stanton, they progressed with tasks for Crusader’s new platforms.
Locations (EU)
The Locations team continued working on Pyro’s rundown stations, with a focus on completing polish tasks. They also improved signage around New Babbage, improved and bug-fixed the new Crusader platforms, and worked with Mission Features on new content.
The Sandbox team progressed with outposts for Pyro and continued their extensive work on the updated underground facilities.
Improvements were also made to Pyro’s planets, and new technology for clouds was looked into.
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Locations (Montreal)
In July, Montreal’s Locations team progressed with additional derelict settlements, which passed greybox before moving into the final phase. Progress was made on underground facilities too.
Once the above content is delivered, the team will return to the ongoing building-interior mandate.
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Narrative
Last month, Narrative continued syncing with the various Design teams to push development on Pyro, specifically focusing on mission content, local mission providers (establishing the tone and voice of how missions will be presented), and examining how the overall mission system will change when the new system is added.
<i style="font-style: italic;">“To answer that last one, it's led to some interesting discussions about missions that cross over from Stanton to Pyro and vice versa.”</i> Narrative Team
Elsewhere, the team supported the MISC Hull C by implementing the latest version of the air-traffic-control (ATC) behavior, which will allow players to request a landing spot to load and offload their cargo. This also led to resurrecting work on the overarching ATC behavior, with some potentially exciting updates that will be discussed in the near future.
The Narrative team is also expanding to include two dedicated narrative designers who will bridge the gaps between Narrative, Design, and AI. They will look at all NPCs, from mission givers to population characters, and refine their behaviors to make them feel more alive and ultimately establish the tone and flavor of the game's various locations. For example, to make the people of Hurston feel distinct from the people of Orison.
On the website, the team released some answers to the Community’s burning questions in another installment of Loremakers and published another installment of Galactapedia articles at the end of the month.
Online Services (Montreal)
The Online Services team spent July further refining the new InventoryID feature and addressing issues that came up during the formal QA testing pass. Time was also spent working on a plan to refactor several of the backend services to gRPC as well as modernize them with new features. Lastly, they researched Easy Anti-Cheat sanctions and enforcement.
Research & Development
In July, further updates were made to atmosphere and volumetric cloud rendering. Guided sampling used in the cloud raymarcher was updated based on last month's improvements to transmittance profiles. The profiles themselves received additional filtering (stochastic resampling) to reduce occasional block artifacts due to profile reuse. Moreover, the temporal render mode currently being developed for atmosphere and volumetric clouds was switched to a low discrepancy-based sequence of sample offsets that are used to set up rays for raymarching over time. Based on recent research publications, cloud shadow maps can now be stochastically filtered, which considerably improves performance and render quality. The new temporal render mode will use the stochastic texture filter by default.
UI
UI made improvements to the data-heist screen throughout July, which involved working closely with Mission Features. They also worked on a style variant for screens throughout Pyro.
The Core Technology team improved Building Blocks’ runtime performance, as the recent addition of new UI assets led to an increase in size and complexity. This involved coding more aggressive solutions for skipping hierarchy section updates, which led to a reduced CPU footprint and significant performance gains.
The team also continued adding new features to Bindings and Building Blocks, including a color picker, pagination widget, and stepped lines for the designers.
Finally, UI worked alongside Graphics to develop a new internal map system to help players navigate the game’s complex cities, planets, and capital ships.
<i style="font-style: italic;">“This will be a real game changer for players and we're really excited by its progress.”</i>
VFX
Last month, the VFX team continued working on the interiors and exteriors of several Pyro locations.
<i style="font-style: italic;">“The visual style of these locations differs greatly from many Stanton-based areas, which has been a welcome challenge for the VFX artists, both technically and artistically.”</i> VFX Team
They also completed their VFX pass on a Size 5 bomb and three upcoming vehicles.
