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This article originally appeared in Jump Point 7.10.
Crusader Industries Hercules
DEVELOPMENT HISTORY
Development of the spacecraft that would become the modern Hercules began in the mid-28th century during a particularly introspective period for UEE military leadership. Keen to examine the potential lessons of the last war, UEE commanders undertook an unprecedented analysis of the Second Tevarin War followed by a series of simulated wargames covering major battles. One of the outcomes of this effort was a new understanding of the impact of support logistics on interstellar warfare. During the Tevarin wars and prior, interplanetary operations meant establishing an initial beachhead on a hostile world using small, heavily armored landing assault craft. Once a base was established, heavier equipment would be brought in using a support column of freighters and transporters not specially equipped for combat. Analysis of this practice in action suggested it had created a major choke point that had significantly delayed necessary assets in several cases. Not only did transporting weaponry crated aboard traditional transports slow the ability to deploy heavier artillery, missile launchers, and armored tanks, it also limited their immediate range once deployed. Even successes like the famed 2605 Battle of Koren Pass were cited as examples of situations where casualties resulted from a lack of logistics: if the UEE had the lift capacity to deliver fighting vehicles directly from orbit, losses on the ground could have been significantly reduced.
The solution, military leaders determined, was two-fold. The first was organizational. In an attempt to reduce time lost to inter-service confusion, the decision was made to establish UEE Starlift Command – a cross-service support framework intended to better coordinate the UEEN assets responsible for delivering personnel and materiel that would address the UEEA and UEEM’s granular battlefield needs. The second was to set forth the specifications for a complete quantum-to-battlefield support spacecraft that could deploy armored units and other assets to a variety of alien terrains while under fire. Instead of amphibious operations focusing on establishing individual fire bases to bring in heavier assault weaponry, this command and its theoretical spacecraft could deliver advanced units directly to active theaters. The plan would prove incredibly effective and significantly alter the shape of planetary-scale battlefields. Additionally, this new spacecraft could be maintained locally and be used to quickly relocate already deployed assets should flashpoints evolve.
The formal request for a proposal was issued in 2814. It asked for a large, well-protected transport that was jump-capable, able to sustain concentrated artillery fire, and able to deploy multiple armored vehicles quickly. Significant proposals were developed by both Aegis Dynamics and Crusader Industries. Crusader, then a premiere manufacturer of carriers and associated industrial conversions, was expected to adapt their serving Jupiter-class carrier for combat operations. Aegis was expected to develop a bespoke design specific to the UEEN’s needs. In an unexpected twist, the opposite proved true: Aegis suggested adapting existing military freighters with armor and defensive turrets, while Crusader developed a much more expensive proposal to create an entirely new design that would eventually become the Hercules starlifter. Despite Crusader’s proposal having three times the price tag of the Aegis conversion, the feeling was that such a major reorganization of tactical doctrine would be better supported with an entirely new spacecraft. The military decided to invest, despite the cost of developing such a system and the inevitable organizational issues that would come with its adoption. With that, Crusader Industries launched an all-out four-year program to develop their first dedicated military support spacecraft.
The first active-duty starlifter unit was formed in May 2821 with a dozen first model spacecraft (formally designated the ‘M2 Hercules’). In initial training exercises, the new ship worked perfectly. Capable of taking sustained fire and deploying a tank or armored car in minutes, the Hercules met the military’s requirements and then some. However, delays to Hercules deployment occurred due to the difficulty of integrating the new interservice command, with those involved facing a great deal of bureaucracy in order to allow these new processes to supplant the tried-and-true support chain. Nevertheless, the wisdom of the decision became clear in March 2824 with the first active combat deployment of the Hercules system, when UEE armed forces were called upon to put down a heavily armed group of pirate forces located on a frontier world near the Xi’an border. Instead of attacking the site from orbit, planners determined that it would be worthwhile to capture assets intact in order to pursue further antipiracy operations elsewhere. Two Hercules squadrons, escorted by deep space support fighters, quietly deployed troops and an armored column which defeated the stunned criminal forces in short order. The battle, previously thought to be a particularly hazardous prospect, was won with no losses of UEE personnel and the resulting capture of information would lead directly to the destruction of two pirate outposts and a small capital ship.
As use of the Crusader starlifter normalized, it quickly became a favorite among soldiers and ground crews. Crusader’s experience with civil space transport meant they understood how to build a spacecraft intended for ease of maintenance. Additionally, the hulky, armored appearance of the Hercules became a comfort to soldiers and marines, who came to associate it with much safer deployments. The sight of a Hercules on the battlefield inevitably meant the delivery of additional supplies or reinforcements. Within two decades, Starlift Command had organizational structures in place across the empire that would allow the rapid movement of Hercules to any battlefield within a jump of a currently settled star system. Several units of starlifters are kept on ‘ready five’ status around the Empire already loaded with tanks and missile launchers and teamed with special operations troops that can be used to address rapidly developing situations.
