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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…
What updates can you expect from mining gameplay in Alpha 3.19? Grab your hard hat, because in this episode of Inside Star Citizen we'll be drilling into new improvements, resources and challenges that will enhance the mining experience.
Roberts Space Industries is the official go-to website for all news about Star Citizen and Squadron 42. It also hosts the online store for game items and…
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 February 22, 2023
Release View
The following card has been added to the Alpha 3.18 column on Release View:
RSI Scorpius Antares
Building, implementing, and balancing RSI's EMP and quantum jammer-equipped fighter, the Scorpius Antares, as a game-ready vehicle.
Progress Tracker
With this publish, we're adding the Q1 2023 and Q3 2023 schedules for downstream and upstream teams, respectively, with more teams to be added in a subsequent publish.
The following deliverables have been added to the Progress Tracker:
New Missions - Salvage Contracts
With more civilian access to salvage ships, contract brokers are offering salvage jobs for derelicts around Lagrange Points around Stanton. These brokers charge a fee for their services so this will require some buy-in, but the contractors are free to keep any salvaged material for resale.
Duster Faction Outfits
Developing multiple outfit variants for the Stanton gang, the Dusters.
Master Modes
Implementing new modes to vehicles to manage a their speed, components, and role-specific functions.
Persistent Habs
Previously removed from USPU's schedule, this deliverable returns to Progress Tracker with this publish.
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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Happy Monday, everyone!
Last week we put out the call for the Bar Citizen World Tour 2023! Last year's tour was incredibly successful, as we were able to see thousands of you in person for food, drinks, fun, and prizes. We're looking for new places to visit this year, so if you're putting an event together, let us know as soon as you can. We're gathering suggestions on the announcement thread, so if you have one, drop us a comment!
Thanks once again to everyone who has been hammering away on the PTU. The data we have collected from the increased traffic after opening it to all waves has proven to be extremely valuable. Although we're making good progress, there are still a few blockers preventing us from deploying to the Live servers, including transit and AI issues, as well as some server crashes. We're in the home stretch, and the team is really excited to get this one out the door and on to the live servers.
We're also considering holding a couple of stress tests in the lead-up to the big launch, so be sure to stay tuned to Spectrum. Your support and participation is super appreciated!
Now, let's see what's going on this week:
Wednesday has the latest Roadmap Update complete with a Roadmap Roundup with all the details.
Thursday, on this week's episode of Inside Star Citizen, we mine for materials on the multitude of new mining improvements coming with Alpha 3.19 later this year.
On Friday, our weekly chance to meet the people behind the making of Star Citizen continues at 8am Pacific / 4pm UTC. Guests to be announced later this week. Plus, stay up-to-date with our weekly RSI Newsletter, delivered straight to your inbox.
We're constantly amazed at the contributions made by the Star Citizen community. Whether it's fan art, a cinematic, YouTube guide, or even a 3D print of your favorite ship, we love it all! Every week, we select one piece of content submitted to the Community Hub and highlight it here. The highlighted content creator will be awarded an MVP badge on Spectrum and be immortalized in our MVP section of the Hub.
Don't forget to submit your content to our Community Hub for the chance to see it here!
The Racer
ADM Dreamreaver wrote, recorded, and produced an awesome feel-good track perfect for whipping around the turns of Snake Pit.
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…
Does lore get implemented before things are built into the 'verse? Today we're joined by multiple members of the Narrative Team who will give us insights on how they give deeper meanings to all the things.
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…
While Persistent Entity Streaming has opened the door for the rest of the Server Meshing development, let's go behind the scenes of our Meshing Summit to meet the team working on this core technology as we explore what's next in this multi-part series.
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 portfolio originally appeared in Jump Point 10.3.
Despite an illustrious career, Gratia Katsaros never forgot her first infield assignment. A recent Rhetor University business school graduate, Katsaros rejected job offers from prominent investment banks to join a crew of “turf-techs,” 24th-century slang for workers hired by terraforming companies to visit planets being actively terraformed. A mixture of scientist and repair technician, some turf-techs took important readings to track the process while others fixed essential ground-based equipment. The work wavered between exhilarating and extremely dangerous, which Katsaros, as an amateur climatologist and thrillseeker, admitted attracted her to the gig. While suiting up for her first mission, Team Leader Clark Rissolo handed her some extra homemade protective gear and explained that the company didn’t require that she wear it, but he did. Clark was a lifelong turf-tech who knew how quickly conditions could change and how ineffectual the standard environmental suit could be against unexpected elements like egg-sized hail suddenly falling from the sky.
In her memoir, Protection for the People, Katsaros revisits this first gig on Terra IV and some of the dangers her team faced.
“There was a sudden drop in air pressure followed by a cold, stiff breeze. It didn’t seem that strange to me, but Clark immediately called for an emergency evacuation. I took a moment to tighten another bolt when, suddenly, I was knocked down by a rock whipped up by the wind. Thankfully, Clark pulled me up and guided me into the ship. Once safe, I looked down and saw a rock embedded into Clark’s extra layer of armor. For that, I owe him not only my life but my eternal gratitude for setting us on a new path.”