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Welcome to August and gear up for Alpha 3.20 upcoming in the PTU! To help you get the most from the upcoming patch’s significant updates to racing, August’s Ship of the Month is the blistering Origin 350r. Fast, focused, and hugely agile, it’s perfect for exploring Stanton’s new circuits and chasing PBs in Arena Commander.
This month’s Flair is appropriately themed too, with Subscriber-exclusive racing jackets from MISC, Origin, and the Murray Cup.
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The Prestige Origin Racing Jacket is high-quality, durable outerwear that features a colorful asymmetric design celebrating Origin's line of luxury racing vehicles.
Current Centurion-level Subscribers get the Prestige Origin Racing Jacketas part of their subscription.
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The Prestige MISC Racing Jacket is high-quality, durable outerwear that features a colorful asymmetric design celebrating the precision and relentless speed of MISC's line of racing vehicles.
Current Imperator-level Subscribers get the Prestige Origin and MISC Racing Jacketsas part of their subscription.
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The Prestige Murray Cup Racing Jacket is high-quality, durable outerwear created to celebrate the most prestigious racing league in the universe, the Murray Cup.
The Prestige Murray Cup Racing Jacket is available to all Subscribers to pledge for from the Subscriber-Exclusive Store.
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If you would like to receive this flair as part of a subscription, you can subscribe before August 8th, 2023, 20:00 UTC.
If you subscribe after August 8th, 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.
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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.
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Happy Monday, everyone!
We've started a series of spotlights on things to do in the 'verse last week, with the first one covering the Arlington bounty mission chain. Whether its your first time taking on an Idris or you're a veteran hunter, check out the Mission Spotlight Comm-Link for more info, a few offers to get your hangar ready for action, and a chance to win some explosive prizes after taking Arlington on.
The team is still focused on getting the remainder of Alpha 3.20 out the door and into the hands of our Evocati testers. While some elements of 3.20 have been in testing, we intended to expand the content last week, however we ran into a number of issues that prevented us from doing so. The team is making good progress on clearing out blockers, and we're targeting an Evocati rollout this week that includes additional 3.20 content.
Now, let's see what's going on this week:
This Tuesday, we'll publish the Subscriber Monthly Newsletter and Subscriber Comm-Link.
Wednesday we'll have the latest Monthly Reports headed your way, with Star Citizens as a Comm-Link and Squadron 42's coming via newsletter.
On Thursday, Inside Star Citizen's latest episode gives us an update on our location creation tool, RASTAR, and how it's being used in Alpha 3.20.
This Friday, Star Citizen Live returns with a new Gamedev episode with Lewis Thompson from the Interactables Team as they create something new for the 'verse, starting at 8 AM Pacific / 3 PM UTC. You'll also get the latest weekly newsletter in your inbox.
Saturday has the next race in the Stanton Cup series from XGR! For all you needers of speed, head over to http://twitch.tv/extremegracing and get ready for Round 4 starting at 5:30 PM UTC.
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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!
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We're back and ready to take you where no Inside Star Citizen has gone before. Get ready to see one of the earliest stages of testing and design as the Gameplay Feature Team demonstrates an early prototype for the next level of Salvage gameplay, Munching.
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Mission Spotlight
Tackle the Most Thrilling Missions in the ‘Verse
Whether you’re putting your life on the line for the good of Humanity or keeping the wheels of commerce rolling, Star Citizen is brimming with immersive missions that let you make your mark on the universe.
Over the next few months, we’re spotlighting some of our favorite contracts and giving everyone who attempts them the chance to win ships perfectly suited to the challenges of the 'verse.
First up, outlaws are running amok in a stolen fleet of deadly combat ships. Restore the peace in the all-action Arlington Bounty!
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The Arlington gang is wreaking havoc on Stanton in all manner of deadly fighters and gunships. And, rumor has it, it’s got its hands on a devastating Idris capital frigate.
Take down Arlington targets, keep the system safe, and reap the rewards of a job well done; whatever your ability level, it’s the ideal way to hone your ship combat and flying skills.