Over the decades, Crusader has continued to update and enhance the original Hercules design and has made a tidy profit performing fleet enhancements and producing battlefield update kits in the progress. This steady dedication to modernizing the fleet has been strongly supported by Starlift Command and has allowed individual examples to remain in service well past their intended retirement. As of 2948, a significant number of first and second generation Hercules hulls were still being operated thanks to these extensive maintenance processes. Similarly, Crusader has continued to apply their ‘frame-and-role’ design process developed in starliner construction to the Hercules line, which has allowed the rapid creation of a number of role-specific variants including refuelers, heavy armor support ships, and information runners. Crusader’s philosophy allows the creation of variants to proceed rapidly as the need requires without disrupting existing production lines. This has allowed role-specific Hercules to be constructed as needed and retired just as quickly. One of these variants has become a significant part of the UEEN inventory: the A2 is a dedicated heavy gunship that adapts the Hercules’ heavy armor and other defensive systems for more a sustained combat role and uses the design’s extensive cargo capacity for munitions storage. The A2 Hercules is now constructed on its own factory line and has seen extensive combat operations against planetside forces.
In 2940, Crusader surprised the aerospace industry by announcing the development of the first standalone civilian variant of the Hercules, the C2. Long seen as a military-only spacecraft design, the decision was especially unexpected as Crusader’s factories did not have the immediate capacity to produce more than the Hercules already requisitioned by the military. In order to produce the C2, three more Hercules lines would need to be opened. Crusader, however, saw this as less of a gamble, believing that even if interest in a civilianized Hercules was not immediately apparent, the investment would ultimately be useful as military demand increased in the face of increased conflict with the Vanduul. The C2 Hercules design drops some of the armor and specialized hardware from the current generation military type in exchange for an overall improvement in cargo. Formally targeted at frontier concerns, the C2 variant has been positioned as a way for planets with less developed infrastructures to rapidly move vehicles from place to place. In their example study, Crusader imagined a mining corporation seeking to reallocate heavy equipment to sites around a newly explored planet in order to make use of claims before unlicensed jumpers could move in. The move proved to be a success, with civilian organizations quickly taking to the sturdy spacecraft design and corporate partners happy to have a ship with such a well-developed lineage and extant support apparatus. In addition to miners and explorers, the C2 Hercules quickly proved to be popular among militia groups eager to move small spacecraft and ground vehicles from place to place on individual worlds
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Hello everyone, xē'suelen
Alpha 3.23.0: Adventure Beckons is now LIVE! Let's kick off this week by delving into the significance of this release and what it took to get this one out the door. This milestone holds particular weight for us, as it encompasses over 60 distinct deliverables. To bring this release to fruition, our team addressed a staggering 1308 bugs and tackled 911 tasks. Since March 6, we've published 54 builds to Evocati and PTU, averaging 1.2 builds per day. None of this would have been possible without the help of our extended team: each and every one of you who participated, tested, and reported on our test universe builds.
Of course, there's still work to be done, more bugs to squash, and more tasks to complete, but we have no plans to ease up on the pace.
The release of 3.23.0 marks a pivotal moment for us. It sets the stage for an array of meaningful patches to follow throughout the year, including Alpha 4.0. We've been vocal about our vision for 2024, and we hope you can sense the momentum!
Read the Patch Notes, enjoy Star Citizen's game-changing update, and let us know your thoughts on Spectrum!
As for the Overdrive Initiative, the XenoThreat menace has been repelled for now, and it’s unlikely the planned incursion will happen until after Invictus Launch Week. Attacking during a military parade seems like a bad idea! As such, Overdrive Initiative Phases 1 - 5 will still be available for all volunteers right up until the XenoThreat assault begins. We have recently communicated an update to the event, as we've brought improvements to the missions along with Alpha 3.23.
Our smallest vehicle to date, the Mirai Pulse entered the 'verse with Alpha 3.23! We have also published a Q&A from our dev team in case you have any burning questions about the new gravlev hoverbikes from Mirai.
Finally, our teams rallied the BE@Con event this last week-end in Liège, Belgium, with an astonishing turnout of over 1,200 tickets sold! We extend our heartfelt gratitude to everyone who graced us with their presence, elevating this fan convention to truly legendary proportions. The outpouring of enthusiasm was humbling as we connected with hundreds of devoted players in the delightful weather over the course of two exhilarating days. Chris and Sandi Roberts themselves were awe-struck by the overwhelming success of BE@Con, the warmth of our community, and the profound sense of unity within the Star Citizen journey. We commend the exceptional efforts of the BE@Con staff who tirelessly crafted this event over many months, ensuring that it was a joyous celebration for all. And celebrate we did, with unparalleled fervor!
Now, let's see what's going on this week:
This Tuesday, enjoy a new Galactapedia Update from the Narrative team: All about the Crusader Hercules!
On Wednesday, we will deliver a new Roadmap Roundup and give you insight into the decision-making that led to any changes coming to Star Citizen.
This Thursday, Inside Star Citizen is Part One of our Invictus coverage on the Aegis Sabre Gold Standard, the Sabre Firebird, and the Ursa Medivac.
And, on Friday, Star Citizen Live returns with our Invictus All-Vehicles Q&A. Post your questions to our development teams now on Spectrum, and we will see you on twitch.tv/starcitizen, at 8am PDT / 3pm UTC. The weekly RSI Newsletter will also be delivered right to your inboxes.
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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.
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Mit Alpha 3.23 erschien für Star Citizen am 13. Mai 2024 eines der größten Updates für das Weltraumspiel. Und das hat jede Menge neue Inhalte zu bieten, die im Trailer bereits zu sehen sind.
Auf bewohnbaren Planeten könnt ihr nun etwa wilde Tiere treffen. Während der vogelartige Marok vollkommen harmlos ist, solltet ihr euch vor dem im Rudel jagenden Kopion in Acht nehmen. Um dem Räuber schnell zu entkommen, könnt ihr euch auf eines der neuen Hoverbikes schwingen, die bei Bedarf sogar mit Waffen ausgestattet sind. Die Fahrzeuge helfen euch auch dabei, zu den Verteilungszentren zu kommen, riesige Industrieanlagen, bei denen ihr Quests annehmen könnt.