Katsaros jokingly called these extra protective layers “Clark’s defense system,” and her experiences on the job pushed her to advocate for increased safety standards for turf-techs. In 2539, she convinced Clark and a few others to start a company manufacturing specialized environmental armor. The team established their operation in Najita on Keene, Killian system, and picked the name Clark Defense Systems (CDS) in honor of their inspiration. Yet this slight name change wouldn’t be the only early adjustment the company made. Shortly after launching their inaugural line, the First Tevarin War erupted and the UPE desperately needed combat armor. Sluggish sales of their environmental suits drove CDS to apply for and land a military contract. “We jumped at the chance to expand our product line thanks to some government funding,” Katsoros wrote, “but believed we’d be back to environmental suits the moment the war was over. We couldn’t have been more wrong.”
GOOD ENOUGH FOR GOVERNMENT WORK
Clark Defense Systems refined their environmental suits to comply with military standards and quickly converted their production line to create a variety of field armor and combat undersuits. With the UPE on the verge of winning the First Tevarin War, a cadre of government officials visited CDS headquarters for the first time in 2546 and disclosed that their armor was the most well-regarded equipment among combat forces as well as pilots. They were so effective and well-liked that much of it was reserved for special forces or soldiers in the most dangerous areas of operation. The visit ended with UPE officials offering CDS a massive new government contract to expand upon their output to the military. Though the offer would keep them from being able to return to the environment suit market, it was too good to refuse.
CDS dedicated all the company’s resources to manufacturing combat armor and consulted extensively with veterans of the Tevarin War on what features they responded to best in the field as well as what they would need and want for future models. This led to the development of some of their most famous lines of armor, including the Omni-Role Combat (ORC) and Advanced Defensive Protection (ADP) series. The outbreak of the Second Tevarin War in 2603 brought about another substantial increase to CDS’ government contracts and further real-world testing. The company’s willingness to adapt and improve their armor kept it as a favorite of soldiers who, when the war finally ended in 2610, would return home raving about a brand unavailable on the civilian market. This word of mouth created a bustling secondhand market for CDS armor, with entire companies being created to procure and refurbish the prized pieces.
With demand so high, CDS considered pivoting to the private sector. The company’s long-term commitment to making armor exclusively for the UPE/UEE military was a boon, but company executives understood the dangers of being associated with the increasingly authoritarian Messer regime. CDS lawyers looked into ways to get out of the exclusivity clause in their government contract, but the Messer regime got wind of their plan and informed the company that their armor was of “strategic importance to the Empire.” The UEE argued in documents released centuries later under the Historical Truth Act that none of the armor developed for the military, or even modified versions of it, could ever be publicly released and that any attempt to backout of their manufacturing commitment would lead to the UEE taking full control of the company, its facilities, assets, and patents. Sufficiently scared, CDS officials dropped their plans and sat back, waiting and hoping that the company could outlast the regime.
PROTECTION FOR THE PEOPLE
By the late 28th century, Messer regime power was weak enough for CDS to resurrect their plans to expand into the public sector. Their first move came in 2789 and coincided with the former military system of Castra being opened to the public. The company bought office and manufacturing space on Cascom (Castra II) with the hopes of creating a separate company focused on developing armor for the public. CDS hoped that siloing this entity, its product, and development cycles from anything previously done for the military would shield them from government interference or retaliation. But these plans quickly became moot when, in 2792, the Messers finally fell.
Free from the iron-grip of the former regime, CDS held lengthy discussions with senators and members of Imperator Erin Toi’s administration. The new government wanted to cut ties to companies associated with the Messers, a fate most famously dealt to Aegis, but the evidence of CDS’s attempt to sever their contracts and the regime’s subsequent takeover threats saved them from losing everything. Instead, the two sides agreed to dramatically reduce the size of CDS’ contracts but allowed them to enter the civilian market to sell legacy versions of their combat armor.
Before entering the civilian market, CDS enacted a master plan to set up the brand for future success. In 2802, the company officially moved their headquarters to Cascom, Castra system, and significantly increased their manufacturing capacity there. Today, most of their civilian operations are based out of Cascom while their facilities on Keene focus on supplying and developing the next lines of groundbreaking armor for the UEE military; an area where CDS continues to excel as evidenced by them being awarded a government contract in 2945 to research and develop next-generation light armor. Today, Clark Defense Systems maintains a significant foothold in both the civilian and government sectors and is considered by many to be a cornerstone company of the empire.
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…
Star Citizen Alpha 3.18 introduces an all-new career path: Salvage & Repair.
As part of this, all ships have been updated to support "soft death." This means that player ships won't always be fully destroyed upon death, leaving the hull salvageable. The gathered material can then be sold for profit or used to repair damaged vehicles.
Below is a quick start guide to the Salvage & Repair career as of Alpha 3.18. We'll also add to this page as additional aspects of the career come online in the future.
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Looking to start your salvage career? Head to Dumper's Depot or Platinum Bay and pick up a Multi-Tool and the Cambio-Lite SRT attachment for the Greycat Multi-Tool.
This attachment can both fill Recycled Material Composite (RMC) canisters by scraping hulls and dispense RMC to help you repair hull damage on your ships.
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Thanks to a reinforced cargo bay and long-range jump drive, the Reclaimer is ideal for breaking apart deep-space wrecks.
Have a crew looking to salvage larger ships? The Aegis Reclaimer puts your team to work to scrape out big profits.
Recycled Material Composite (RMC) is the commodity gathered while hull scraping. RMC is stored in commodities containers and can be sold at commodity kiosks for profit. On all salvage vessels like the Vulture, RMC can also be converted into the canisters used by salvage and repair hand tools. Empty canisters for the Multi-Tool that can be bought at dedicated shops can also be filled at commoditiy kiosks with RMC.