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Mercenary Miles Eckhart is responsible for many of Stanton’s bounty missions, and he only hands them out to pilots he can trust. To get in his good graces, earn your Tracker Training Permit Certification from the Bounty Hunter’s Guild, which is available from the Mission Manager in your mobiGlas.
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Once you’re certified, it’s time to meet Miles - you’ll find him at the M&V Bar in Lorville, Hurston. Then, there’s nothing left to do but to gear up, take off, and head to the marker on your Starmap.
Arlington Bounty features seven increasingly difficult missions, with a final fight against the fearsome enemy Idris. Take it down to become bounty-hunting legend, and don’t forget to snap a screenshot for the chance to win a killer free ship!
The Arlington gang takes no prisoners, so your best bet is to bring a friend or two to even the odds. This is vital in later missions, as the scale of the enemy ships grows substantially.
Optimize your ship loadout for heavy firepower and high defense, and, according to the lead mission designer, “The more missiles the better!”. Check out the ships below for out-of-the-box loadouts perfect for tackling the Arlington threat.
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It’s not just the fate of the system at stake. Snap an action-packed screenshot of you and your crew taking on the Arlington Idris for the chance to win an Aegis Eclipse, Aegis Redeemer, or Anvil Arrow.
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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 July 26, 2023
Progress Tracker
The following deliverables have been added to Progress Tracker:
New Missions – Steal Evidence
A criminal mission type where players are tasked with infiltrating Security Post Kareah and stealing files from Crusader Security for a hefty payout.
New Missions – Cargo Hauling
Making use of the Freight Elevators feature, this mission type will have players hauling large quantities of cargo to earn both aUEC and reputation.
New Missions – Steal/Recover Cargo
Steal/Recover Cargo missions will see players recovering and/or stealing cargo from both derelict and active ships, then hauling the cargo to its intended destination.
New Missions – Restoration Contracts
Utilizing the Repair functionality of the multi-tool salvage attachment, players are tasked to restore ships from bow to stern, patching up the hull, replacing missing or faulty internal components, and replacing weapon loadouts in new salvage yard locations.
Reputation – Shop Discounts
Players will have the ability to receive discounts in certain shops based on their reputation with affiliated organizations.
Reputation – Hostility
Players will encounter AI that are either friendly or hostile based on their reputation with the organization the AI belong to. This also includes different friendly-fire thresholds and defense responses.
Reputation – Sandbox Triggers
This feature will allow for players to have their reputation increase or decrease with organizations based on their actions in the persistent universe, separate from missions. This in turn will either allow or prevent players from accepting missions for particular organizations.
Release View
The following card has been added to Release View targeting an Alpha 3.20.0 release:
Physicalized Cargo Updates
Adding new functionality to accommodate the release of the MISC Hull C. This includes both automated cargo loading at LEO stations as well as SCU containers up to 32 SCU.
The following card has been added to Release View targeting an Alpha 3.20.X release:
Crusader A1 Spirit
Building, balancing, and implementing Crusader Industries' light bomber, the A1 Spirit, into the game.
New Crusader Platforms / New Missions - Retrieve Consignment
Due to encountering several issues with RaStar while setting up locations, these two deliverables did not pass their final review and need additional work before they're released to the Live servers. Therefore, these features will remain Tentative on Release View and will now target a 3.20.X release (while remaining in the 3.20 column).
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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THE ARK, TAYAC SYSTEM
Welcome to this month’s Galactapedia update roundup. This month, we dive into the history of SSN/CAtv, cover the details of a few ships, explore the Horus and Kyuk’ya systems, meet various people who made important stellar discoveries, and learn the history of the Koa e Ko’ia. Join the Spectrum thread for any discussion or feedback.
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Happy Monday, everyone!