Mit Alpha 3.23 erschien für Star Citizen am 13. Mai 2024 eines der größten Updates für das Weltraumspiel. Und das hat jede Menge...
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Set your own tempo
Experience a whole new class of grav-lev transport. Using bleeding-edge Xi’an grav-lev tech and traditional design principles dating back millennia, the Pulse offers an unprecedented marriage of blinding top speed and ultra-precise handling. In the heart of combat or the final heat of a race, the Pulse lets you set your own tempo.
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MIRAI PULSE
PURE COMBAT PERFORMANCE
The base model exemplifies pure combat performance. Factory equipped with a nose-mounted Size 2 laser repeater, taking on hostiles head-on has never been this exhilarating. Jousting, hit-and-run, or bank-and-flank attack maneuvers are easier than ever before.
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MIRAI PULSE LX
UNMATCHED SPEED & HANDLING
An unmatched union of blazing speed and precision handling gives the operator total control over their Pulse. With an auxiliary maneuvering thruster, the LX model gains a divisive edge on the track, giving it the ability to outrun, outmaneuver, and flat-out dominate the competition.
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MIRAI
The Pulse represents an unmatched union of blazing speed and precision handling! We asked the Vehicle and Gameplay teams a few questions about Mirai's new lightning-fast bike. Here are the answers, straight from the devs themselves.
Whether you desire an advantage on the racetrack or the edge in ground combat, Mirai has you covered with this truly next-gen bike.
How does the Mirai Pulse compare to other small ground vehicles, like the Aopoa Nox or Drake Dragonfly?
The Pulse is the smallest vehicle we've released to date, which allows it to fit inside smaller ships or areas that other bikes may not. And, as it’s made by Mirai: the Pulse has a focus on performance, offering an intense flight experience!
The base variant also features a bespoke laser Gatling, which is the first weapon of its type in Star Citizen.
What's the difference between the Pulse and Pulse LX?
The LX is an all-out racer, ditching the base variant’s bespoke weapon for an air intake and two additional rear thrusters to further enhance its flight performance.
Which ships does the Pulse currently fit in?
Being only slightly longer than 2 SCUs of cargo, the Pulse should fit in a large majority of our vehicles that can carry cargo!
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What is the Pulse’s top speed?
Currently, 208 m/s for the base Pulse and 220 m/s for the Pulse LX.
Mirai is known for its connections with the Xi’an. Other than grav-lev, does the Pulse use Xi’an technology?
Torral Aggregate (Aoō’nu se T.or’al) manufactures the Pulse’s laser Gatling gun. This Xi'an company has a history of weapons production under the auspice of the Emperor that dates back thousands of years.
While riding a Pulse, can I be dropped from the atmosphere and land smoothly on the surface?
If the hover-height setting is appropriately raised by the pilot, yes!
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…
Die neue PC Games 06/24 ist da! Mit großer Coverstory zum Early-Access-Hit Manor Lords und Top-Vollversion Fallout 4! Außerdem: Previews zu Senuas Saga: Hellblade 2, Frostpunk 2, Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2, Report zu Star Citizen u. v. m.
My, what large teeth you have! Tune in for a "safe" up close and personal introduction of the first two untamed wildlife species making their way into the 'verse in Alpha 3.23
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Squadron 42 Monthly Report
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 05:01:2024
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 AI behaviors, ship combat, and easter eggs.
Thank you for your continued support of Squadron 42.
Sincerely,
CIG COMMUNICATIONS
AI (Content)
April saw the AI Content team enhancing the dialogue experience, introducing four dynamic conversations into chapter one to showcase chapter-specific content more effectively. They also addressed a critical issue where players could observe NPCs despawning after following them - NPCs now engage with the environment meaningfully until the player exits the area.
The team then implemented input variables to enhance flexibility in player-AI interactions, allowing for tailored reactions, such as a formal greeting followed by task-related dialogue, a concise ‘busy’ response, or no dialogue at all. This expanded functionality proved invaluable for addressing the campaign’s diverse narrative scenarios.
Overall NPC behaviors were refined too, with the team resolving a bug causing NPC guards to gradually shift leftward each time they saluted the player. This was caused by a locator malfunction.
The team also rectified an issue where the ‘supervisor’ NPC was inconsistently present on the Stanton’s bridge across the day-night cycle.
For combat mechanics, AI Content utilized new mo-cap to refine how players interact with the Gladius. Alongside this, various tasks and bug fixes were completed to improve the overall player experience.
AI (Features)
Last month, the AI Features team made updates and bug fixes to AI combat for the Persistent Universe. Once Alpha 3.23 launches, these improvements will be brought into SQ42 to further enhance the flight and combat experience.
AI (Tech)
AI Tech began supporting usables reacting to Maelstrom physics. As part of this, the usable will react to the destroyed object and enable or disable specific functionalities. For example, if an engineer inspects a broken wing of the Gladius, they will notice the damage and perform an appropriate interaction. For cover, the system will react to the object’s destruction and notify NPCs that might be already using the cover.
Animation
The Animation team worked on numerous space-centered movements throughout April, including zero-g and prone movement in gravity. They also worked on first-person animations for turrets, interacting with fire extinguishers, MedPens, and more.