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Aboard a Vulture or Reclaimer? Activate Salvage Mode (default key 'M') or hop into a Salvage Turret and you'll see the HUD displayed. On the left and/or right side information on the salvage modules you have equipped will be displayed. It will showcase important parameters like the diameter of the beam and its current speed and efficiency. You can switch through the equipped modules with the right mouse button by default. Additional modules are available at Dumper's Depot, Platinum Bay, and other shops. We even have more options ready for you to customize within the key bindings settings.
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Once you've found an object to scrape, engage your beam with 'Mouse 1' by default. There are indicators at the bottom of the HUD which tell you how much much material is available under your scraper beam. The top of the HUD shows your current extraction rate and progress in filling an SCU container with RMC and additionally the remaining material of the targeted section. These containers are filled automatically as you scrape and eject into your cargo hold.
As you fill these containers, you might receive a warning on your HUD informing about an obstructed conveyer belt. Now, you'll have to move the commodity container off the cargo hold's conveyor belt with a tractor beam (or have a friend help you). You can also use the filler station in your hold to create RMC canisters, that can be used with your Multi-Tool equiped with the Cambio-Lite SRT attachment to use it for repairs.
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Once you've got SCU containers full of RMC, head to a commodity kiosk to sell them. These can be found at most landing zones and space stations. However, not all kiosks will purchase RMC, and don't forget to keep an eye on the price to make sure you're not getting a raw deal!
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If you created RMC canisters instead of filling your SCU containers and you've got your SRT Multi-Tool attachment handy, you can use RMC to repair your or a friend's hull damage. With your Multi-Tool, attachment, and filled RMC canister equipped, press the 'B' key to switch from salvage mode to repair mode.
You can significantly repair your hull but not fully. To fully restore your ship's hull, you'll need to take it to a landing pad or hangar that offers repair services.
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!
Love is in the air as the 'verse celebrated Coramor over the weekend, but the celebration for you continues this week! There's still time to submit your entry into the 2953 Coramor Screenshot Contest, so make sure you get your shots in by the 15th for a chance to win. Head over to the Valentine's Day landing page for details on the contest and more.
We want to thank the Wave 1 and 2 testers for all their hard work in helping us get Alpha 3.18 out to more players. Despite the challenges we faced in not being able to fully open up to all waves on Friday, the overwhelming volume of reports and player data received over the weekend has significantly helped us pinpoint and address the obstacles preventing a broader release. Our immediate priority remains to resolve the transit issues before opening up to all backers. Please stay tuned on Spectrum for further updates as we inch closer to the launch of Alpha 3.18.
Now, let's see what's going on this week:
This Tuesday, the Narrative team will publish the Portfolio for Clark Defense Systems. Originally focused on environmental armor, the First Tevarin War forever changed the fate of Clark Defense Systems.
Thursday, Inside Star Citizen returns with a discussion with members of the team working on Server Meshing during their recent summit in the UK.
On Friday, join us for Star Citizen Live broadcasting at 8am Pacific / 4pm UTC, with guests to be confirmed soon. Plus, stay up-to-date with our weekly RSI Newsletter, delivered straight 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.
Don't forget to submit your content to our Community Hub for the chance to see it here!
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…
This week, we've snagged guests from the vehicle and lighting team to discuss what they've been working on, followed by a new impromptu bonus segment where Jared teaches us how the build system works.
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…
How can the creation of our new modular building interior system enhance the city experience within the 'verse? Let's dive in starting from rooftops and going all the way through to the underground in this Interior episode of Journey to 4.0.
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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The release of the all new Community Hub at CitizenCon 2952 was only the beginning. Alongside the initial debut, we shared that we had a roadmap of improvements and additions in the months ahead, leading us to today.
The new Events section of the Community Hub is NOW LIVE, alongside new and exciting functionality to make browsing and submitting content related to an event or holiday easier than ever before.
The creative content coming from our community never ceases to amaze, so finding a better way to collect and organize that content was an early priority. Read on for details!
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With this update, we're now able to activate an "Event", which will thematically takeover the front page of the Community Hub, highlighting curated content to spotlight submissions related to that Event.
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Click through to a specific event to browse all content related to a specific event. Utilize the robust filter/sorting options to explore the content you love the most.
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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In the Mood for Love
Just like Valentine’s Day, during Coramor, citizens show loved ones they care by giving gifts, sending cards, and remembering the story of long-lost lovers separated by trillions of miles following a collapsed deep-space jump point… so maybe not just like our Valentine’s Day.
Read on for everything you need to know about Coramor in the ‘verse, details on brand-new Lovestruck paints and armors, and a beguiling community contest that will bring out the romantic in you.
Coramor is a holiday celebrated annually throughout the United Empire of Earth (UEE) on February 11. Its origins can be traced back to 2486, when Yuri Ilyin disappeared trying to reunite with his lover, Corazon Tan, who had become trapped behind the recently collapsed jump point to the Oretani system. During his search, Yuri would send emotional daily comms to Cora's parents updating them on his search, the last of which was unintelligible except for “...anything for Cora… amor...” Yuri was never seen again.
The story of Yuri and Cora was popularized in a late 25th-century vid titled Coramor, a portmanteau derived from Yuri's final comm. Inspired by the tragic tale of love, people began exchanging romantic messages on February 11, the date of his disappearance.
Today, Coramor traditions include the exchange of gifts and messages between lovers, travel to romantic destinations, and the sending of comms into space in the hope of attracting new love. Some celebrants use the day to send messages to lost loved ones. The colors pink and black, the same as the livery of Yuri's ship in Coramor, are widely associated with the holiday.