Last week, we announced that we're teaming up with ATMO esports to bring the biggest 2v2 dogfighting tournament in the 'verse to CitizenCon 2953. That's right, folks, you can experience the toughest of the tough duke it out in Fight or Flight straight from the show floor at CitizenCon with live commentary! Participant applications are now closed, but you can still grab CitizenCon tickets to witness this spectacle in person.
Speaking of CitizenCon, we're giving you a heads-up that community booth applications are closing soon, so don't miss out on your chance to showcase your organization or community; there's no better way to recruit and showcase what makes your group great. And remember, there's no limit to what your booth can entail. Whether you want to recruit for your org, roleplay a character, or champion a cause, this is your chance to leave your mark on the big event. Check out this post for more details. You have until July 31 to sign up!
For those of you who can't wait until CitizenCon to hang out with other enthusiasts in the flesh, we hear that there will be Bar Citizens happening all this weekend, from coast to coast in the USA. Don't forget, if you're organizing an event or just looking for one to attend in your vicinity, you'll find everything you need at barcitizen.sc.
Now, let's see what's going on this week:
This Tuesday, the Narrative team brings us the latest monthly Galactapedia update.
Wednesday will see the publish of our bi-weekly Roadmap Update and the complementary Roadmap Roundup.
This Thursday on Inside Star Citizen, we're catching up with our Gameplay Feature Teams to take a look at the early prototype of the next iteration of Salvage: munching!
On Friday, there will be no Star Citizen Live, but you'll see the weekly RSI Newsletter delivered to your inbox.
Also, this is the final week of Foundation Festival 2953, and your last chance to earn some sweet rewards exclusive to the event! Visit the Foundation Festival hub for more details and jump in before the event ends on July 31.
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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!
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FFK presents episode 2 of Race The Verse, where teams of players race to solve clues and complete challenges as quickly as possible. There are tears; there's laughter; there's confusion. Buckle up for a wild time and ride along with the contestants as they dash through the Stanton system toward victory!
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Today we've challenged Concept Artist Alberto Petronio to make ship up while demonstrating the concept to creation process live. What will he make within the timeframe? Tune in to find out!
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We're very pleased to announce that we're teaming up with ATMO esports to bring Fight or Flight to CitizenCon 2953! This high-octane competition will have an epic presence on the show floor, complete with ways to spectate and enjoy live commentary.
Fight or Flight is the biggest 2v2 dogfighting tournament in the 'verse, with this year's online event kicking off on August 19. Participants are set up with pre-determined loadouts and will duke it out in the atmospheres of ArcCorp and microTech. Each matchup is a best-of-3, with the winner of 2 rounds moving on to the next stage.
The Top 4 teams in the online tournament will be eligible to participate in the Fight or Flight CitizenCon Invitational! These 8 players will be paired up with 8 Star Citizen content creators to duke it out for ultimate bragging rights (and an awesome trophy!)
For those looking to test their mettle, entries for the online tournament can be found on the Fight or Flight website, with signups closing this Friday, July 21.
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 Monday, everyone!
The team is hard at work getting Alpha 3.20 ready for launch, and Evocati testing has begun! We've gotten some amazing feedback on Arena Commander's upcoming updates, with testing on the PU beginning shortly. Keep an eye out for more updates as we get closer to a Wave 1 PTU release in the near future.
In case you missed it, CitizenCon tickets are now available, and we want YOU at the event! In addition, we're super excited to welcome back the addition of Community Booths. These booths have been a huge hit at our last two in-person CitizenCon events, so we knew that needed to return, bigger and better than ever before! If you are interested in applying to have a presence on the show floor, head over to the Spectrum announcement and fill out an application - we'd love to support and celebrate you at the big show!
Now, let's see what's going on this week:
On Wednesday, stay tuned for the first of many CitizenCon updates you can expect in the months ahead as we approach October 21/22. Keep an eye on Spectrum for more information about how you might be able to get more involved with the big show!