The team then continued working on player weapon reloading and malfunctions as well as burning down AI combat animations, including reloads and hit reactions. Hit reactions were also shot for a new enemy class.
The team is currently closing out several background and life elements across various locations, such as the Idris. They also supported Cinematics with mo-cap shoots for the opening of the campaign.
The Facial Animation team continued to develop assets for the cast characters and player. On the mo-cap side, the team supported mo-cap sessions needed to complete specific levels.
Gameplay Story
April saw the Gameplay Story team focusing on chapter one. As part of this, they continued bug fixing and polishing, with their involvement on the chapter tapering off as it nears completion.
In addition to this, the team continued to implement and improve scenes across other chapters, with April’s work mostly dealing with chapter five. For example, they overhauled a scene in an elevator with new mo-cap and encouragement lines.
“It was great to see all these elements working together with great timing in-game.” Gameplay Story Team
Also for chapter five, a scene on a tram platform received new mo-cap to improve how a key character reacts to the player.
Narrative
Throughout April, Narrative progressed with tasks started in previous months alongside reexamining remaining work to make sure that everything is covered and tracked.
The team continued generating environmental chatter that will be sprinkled throughout the story to provide additional backstory and insights into the social dynamics of the crew.
Additionally, Narrative worked closely with Core Gameplay to implement the Galactapedia, testing out the layout, content, and triggering of various entries. This is being trialed on a sample level to establish a standardized process before being applied across the game.
The team continued to review text used for mission objectives, as well as the on-screen tutorials based on Level Design’s latest updates to the game flow, to ensure players have a clear understanding of what’s needed from them. This will be an ongoing endeavor as levels are solidified and tested.
Work also continued with several external vendors to generate collectible content that will be found throughout the game.
“While we can’t get into the specifics to avoid spoilers, this additional content should provide really fun easter eggs for players to track down.” Narrative Team
Finally, Narrative kicked off an initiative across several teams to better test and validate their voice packs. While versions of this have existed for some time, the aim is for it to feature a gameplay-centric interface that will allow the Narrative, Audio, and Design teams to modify the combat experience through debug triggers that can help satisfy conditions to trigger lines.
Tech Animation
The Tech Animation team continued to generate and implement new head assets to the DNA gene pool, and are not far from completing the initiative of 80 heads.
Many devs are currently dealing with the complications of players and NPCs putting on and taking off clothes live in the engine.
“This has been ongoing for some time and, with the addition of animation resources into the mix, we are seeing great headway in both generating the assets for animation and generating usable pipelines to expedite the entire process for everyone involved.” Tech Animation Team
Additionally, the team are intrinsic in the creation and implementation of new creatures for both the PU and SQ42.
They’re also involved in work toward consumables and the setup of foodstuffs, with the team aiming to guide this initiative and promote time-saving workflows.
Tech Design
Last month, Tech Design began moving the recent Ship AI changes from the PU into SQ42. They also set up new ammo crate entities, provided miscellaneous tech support, and fixed several bugs.
UI
In April, the UI team focused on the opening level of the game, creating several motion-graphic videos of boot-up sequences for when the player uses tech for the first time. These are used to work out the timings of animated sequences so, once they're signed off, they can easily be recreated in-engine.
The team also worked on the UI for one of the alien races.
VFX
Last month, the VFX team worked on holographic shader improvements, including extending the feature set so that it can be more widely used by the Art and Design teams.
As usual, general support for Art, Cinematics, and Design continued, including positive steps for destruction workflows.
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Subscriber Promotions
Alpha 3.23 is almost here! Alongside loads of new content, including wildlife, the Character Creator, and Master Modes, the ‘verse will soon be littered with all-new Distribution Centers. To help you explore these vast new planetary locations, we’re giving all subscribers access to Origin’s littlest racer, the X1 hoverbike. Alongside the X1, Imperator subs can tour the depths of Stanton in absolute luxury in the 400i.
This month’s Flair is a selection of small arms with matching blue and gold liveries to keep you alive wherever you roam.
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SUBSCRIBER
MERCHANDISE DISCOUNT
Two continuous discount levels are available to all Subscribers in the Merch Store. Centurion Subscribers receive a 10% off discount, while Imperator Subscribers receive 15% off. Take advantage of this perk and peruse the selection of available merchandise including jackets, hoodies, shirts, mugs, hats, mousepads, posters, stickers, and more. Check out the now.
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SUBSCRIBER STORE
All previous flair items going back to 2014 are available to pledge in the Subscriber Store. You can fill in any gaps, pick up store-only items, or grab extras to gift to non-Subscribers from the My Hangar section of your RSI profile.
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Happy Monday, everyone!
Once again, we want to thank everyone for participating in the 3.23 PTU. We say it each and every week, but we can't understate how appreciative we are for your assistance! The feedback and Issue Council reporting from all of you has been invaluable in preparing for a live release, which we're currently aiming for early this week. We're very excited to get this update into your hands, and intend to carry the momentum we've established into the rest of the patch cycle.
Also upcoming, Invictus Launch Week approaches! Mark your calendars, as the UEEN is making their way to the Stanton system on May 17, and the vehicle manufacturers of the 'verse have a few surprises in store. Stop by the convention center in Area18 on ArcCorp to see the latest military and support vessels on display, and be sure to stop and take a tour of the Aegis Idris! More details can be found on our Save the Date Comm-Link on our website.
Now, let's see what's going on this week:
Tuesday has our monthly subscriber updates are coming to you via Comm-Link and newsletter.