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Inspired by the traditional colors of Coramor, these Lovestruck paints give a stylish metallic pink and black look to your Arrow, Cyclone, Scorpius, HoverQuad, Nomad, or Ares.
The Lovestruck paints for the Arrow, Cyclone, and Scorpius will be delivered in the upcoming Alpha 3.18.
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Back for a limited engagement, you can snag the ultra-exclusive Anvil Hornet Heartseeker just in time for Coramor. Capture this devilish beauty now before it leaves you lonely.
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This year, we want you to wear your heart on your screen, get creative, and make a heart shape somewhere out there in the 'verse. Snap a screenshot and submit it on the Community Hub for the chance to win fabulous prizes.
Image by oxDIDIxo
Limited-Time Paints
The Lovestruck paints for the Arrow, Cyclone, and Scorpius will be delivered in the upcoming Alpha 3.18.
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 February 8, 2023
Alpha 3.19
The upcoming release of Alpha 3.18 brings important advancements to the technology behind Star Citizen. The highlight of this update is Persistent Entity Streaming, which represents a monumental effort from our engineering teams. We are eager to share this update with more players soon and are thrilled about the improvements it will bring.
To ensure server and client stability in Alpha 3.18, both before and after launch, our team has decided to extend the 3.18 branch for an extra patch cycle. This will allow us to address any issues that may arise. As a result, the next update following the release of Alpha 3.18 will come before Invictus Launch Week and will feature a variety of new and exciting content you can read about below. Although this update will be designated Alpha 3.19, it will be built on the Alpha 3.18 code base.
Our production teams are currently evaluating the feasibility of integrating originally planned 3.19 content into the Alpha 3.18 branch. The items we are adding to the Release View today are subject to change and additions. Nonetheless, we wanted to share our tentative goals as of now, with potentially more updates/changes/additions coming in Roadmap updates ahead.
Release View
The following cards have been added to the Alpha 3.19 column on Release View:
Lorville Cityscape
Reworking the Lorville skyline to better fit the scale of the city and its distinctive buildings.
New Player Experience
An initiative for improving the initial (first 30 minutes) gameplay experience, which will help players understand the context of the world and introduce them to some of Star Citizen's basic features. This update focuses on the experience in Area 18 and Baijini Point.
New Missions - Salvage Contracts
With more civilian access to salvage ships, contract brokers are offering salvage jobs for derelicts around Lagrange Points around Stanton. These brokers charge a fee for their services so this will require some buy-in, but the contractors are free to keep any salvaged material for resale.
New Missions - Ghost Hollow PVP Mission
Adding a new mission type to the Ghost Hollow point of interest in the Stanton system. Making use of the comm-array as well as AI nav-mesh, this mission type will create PVP encounters where players will need to fight for control over terminals for a chance at big credit payouts.
Progress Tracker
Due to some format changes to the data we use for Progress Tracker, our update for both upstream and downstream teams in 2023 needs a bit more time to get sorted. You can expect these updates to come in subsequent publishes.
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 02:01:2023
REF: CIG UK, CIG DE, CIG LA, CIG TX
FAO Squadron 42 Recruits.
Welcome to January’s Squadron 42 development report. Enclosed you will find details on the latest progress made across the campaign, including enemy perception, updates to the Starmap, and narrative developments.
Thank you for your continued support of Squadron 42.
Sincerely,
CIG COMMUNICATIONS
AI (Content)
The AI Content team began 2023 focusing on behaviors used in the Stanton location. This involved regular reviews and playthroughs to detect and fix issues and looking closely at the ‘chowline’ and the ‘eat and drink’ behaviors.
The team also created a solid foundation of Maya character rigs that correctly match their in-game counterparts, allowing them to properly investigate and fix numerous problems. Time was also spent reviewing areas with 100% correct prop interaction, which was “very satisfying to see.”
The team also began enabling characters to sit in different styles of seats while drinking and polished animations for the medical cupboard and fuse crate interactions.
Lastly, they continued to refine and improve the ‘hygiene’ and ‘medical’ behaviors.
AI (Features)
The AI Feature team started the year enabling AI characters to throw grenades. This involved work in multiple different areas, including new logic for when to throw grenades to ensure a challenge without overwhelming the player, parabola collision checking to ensure the grenade lands correctly, and animation so that the AI looks correct when throwing.
January also saw the implementation of ‘attack’ and ‘defend’ areas. These assignments can be given to the AI to direct and control fighting in specific ways. On the most basic level, the defend area is used for limiting where NPCs are positioned when fighting, whereas the attack area is used to limit where they target. When assigned either area, the AI will prepare to fight by equipping their weapons and taking a ready stance before moving to the area on high alert (so perception happens fast and perception reactions are skipped). When defending, the AI will then move to a cover point inside the area and defensively peek out. When attacking, they will use the existing investigate behavior to search for hostile forces.
“The attack area is great for building pressure on the player, whereas the defend area is to provide the player with a tough challenge as AI are hunkered down and ready to fight. The implementation of this feature involved reusing existing systems in new ways - changing the tactical queries (positional and target selection) to take into consideration the attack or defend area that the AI may have.” AI Team
The AI team continued to develop the AI for a non-humanoid character, including work on group behaviors and attack patterns. They also began developing characterful animations that evoke the real-world creature the creature is modeled after. For example, as the creature fights in packs using melee attacks, the team must consider behaviors that space out the character movements in a natural way; partly so that the player doesn’t get overwhelmed but also so that the characters don’t collide with one another when attacking.