Thursday is our last week without Inside Star Citizen, but fear not! Our weekly development update show returns from its hiatus next week.
On Friday, you'll see the weekly RSI Newsletter delivered to your inbox. Plus, this Friday Concept Artist Alberto Petronio (Tumbril Storm, RSI Lynx, Greycat UTV) will be LIVE showcasing his process in creating vehicle concepts. What will he make for us? A flying saucer? A food truck? A unicycle? You can tune into http://twitch.tv/starcitizen at 8 AM Pacific / 3 PM UTC to see and find out more.
Plus, Foundation Festival is still underway! Whether you're a new player or a veteran looking to help out, there's rewards in store for helping your fellow citizens. Check out the Foundation Festival hub for more details and jump in before the event ends on July 31.
Lastly, we're wrapping up the internal postmortem for 3.18/3.19 and are looking to publish to you all very soon.
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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!
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The team working on the OVERCLOCKED machinima have blown us away once again with the latest installment in the series. The tensions are high as the episode kicks off with a life or death hostage situation.
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…
Custom matches? Spectator Modes? Leaderboards? Join us today as we dedicate an hour to answer your questions about all the new upcoming features coming to Arena Commander.
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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Hi everyone,
We have some very exciting news to share with you all. After more than a decade of fruitful partnership and years working together in the trenches to build something the industry has never seen before, we decided that it was time for CIG and Turbulent to finally and officially join forces. We entered into an agreement several months ago but have now completed the arrangement to merge our companies, with Turbulent formally joining the CIG family this past week.
We first met Turbulent’s CTO, Benoit Beausejour, and CEO, Marc Beaudet, back in November 2012. We had just launched our crowdfunding campaign and, not wanting to be beholden to Kickstarter, decided to build our own website that would allow us to continue our campaign as well as develop a platform to engage with our rapidly growing community.
As is well known, the initial response to the Star Citizen campaign was beyond any of our expectations; so much so that our quickly built site couldn’t handle the sheer interest of people backing the project! We opened a parallel campaign 10 days later on Kickstarter to help ease the demand on our site, but we realized we had seriously underestimated our need for a robust website with a scalable platform better suited to a much larger audience. Luckily, one of our early external development partners in Montreal introduced us to Turbulent.
Pretty quickly we realized that we were working with a talented, agile, and innovative web-development company. More than that, we found a group of developers who shared our ambition and vision to disrupt the industry.
The agility we needed at the start of this project (and that we still need today) didn’t faze Turbulent. They innovated solutions and, later in our relationship, invented new technologies, methods, and software to support our completely different approach to game development, whether it was supporting the incredible fluidity of our eco-system or enabling us to communicate and showcase our developers’ progress. Features such as our Concierge program, Issue Council, Telemetry system, Community Hub, Galactapedia, Roadmap, award-winning StarMap, and Spectrum social network are some of the public-facing elements that Turbulent built. And, behind the scenes, Benoit and his team started to help us publish features and functions, like our launcher, and in more recent times, the team has been a core part of our efforts on cloud services, Persistent Entity Streaming, and Server Meshing.
With Turbulent as part of the CIG group of companies, our headcount will be over 1,100, making us one of the largest independent game developers in the world! While this size and scale have enormous challenges, we are still looking to be a disruptive force in gaming, putting our community first and trying to do things differently; to innovate in all our business areas and make the best of the freedoms that come with being outside of the usual “consumer -> retailer -> publisher -> creator” paradigm, which stifles innovation and holds the industry back.
As we approach some of our biggest milestones to date, we’ve never felt better equipped to realize the unprecedented ambition of Star Citizen and Squadron 42, especially now that we have added the firepower, talent, and decade of camaraderie from Turbulent to the fold, alongside the best community of gamers in the world. CIG is on a unique journey and the team at Turbulent have been with us every step of the way, sharing our relentless passion for making the best damn game universe ever. We could not be happier to welcome them to our family of studios!
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…