Wednesday we'll be publishing last week's Squadron 42 Monthly Report as a Comm-Link.
Thursday's Inside Star Citizen takes a closer look at the first fauna to enter the persistent universe. Tune in for a creature feature on the Kopion and Marok!
On Friday, we won't have an episode of Star Citizen Live, as the team is headed to Belgium for the community-run BE@con event! You'll also find our weekly RSI Newsletter directly delivered to your inbox.
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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.
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…
Got questions about the upcoming Alpha 3.23 release? Join us today as members of our Development Leadership Team provide insights and answers to all things Alpha 3.23 and more.
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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Star-Citizen-Experte Knebel wirft einen Blick auch die Neuerungen der kommenden Alpha-Version 3.23, die bereits auf den Testservern spielbar ist und in Kürze auch für alle Unterstützer des Weltraum-Projekts verfügbar sein sollte.
- Deutsche Fan-Übersetzung für Star Citizen Alpha runterladen
Vor ein paar Wochen hat Star Citizen unter anderem mit Meldungen über den Release von Version 1.0 für Schlagzeilen gesorgt. Nach vielen Jahren des Wartens gab es also ein neues Licht am Ende des Tunnels. Wird auch allerhöchste Zeit, werden die meisten vielleicht denken. Die Einzelspieler Kampagne Squadron 42 ist inzwischen immerhin “Feature Complete” und ein großer Teil der Entwicklungsressourcen steht vermeintlich für das MMO zur Verfügung. Der “1.0-Release” wird inzwischen tatsächlich ganz offiziell angepeilt. Es soll im Laufe des Jahres und zur CitizenCon im Oktober 2024 eine Roadmap dazu geben. Wie nah wir an Star Citizen 1.0 nun aber wirklich dran sind und was diese Version eigentlich alles beinhalten wird - und vor allem was noch nicht - darüber können wir aktuell nur spekulieren.
Wesentlich konkreter ist dagegen das nächste große Update für die Alpha von Star Citizen. Die Entwickler beschreiben die Alpha 3.23 als “größten Patch seit 6 Jahren”. Also schauen wir uns mal an, was uns da an Neuerungen erwartet.
Star-Citizen-Experte Knebel wirft einen Blick auch die Neuerungen der kommenden Alpha-Version 3.23, die bereits auf den Testservern spielbar ist und...
What features are you most excited to experience in Alpha 3.23? The live release is just around the corner! Let's take this opportunity to run through some of the major updates and content it'll bring, including a brand-new vehicle that'll surely raise the tempo on the track.
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 1, 2024
Progress Tracker
As you might have seen in the recent Letter From the Chairman, our development team is in the process of outlining the necessary tasks to achieve Star Citizen's full 1.0 commercial release. While our production schedule is still in progress, we intend to share a portion of it with you soon by updating the Progress Tracker up to the end of 2024 (with more to be shared later in the year!). We're nearly finished and aiming to provide more details in the coming weeks, so stay tuned to the Roadmap for more information very soon!
Release View
Arena Commander: Grav Royale
The team encountered a critical issue with this game mode that requires additional testing. For the time being, we're removing this card from Release View until this is resolved.
The following features have passed their final review for Alpha 3.23.0, therefore we are toggling their status to Committed:
Distribution Centers
Creating new traversable areas offering gameplay opportunities in corporate industrial environments. This initial release includes the surface levels of the facilities, with underground areas coming in a later update.
Vulkan Graphics API Support
Converting the Star Citizen renderer from DirectX11 to the Vulkan Graphics API. This allows spreading GPU submission work over many CPU cores, and enables many new tech features that were previously unavailable, such as Ray Tracing. Vulkan is able to be opted into via the options menu with this release, but it will eventually fully replace DirectX11 in the future.
Water Simulation & Rendering Improvements
The water in Star Citizen now support a multi-scale GPU wave simulation to support dynamic reaction to thrusters, aerodynamic wake, explosions and collisions. The rendering has also been overhauled, with improved waves, reflections, refraction, underwater fog, and helmet effects.
Volumetric Clouds Update
Updating Star Citizen's volumetric cloud technology to improve overall visual quality and performance, including the addition of both volumetric shadows as well as the implementation of ground fog.
Image Upscaling
Implementing support for GPU upscaling, including DLSS, FSR, and an in-house TSR solution.
Replication Layer Update
Over the course of the 3.21 patch cycle, the Replication Layer will be moved off of the game servers and set up as its own standalone service. In the short term, this allows for greater server recovery in the event of a crash. This is also a critical next step toward Server Meshing.
That's all for this week! No Progress Tracker updates this week as work continues on long-term planning. For further insights into the planning efforts of our production team, we invite you to review the latest Letter From the Chairman.
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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PU Monthly Report
Welcome to the latest PU Monthly Report, this time detailing all the development progress made throughout April. With the imminent release of Alpha 3.23, most teams began or continued tasks for events and releases coming soon and further into the year.
Read on for the latest updates on jump points, weapon animation, the Anvil Legionnaire, and more.
AI (Features)
Throughout April, AI Features put significant effort into the Alpha 3.23 release, specifically the kopion creature that will be found across planetary surfaces and in caves.
“We’re really excited to share this new creature and the gameplay possibilities it provides. Kopions are the first of the creatures we have been working on and have posed many challenges during their development. We also had the pleasure of bringing all the hard work of other teams into a cohesive whole.” AI Features Team
New features added for creatures include ground alignment tech, which allows them to appear correctly situated when moving across the terrain, and the ability to attack in formation. The attacks themselves require motion warping and melee attack technology to connect with the player. The team also put a lot of effort into ensuring that these functionalities work well across different environments.