Certain sections of Squadron 42 include AI fighting alongside the player, known as “Buddy AI.” Last month, the team developed functionality to control how the buddy plays in these sections, including following behind the player, moving to interest points, and seeking cover. For choosing points to follow behind the player, the team creates a raycast along the navigation mesh to ensure the point is reachable from the leader and that they can move forward without obstruction.
AI (Tech)
Late last year, AI Tech completed the first iteration of NPCs driving ground vehicles. Last month, they fixed several related bugs as more designers began using the feature.
They also progressed with the feature that enables NPCs to use transit systems (like elevators) and move between platforms. This time, they focused on NPCs using trains to move between locations. This required exposing new functionality on the transit manager and more complex behaviors before and during transit. New functionality includes providing more information about the gateways at specific destinations and information about carriages, such as time spent at a destination and time until arrival.
On the locomotion side, the team added further support for ‘soft stops’ and separated them from ‘harsh stops.’ A soft stop means that an NPC will choose the best animation for stopping even if it will overshoot its destination, while a harsh stop will attempt to stop immediately. Locomotion support was also given for bug fixing and alien-creature movement.
For the Subsumption Apollo tool, the team progressed with implementing feedback and bug fixing. They also added new functionality to the Subsumption mastergraph, making it possible to have functions on top of transitions to determine whether a state transition can be done.
The Usable Coordinator was also completed, which allows the designers to specify a selection of usables for NPCs in specific areas and prioritize the order of selection.
The feature that allows NPCs to perceive threats through audio and visual stimuli and react to hostile vehicles was completed. In a related area, further updates were made to the behavior that enables NPCs reacting to stimuli to enter combat.
AI Tech started work on two new features: One allows overrides for navigation mesh generation so that the team can create navigation meshes for specific agents in narrow areas. For example, this will enable NPCs to traverse areas where only a crouched state is possible, such as vents and underfloor areas.
The second feature enables the team to mark areas with increased navigation cost, which will influence the path chosen by NPCs. This will be used to create areas that NPCs should avoid, like areas with fire, or to encourage them to travel on specific areas, like a sidewalk.
AI (Vehicle Features)
The Vehicle Feature team focused on space combat AI improvements in January. The intent is to have combat AI behave in a more dynamic way that encourages players to move and explore the ship mechanics. This involved breaking the AI into different well-defined trees, which will help players to identify what kind of enemies they’re up against. These improvements also allow the easier integration of more maneuvers to further increase the skill level and interest of higher-level ships.
Similarly, AI Vehicle Features worked on a new behavior logic to deliver improved atmospheric flight combat. This is intended to work with the ‘control surface’ feature being developed by the Vehicle Feature team and will lead to AI ships tailing and chasing players to get behind them, flying more like a plane when appropriate in atmosphere.
They also supported the flight designers on several chapters, adding new smaller features to ease their work when creating mission flow. Several flow-block issues were fixed too.
Animation
The Animation team began 2023 by making sure their schedule for reaching ‘content complete’ was agreed upon, which meant aligning closely with up and downstream teams.
Development-wise, further progress was made on zero-g, with the devs using some of the lessons learned to help guide work on ‘prone’ gameplay. They also continued to create new weapons and gadgets, including a trip mine, and worked on restraining and un-restraining.
Animation’s AI teams further developed the Vanduul execution and searching behaviors, along with the female spec-ops characters. They’re currently working on AI background animations related to eating and drinking, sickness, hygiene, and cargo for social areas.
On the facial side, the Chakma character was worked on alongside lines for AI character combat. The Mo-Cap team worked with Gameplay Animation to schedule an upcoming shoot to keep the AI and Player teams supplied with assets.
Engine
In January, the Physics team worked on triangle vertex and normal transforms for physics triangle meshes, which were rewritten to use SSE/AVX, saving 30% of the cost. Furthermore, the physicalization method for ropes can now be chosen per rope entity.
On the renderer, various optimizations were implemented into Gen12. Among other things, this included performance improvements for transient lists recording draw requests, a special submission for scene rendering with reduced thread synchronization, and a reduction of calls into the OS for general multi-threading purposes. Additionally, renderer initialization was refactored to prepare for Vulkan. Last month's Gen12 support for particle refraction now also works as intended.
On the core engine, further improvements were made to the remote shader compiler. Last month's work on adding support for huge pages was rolled out internally. Huge pages are now also used within the low-level memory allocator (JeMalloc). To further reduce the executable size of the Linux DGS, the ‘gold linker’ is now utilized to fold identical functions and various compiler-generated data inside binaries. Page heap is now also supported for entities, which use a special allocator, to make debugging memory corruptions easier. Lastly, more work was done to support v2 of the pk4 files introduced at the end of last year in the internal development tools.
Features (Gameplay)
The Gameplay Feature team worked on seamless transitions rather than camera cuts when moving between the player’s view and cinematic sequences, both when piloting a ship or walking around.
The new ‘field manual’ mobiGlas app progressed, which collates the tutorials players experience during the game. Male and female voice selection was added to the Application Form, and progress on saving and loading was made. Now, the team can save the replication layer and restore it, getting back to fundamentally the same state it was left in, including the correct scripted mission modules. A lot of general edge cases were fixed too.
Numerous Starmap improvements were made, including better transitions between the real and cosmetic scaling as it’s zoomed in and out, correct grid movement when panning, improved culling when objects intersect, and correctly sized and aligned text labels.
General iteration following feedback was also made to the Application Form, character customizer, armorer interaction, armory terminal, and mission-manager app.
Features (Vehicles)
January saw the Vehicle Feature team improving numerous aspects of vehicle combat, including ship and weapons balance. Tweaks were also made to the HUD and aiming and targeting to further improve the combat experience.
Vehicle Features also began working on radar, having taken it over from the Arena Commander Feature team to support the needs of SQ42. Recent work included adding various features in support of the new scanning UI and multi-function displays (MFDs).
The quantum-travel rework is nearing completion. Last month, the team completed quantum spawning, which allows them to spawn AI ships as though they have quantum traveled into an area. This is the last feature required to widely use quantum travel in various chapters.
UI was also worked on throughout the month. The MFD rework progressed well, with the team working through numerous technical issues in the UI system. They also fleshed out the new MFD control system, which is designed to be used with keys or a gamepad rather than Interaction mode. The HUD is being reworked and integrated heavily with the new MFD system too.
Gameplay Story
Last month, Gameplay Story used new mo-cap data across multiple chapters and scenes, including creating new animations for chapter 18 to allow the characters to end the scene in a more realistic way as well as giving them longer end-idles. The new mo-cap also helped a scene in chapter 14, where a character holds a datapad in the wrong hand. They now transition from walking with the datapad into the scene seamlessly. A scene was also fixed in chapter 8 to allow a character to holster their datapad correctly.
Changes were made to chapter 14 following feedback about wanting a character to be able to react if the player followed them down a hallway. Not only can they now turn, deliver a line, and continue walking, they can trigger scenes that start up a conversation with the player. This was done by shooting new mo-cap to give the character more life and the ability to glance around and realize the player is there.
Polish passes were made to various scenes to get them to a much higher standard. One in chapter 12 required using a previously made animation and altering it through a combination of hand keying and mo-cap to create a completely new piece where the character delivers their own lines to the player and encourages them to catch up.
Several scenes were also improved by changing how the character interacts with a console. This was made more believable following a pass on their hands and fingers so they appear to be pressing keys or typing.
Gameplay Story also experimented with the ‘look at’ feature for a scene in chapter 4, as testers had flagged that the characters didn't seem to be looking at the player.
“We chose to do a full pass on both characters and managed to push the ‘look at’ to allow them to involve the player in the conversation and make them feel included. We have hit the start of the new year running and are delivering lots of high-quality work at a very good pace.” Gameplay Story Team
Level Design
Last month, the Space and Dogfight team continued to develop the gameplay experience, with the aim of having all dogfighting flow seamlessly from social and FPS sections.
They also integrated new features and AI improvements as they came online, and worked with the Vehicle Feature team on new flight mechanics, such as Quantum Boost and the atmospheric flight model.
Narrative
Narrative started the year with reviews alongside the Design team.
“With placeholder dialogue being implemented in-game for the additional content generated last year, it’s important to playtest and evaluate the adjusted experience before recording the final release-quality version with professional actors (no offense to the amazing performances from the team members who volunteered to record the placeholder content!)” Narrative Team
The team is currently finalizing the mo-cap schedule with a breakdown of what’s ready to be recorded and what still needs fine-tuning.
Another focus for January was the game’s assorted collectible and discoverable narrative content, including messages that players will find if they explore areas and interact with datapads and terminals. Part of this process consists of chapter-by-chapter walkthroughs to ensure content is appropriately paced. Additionally, the team outlined new personal comms messages the player will receive throughout the campaign from various characters. While some messages in the main game flow had already been written, the team wanted to expand on them to provide even more narrative content that will tie into the player’s actions and decisions.
Finally, Narrative worked with the Core Gameplay Pillar Design team to create detailed reviews of the interactive terminals that players will use for things like puzzle solving and navigating. The Narrative team is helping to ensure that the language used on the displays is not only clear and concise but thematically appropriate for the universe.
UI
The UI Tech team added new debugging tools to help them manage Building Blocks alongside a new array of widgets to speed up their workflow.
The Starmap progressed visually, with the team adding several elements to help with navigation and completing a polish pass.
Alongside concepting visual improvements for various parts of the game, including radial menus, the UI Art and Design team shifted focus to work on functional UI. Several of the game teams began creating complex screens based on concepts, which were returned to the UI Tech team to ensure the interactions look and feel good.
They also tweaked some of the crosshairs to improve the combat experience and continued to develop the looks for two more manufacturer-specific vehicle UIs.
VFX
Last month, VFX continued their work on locations, collaborating closely with Art and Design.
The particle library overhaul mentioned in last month’s report was completed, allowing the team to turn their efforts toward making sure all locations benefit from these improvements moving forwards.
Elsewhere, the team continued to tweak and refine the new quantum travel effects.
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In the spirit of last month’s Red Festival (2953’s take on Lunar New Year), we’re giving you the opportunity to walk in the shoes of its alien originators. Throughout the month, the Banu Defender is available to fly for all Subscribers. And remember, you can add one to your fleet with enhanced insurance until the end of the month.
Flair-wise, we’re getting loved up with exclusive Coramor-themed armor sets. Whether you’re heading into battle or meeting a loved one at Wally’s, you’re covered for anything the verse’s most romantic day brings.
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This special-edition armor set is modeled after the armor worn by Yuri Ilyin in the famous 25th-century vid, Coramor, which inspired the eponymous lovers' festival.