AI (Tech)
Last month, AI Tech focused on planetary navigation mesh, with the version implemented recently receiving significant improvements. Firstly, they removed generation limits over planet latitude, which gives stronger coupling with planetary terrain patches, allowing the nav mesh to generate correctly over the planet efficiently. They then improved generation response at lower framerates so that movement over planets in non-ideal performance scenarios results in acceptable nav-mesh generation times.
The multipath code was then optimized to execute faster, which will result in quicker generation of paths into, out of, and between usables. The team also enabled failure detection code in the movement system component to identify and fix situations where NPCs were standing on usables or out of the nav mesh.
Another key feature worked on was the boids system used for the new marok creature. April saw the devs improving network synchronization and extending the system to support audio triggers from different agent states. Several optimizations were also made to the overall code.
Significant time was spent verifying multiple parts of the AI system after evaluating the EPTU optik profiles. For example, the team optimized some of the navigation code involved in the destruction of navigation links and navigation volumes when larger outposts stream out.
The pathfinder was also switched from running using background jobs to batch jobs. The main pool that serves requests was split into two to better serve multipath and standard-path searches. Moving the calculation into batch jobs allows an increased number of calculations, which provides much faster results and utilizes more CPU time where available. These jobs are lower priorities, so they can always provide space for more urgent calculations and continue work across multiple frames. This should result in quicker response times for NPCs at lower FPS.
In parallel with supporting the Apollo Subsumption editor, AI Tech are also working on a new UX design for their internal tool.
Progress was also made on the spaceship combat behavior, which is planned for release in Alpha 3.23. All NPC fighters now use this behavior, which involves them using limited ballistic ammo rather than infinite rounds as before.
Finally for AI Tech, they implemented point defense cannons that will protect capital ships from incoming missiles.
Animation
In April, the Animation team worked on various creatures, including two predators and a prey animal. They also spent time polishing player movement in space and when prone (which will be live in Alpha 3.23) and implemented hit reactions for when AI is out in the open.
The Facial Animation team continued to develop facial animations for various game elements.
Art (Characters)
In April, the Character Art team began work on two specialist armors, reworked a utility armor, and supported requests for the Character Customizer. They also continued working on creatures.
The Character Concept Art team continued developing specialist armors and completed handoff sheets.
The Hair team kicked off new hairstyles for Alpha 4.0 and undertook R&D on fur.
Art (Ships)
The Ships team progressed with the RSI Zeus, continuing with the beauty and polish stage. The cockpit is now greybox complete, which established the standard for the remainder of the ship. The habitation area is receiving the last elements of polish, including resolving the ceiling and personal storage areas. The cargo room ceiling had a pass and the devs began finalizing the walls. The mess hall is nearing completion, as is the central hallway.
Work on the exterior progressed well too, which now has a significantly increased level of detail throughout. The team are currently going through all other sections to ensure they have the same level of detail. Ships also started looking at lighting, including a pass of every room and the entire exterior. Following this, it will be outfitted with proper fixtures.
The Anvil Legionnaire is now whitebox complete, though requests were made to improve its usability when boarding hostile vessels. The devs are currently exploring options for collapsable cover built into the boarding tunnel.
Elsewhere, Resource Network work was finished for 10 ships, while legacy updateswere made to three additional ships to support a new selection of paints.
Audio
For the upcoming Alpha 3.23 release, the Audio Vehicle team completed their first milestone in overhauling the ship audio experience with new thruster sounds, which is rolling out to all new ships.
“The goal was to restructure our process of designing and implementing ship thruster audio in order to unify the setup of all ships and streamline our pipeline. This ensures that sound designers will have fewer sounds to design, but every asset will have a greater impact. Our objective was to immerse our pilots in hard-hitting and reactive sounds, resulting in a memorable flight experience, whatever ship they choose to fly.” Audio Team
They are now also using a shared and extensive set of game parameters that modulate different layers in a variety of ways. This, paired with a more extensive matrix of generic assets designed to fit manufacturers, classes, and sizes of ships, results in a much more granular and interactive experience for the player while giving every brand a clear sonic identity. This is supported by bespoke sounds made individually for every ship to give them all a unique flavor.
Finally for Vehicle Audio, the devs introduced a very early state of manufacturer-based soundproofing – with this, each brand will have a unique soundproofing profile, heard when players are in first person, to further improve immersion. The new thrusters and audio features were rolled out with the Anvil F7A Hornet Mk II and will be utilized on every new ship going forward, with the team converting older ships periodically.
The Audio Environment team polished the first ambience pass for Distribution Centers while continuing to develop new systemic ambience. Although this new system is still early in development, the team was able to add it into the Distribution Centers, improving ambience for players at these locations. Alongside this, the team finished their pass on the new features for Alpha 3.23, including wildlife.
Community
The Community team started the month by celebrating Triggerfish with the announcement of the MISC R.A.P.T.O.R, the ultimate weapon in the war against garbage! They also supported the April Fools' Arena Commander mode.
Regarding upcoming updates, the team published the Alpha 3.23 Patch Watch, which highlights the features and improvements that do not appear on the Public Roadmap.
The team also supported the live release of the RSI Launcher 2.0 - a full revamp of the application with the ultimate goal of serving as a reliable tool for the community.