Current Imperator-level Subscribers get the RSI Lovestruck and RSI Starcrossed armor sets as part of their subscription.
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If you would like to receive armor sets as part of a subscription, you can subscribe before February 14th, 2023 2000 UTC.
If you subscribe after February 14th, 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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With the launch of Alpha 3.15 and the introduction of Physical Inventory, you may find yourself suffering an untimely demise at the hands of a pirate or an ill-timed crash. But in either case, fear not! Even if your body is looted or you otherwise lose your items through death, all your Subscriber Flair items (and similar items acquired on the pledge store) can be easily recovered. Simply head to your account settings and initiate a character reset, which will restore any platform-attributed items you've lost in-game.
It's important to note that this is only a temporary solution to get you those items back quickly. We're exploring a number of alternative recovery options which we plan to implement later on down the line.
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As we've mentioned in the past, our goal is to make most offerings available to be earned in-game. For this reason, we're excited to share that many of the Subscriber flair items have been added to the in-game loot table as a rare drop, starting in Alpha 3.17. More specifically, most pre-2022 items (those that can be player carried) have been added, with future flair being added after a 3-month exclusivity window.
Note: Some digital items that are exclusive to events, such as items from a CitizenCon Goodies Pack, etc., will not be making their way into the in-game discoverable loot system.
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Happy Monday, everyone!
Alpha 3.18 is now available to Waves 1 and 2 for PTU testing! We've got all hands on deck focused on getting this update both to all PTU testing waves as well as onto the live servers. There are still a few issues needing to be smoothed out, but we hope to get 3.18 in your hands very soon.
In case you missed it, last week we asked you to Save the Date for this year's CitizenCon! We're back in person this year, and we'll have more details coming your way soon, including tickets, location, information on the annual cosplay contests, community booths, and more. We can't wait to see you all on October 21, 2023, in Los Angeles, California!
Love is in the air as we approach February 11, the celebration of Coramor in the Star Citizen universe. We'll have plenty of ways for you to join in the festivities, including chances to win prizes you'll adore, so watch out for all the details as we kick off Coramor later this week.
Now, let's see what's going on this week:
This Tuesday, we're thrilled to roll out a major update to the Community Hub, with new features, fixes, and fun included. Keep an eye out for our announcement post tomorrow with all the goodies you'll want to know. We'll also publish the Subscriber Monthly Newsletter and Comm-Link!
Wednesday has 2023's first roadmap update, along with a Roadmap Roundup with all the details. We'll also repost last week's Squadron 42 monthly report newsletter as a Comm-Link.
Thursday, there's no Inside Star Citizen! Instead, it's another Journey to 4.0 special dedicated to the creation of our new modular building interior system intended to populate every landing zone in Star Citizen.
Also on Thursday, join us for the kick-off of Coramor, our annual celebration of all things love. This year, we've got more than a few opportunities to win some sweet prizes, so grab your finest threads, and get ready for a romantic event or two.
On Friday, join us for Star Citizen Live, where members of the vehicle team gather for their annual summit in the UK. Tune in at 8am Pacific / 4pm UTC on our Twitch channel for an exclusive look. Plus, stay up-to-date with our weekly RSI Newsletter, delivered straight 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.
Don't forget to submit your content to our Community Hub for the chance to see it here!
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DoraThaaDestroya and their Twitch community have put together an amazing resource for mining in the 'verse, whether you're just starting out or a veteran rock smasher.
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…
Hey Mission People! This show has the people that make missions! Some of them, anyway. Also: discover the dark truth behind the Elmses and their familiar infiltration of CIG.
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…
What exciting new changes will come to Arena Commander later this year? In this episode of Inside Star Citizen, we'll explore what our newly formed Arena Commander Feature team has been working on to give this dogfighting module some much-needed TLC.
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Welcome to January’s PU Monthly Report. Although the upcoming patch is still being tested and tweaked in the Persistent Test Universe (PTU), most teams began the year moving on from their work on Alpha 3.18. From extensive AI updates to new vehicles, locations, and features, read on for everything done in pursuit of 2023’s extensive content schedule.
AI (Features)
The AI Features team started the year enabling AI characters to throw grenades. This involved work in multiple areas, including new logic for when to throw grenades to ensure a challenge without overwhelming the player, parabola collision checking to ensure the grenade lands correctly, and animation so that the AI looks correct when throwing.
January also saw the implementation of ‘attack’ and ‘defend’ areas, which can be assigned to AI characters to direct and control fighting in specific ways. On the most basic level, the defend area limits where NPCs are positioned when fighting, whereas the attack area limits where they target. When assigned either area, NPCs will prepare to fight by equipping their weapons and taking ready stances before moving to the area on high alert (so perception happens quickly and perception reactions are skipped). When defending, AI will move to a cover point inside the area and defensively peek out. When attacking, they will use the existing investigate behavior to search for hostile forces.
“The attack area is great for building pressure on the player, whereas the defend area can provide the player with a tough challenge as AI are hunkered down and ready to fight. The implementation of this feature involved reusing existing systems in new ways - changing the tactical queries (positional and target selection) to take into consideration the attack or defend area that the AI may have.” AI Team
AI (Tech)
Late last year, AI Tech completed the first iteration of NPCs driving ground vehicles. Last month, they fixed several related bugs as more designers began using the feature.