The Bar Citizen World Tour continues in 2024, with team members joining the fun in Chicago this month. For those looking forward to a future event, a more detailed schedule for this year's Bar Citizen World Tour will be published soon.
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Planning for this year's CitizenCon in Manchester, UK, on October 19-20, is underway.
"With over 3,700 tickets already claimed, this year's CitizenCon has already shattered previous attendance records, marking it officially the largest Star Citizen event yet! Despite still being April, the team is already deep in planning for the layouts and key components of this year's show and can't wait to see you all in Manchester this October!" Community Team
In addition, the annual community-created System 7 Racing League, organized by ATMO Esports, is ongoing, with the team continuing their support for the event.
Finally, the Community Team published the weekly This Week In Star Citizen schedules alongside the most recent updates on the upcoming gameplay features in Roadmap Roundup. The Arena Commander Schedule was also updated to provide better visibility on game mode rotation and special modes. Besides these, many other support tasks were done to prepare for Alpha 3.23, 4.0, and beyond.
Core Gameplay
In April, the Core Gameplay Pillar closed out features and prepared them for release in Alpha 3.23. A significant amount of time was invested into polishing and bug fixing as well as reviewing feedback from the community to improve features where possible.
For example, various improvements were made to weapons, including enabling the interrupting and canceling of backpack reloading and ammo repooling via actions like weapon swap, sprint, and melee.
Support was also added for hit-marker sounds, while recoil patterns are now the same for tap-firing and holding the fire button.
ADS mouse sensitivity is not scaled down for higher FOVs anymore, and weapon bandwidth usage was improved.
For jump points, the team enabled new fail states if a jump drive detaches or stops functioning and added tunnel push force from the edges of the map to help players stay on course. They also implemented the first pass of procedurally generated tunnels from design parameters, including randomness to tunnel shapes for variety.
For the resource network and engineering, the team implemented a throttle that manages power in one-SCU segments based on the updated UI design.
Additional item power range modifiers were added, which enable extra behaviors currently used for heat generation. This entered optimization for eventual release.
For the life support and room system, the team implemented filters that degrade over time, with the life-support generator ceasing to work once all are used.
Gas propagation now uses accurate positioning within rooms, while atmospheres will equalize differently depending on whether they’re high or low-atmosphere environments.
The technical requirements for crafting were scoped out with Design, and room-system documentation was updated to enable other teams to better implement their work.
April saw continued work on Maelstrom and the radar and scanning feature.
Planning continued for the transit refactor, and fixes were made for various analytic events not reporting correctly.
For Arena Commander, the team began refactoring the Spectator module and player component. They also updated how Arena Commander uses comm-link notifications and completed a pass over various game modes and awards for Alpha 3.23.
Changes were made to Pirate Swarm’s final wave, which now uses two Idris capital ships. Gun Rush now supports multiple weapon lists (controlled by badges) that can be randomized from all enabled weapons.
VOIP and mute/unmute were added back into Arena Commander too.
Further development was done on the Contracts Manager, with the team providing code support for cargo hauling missions. ‘Or’ missions were added back in, where players can choose between objectives, and general bug fixing was done.
Reputation-based hostility was further worked on too. Alongside several issues and improvements, a new neutral zone was added. This is a special restricted area that all players have permission to be in, with NPCs ignoring reputation relationships and criminality and reacting neutrally to everyone. However, access will be revoked for any non-justified hostile act, with everyone else seeing that person as hostile and attacking accordingly.
To regain access after hostile actions, the offending player will need to exit the zone and wait a set amount of time before entering again. Remaining inside when hostile or entering before the allotted time will completely reset the timer.
For cargo, Core Gameplay progressed with freight elevators, item banks, and persistent hangars.
In-Game Branding
Last month, the Branding and Vehicle teams worked closely to create brand identities for upcoming and existing vehicles within the game.
They also continued to develop an in-house tool for all manufacturers, from ships to signage. This will be a versatile and invaluable tool for everyone working on the game and lead to the unification of the different brands across the entire game.
Interactables
The Interactables team completed their work on fire extinguisher recharge cabinets, including both high-tech and low-tech versions. These will be placed in hangars for convenience and aid in ship-fire gameplay.
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Lighting
Lighting spent time in April polishing Distribution Centers before moving on to instanced hangars and freight elevators, with the aim of making every interaction an engaging event.
Locations
The Locations teams spent April closing out features for Alpha 3.23. For example, the Sandbox team completed Distribution Centers, adding the last elements of polish before shipping. The team are looking forward to players getting their hands on these locations and will be looking for feedback that they can take forward as Distribution Centers evolve in the future.
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The Sandbox team are currently finalizing the last few outposts going into Pyro for Alpha 4.0 whilst supporting other Locations teams with their tasks for the upcoming patch release.
The Landing Zone team finalized art for the cargo initiative and helped out other teams on Alpha 3.23.
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Mission Design
Last month, Mission Design continued to polish content for Alpha 3.23, including XenoThreat and fauna-related missions. They also made quality-of-life improvements to missions, including Missing Persons, and supported content for Distribution Centers.
Work was done on the new Contracts Manager to ensure it has all the existing functionality alongside improvements. They also made the Commodity Update Journal entry a lower-priority notification and reassessed what missions notify players when they’re available. Further bug fixing was done for Overdrive Initiative too.
The team then used the extra time until the cargo updates to add additional high-quality content and further polish the Cargo Hauling and Kill and Collect missions:
“The various shipping companies of Stanton often outsource cargo hauling to freelancers through contracts. These job-board missions task the player with picking up the designated cargo shipment at one or more locations andoffloading it at one or more destinations. At their core, these missions will test the player’s knowledge of their ship’s specs and their ability to weigh the time spent loading and traveling against the payout.
They will see the player transport goods back and forth to various jump points, LEOs, Lagrange points, landing zones, and Distribution Centers. These goods consist of various commodities and vehicles of real value, allowing players to get a rudimentary sense of what it will be like to have a hauling career. Simultaneously, this represents our first step toward implementing the logistical structure of the ‘verse in a tangible, playable form, prior to a Quanta-controlled system.” Mission Design Team
Narrative
April was a very busy month for the Narrative team, who worked hard preparing for the Alpha 3.23 patch. This included crafting new Distribution Center missions, creature-hunting missions, polishing the new UI layouts, and reworking hint text alongside bug fixing.
Looking ahead, the team helped with the upcoming Invictus Launch Week, making sure everything is ready for players to visit in-game. This was a particular focus of the Narrative Design team, who looked at the NPCs attending the event. The team also spent time working on cargo gameplay, providing UI and mission support.
Additionally, the Narrative team did a lot of planning and pre-production work for Star Citizen 1.0, detailing the scripts and assets that will be needed for its release. This includes looking at legacy work done in the game’s early releases and analyzing how best to update it to meet current standards.
After several sprints, the Online Services Team completed their refactor of the social services backend. This involved porting the services to gRPC, as well as making updates related to server meshing.
Online Services also completed work relating to EAC anti-cheat in preparation for enabling the enforcement of sanctions. This is currently going through the first round of QA testing. The team also supported Alpha 3.23 by bug fixing and helping triage performance issues.
Over the past month, the Live Tools Team worked to ensure compatibility between the Network Operation Center in Hex and the modifications being made on the services side for version 3.23. They're also implementing new modules to assist different types of users.
Additionally, the team continued to enhance other internal development tools and provide support and maintenance.
R&D
R&D spent April supporting Alpha 3.23. For example, the half-resolution render mode was updated to accompany the new cloud rendering improvements and the introduction of ground fog.
This mode serves as a good compromise between quality and performance and will be superseded by the temporal render mode, which is still a work in progress. Improvements include the cleaner rendering of silhouettes and foliage, less blurry results from orbit, and better low discrepancy sampling. Due to these improvements, the decision was made to alter the ‘very high spec’ settings for clouds to use the half-resolution render mode and increase the number of raymarching steps. As a result, players will see more consistent and less-noisy cloud rendering (similar to the new "photo mode" quality setting) at reduced GPU cost compared to the previous ‘very high spec’ settings. This will hopefully allow more people to enjoy the new high-fidelity rendering improvements in-game.
Additionally, further support was given to the Rendering team to roll out PSO caching and request collection to eliminate PSO cache redundancies and certain shader flags for vertex position and texture coordinate modification. This is to minimize the number of shaders and PSOs needed to run the game.
Support was also given for various Vulkan issues that were revealed during PTU play testing.
Longer term, work progressed on the temporal render mode. All confidence metrics, which are used to decide whether to keep history data after reprojection, now also factor in scene motion and depth. The temporal render mode was also tested against the various temporal upsampling solutions supported by the renderer.
Tech Animation
The Tech Animation team continued to generate and implement new head assets to the DNA gene pool, and are not far from completing the initiative of 40 heads for each gender.
Many devs are currently dealing with the complications of players and NPCs putting on and taking off clothes live in the engine.
“This has been ongoing for some time and, with the addition of animation resources into the mix, we are seeing great headway in both generating the assets for animation and generating usable pipelines to expedite the entire process for everyone involved.” Tech Animation Team
Additionally, the team are intrinsic in the creation and implementation of new creatures for both the PU and SQ42.
They’re also involved in work toward consumables and the setup of foodstuffs, with the team aiming to guide this initiative and promote time-saving workflows.
Lastly, they continued to support Alpha 3.23, ensuring content is integrated, tested, and ready for players.
Tech Design
Tech Design provided general tech support for Alpha 3.23, including fixing bugs affecting doors and fuel tanks not exploding in the new Distribution Centers.
For ships, iteration was done on weapon balance and AI following director feedback. For the latter, an easier AI behavior was created for use in very easy, easy, and introductory missions.
A call-to-action prompt was added to the elevator panels of multiple ships, and an issue preventing players from getting out of bed in the MISC Freelancer was fixed.
For Arena Commander, work continued on the Resource Network game mode, including enabling doors without power to be openable (but not closable) to prevent players from being trapped.
UI
In April, the Montreal-based team focused on the Cargo feature and worked closely with Core Gameplay on the Resource Network mandate, which included getting wireframes signed off. They will begin creating mockups soon.
In the UK, the UI team added the final touches to the new UIs for the visor, mobiGlas, and maps. They added the final missing features, such as the chat window and law widgets, too.
Updates were also made based on player feedback, such as reducing the hologram effect on the HUD and bringing back differently shaped quantum-travel markers. The team spent time polishing visuals and bug fixing as well.
VFX
Last month, the VFX team focused on bug fixing for the upcoming patch. This involved playtesting the game to find major issues that needed solving immediately or identifying smaller issues that were safe enough to fix without risking creating other bugs.
They also worked closely with Graphics and Planet Tech to ensure the supporting effects for water were working as expected and not too expensive. They also worked on a variety of vehicles for an upcoming release.
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