They also progressed with the feature that enables NPCs to use transit systems (like elevators) and move between platforms. This time, they focused on NPCs using trains to move between locations. This required exposing new functionality on the transit manager and more complex behaviors before and during transit. New functionality includes providing more information about the gateways at specific destinations and information about carriages, such as time spent at a destination and time until arrival.
On the locomotion side, the team added further support for ‘soft stops’ and separated them from ‘harsh stops.’ A soft stop means that an NPC will choose the best animation for stopping even if it will overshoot its destination, while a harsh stop will attempt to stop immediately. Locomotion support was also given for bug fixing and alien-creature movement.
For the Subsumption Apollo tool, the team progressed with implementing feedback and bug fixing. They also added new functionality to the Subsumption mastergraph, making it possible to have functions on top of transitions to determine whether a state transition can be done.
The Usable Coordinator was also completed, which allows the designers to specify a selection of usables for NPCs in specific areas and prioritize the order of selection.
The feature that allows NPCs to perceive threats through audio and visual stimuli and react to hostile vehicles was completed. In a related area, further updates were made to the behavior that enables NPCs reacting to stimuli to enter combat.
AI Tech started work on two new features: One allows overrides for navigation mesh generation so that the team can create navigation meshes for specific agents in narrow areas. For example, this will enable NPCs to traverse areas where only a crouched state is possible, such as vents and underfloor areas.
The second feature enables the team to mark areas with increased navigation cost, which will influence the path chosen by NPCs. This will be used to create areas that NPCs should avoid, like areas with fire, or to encourage them to travel on specific areas, like a sidewalk.
They also supported Alpha 3.18 and allocated time to tech debt to update some of the AI system’s functionalities.
AI (Vehicles Features)
The Vehicle Feature team focused on space combat AI improvements in January. The intent is to have combat AI behave in a more dynamic way that encourages players to move and explore the various ship mechanics. This involved breaking the AI into different well-defined trees, which will help players to identify what kind of enemies they’re up against. These improvements also allow the easier integration of more maneuvers to further increase the skill level and interest of higher-level ships.
Similarly, AI Vehicle Features worked on a new behavior logic to deliver improved atmospheric flight combat. This is intended to work with the ‘control surface’ feature being developed by the Vehicle Feature team and will lead to AI ships tailing and chasing players to get behind them, flying more like a plane when appropriate.
Animation
Alongside embedded work for the various feature teams, facial animations were developed for emotes and background characters, such as the female vendor.
Art (Characters)
In January, the Character Art team began production of the ‘frontier environmental wear’ costumes and polished the frontier undersuit.
Character Concept progressed with concept exploration for the Rough and Ready gang, fauna, and the Dusters faction.
Art (Ships)
In the UK, the Art team continued work on the ‘small ship’ mentioned in last month’s report, with certain elements reaching LOD0-complete. They also began exploring ideas for a variant.
The Argo SRV progressed through final art. Final polish is currently underway on the exterior before the LOD and damage passes begin. The interior continued through final art and received a LOD pass.
Development of the Crusader Spirit continued, which passed its whitebox review, with the A1 variant moving into the greybox phase.
“The exterior is shaping up nicely with the key forms all established and all major elements, like landing gear and VTOLs, resolved. The interior is coming along and we’re very pleased with the space so far, though there are a few visual changes we’d like to make to the doorways to emphasize Crusader’s visual language.” Ship Team
A previously unannounced ground vehicle passed its greybox sanity review before the artwork progressed to LOD0. The exterior is almost finalized, only requiring additional detail, while the interior is progressing well.
The US team completed art whitebox for another in-production vehicle, which was then passed to the Systems Design team.
Greybox began on another ship. Half the team focused on the main fuselage geometry, while the other prototyped a new way to enter and exit the ship.
Finally for Ships, an all-new vehicle entered greybox, and a new set of alien paints was created for a future release.
Community also supported the return of the Siege of Orison Dynamic Event with an in-depth guide.
Thoughout January, Community continued to work on the "Events Feature" which is a new section coming to the Community Hub next week. They also worked closely with Turbulent on other exciting additions such as text posts, bug fixes, etc.
They are planning out new Community Events as well, coming to a bar near you.
Also in January, Community welcomed a new bilingual Community Manager to the LA office, and we're excited to introduce them soon.
Engine
In January, the Physics team's schedule was dominated by Alpha 3.18 bug fixing and support. Aside from this, triangle vertex and normal transforms for physics triangle meshes were rewritten to use SSE/AVX, which saves 30% of the cost. Furthermore, the physicalization method for ropes can now be chosen per rope entity.
On the renderer, various optimizations were implemented into Gen12 (partly based on telemetry gathered during Alpha 3.18 PTU). Among other things, this included performance improvements for transient lists recording draw requests, a special submission for scene rendering with reduced thread synchronization, and a reduction of calls into the OS for general multi-threading purposes. Additionally, renderer initialization was refactored to prepare for Vulkan. Last month's Gen12 support for particle refraction now also works as intended.
On the core engine, further improvements were made to the remote shader compiler. Last month's work on adding support for huge pages was rolled out internally. Huge pages are now also used within the low-level memory allocator (JeMalloc). To further reduce the executable size of the Linux DGS, the ‘gold linker’ is now utilized to fold identical functions and various compiler-generated data inside binaries. Page heap is now also supported for entities, which use a special allocator, to make debugging memory corruptions easier. Lastly, more work was done to support v2 of the pk4 files introduced at the end of last year in the internal development tools.
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Features (Arena Commander)
Throughout January, the team focused on polishing the new Arena Commander frontend and racing tracks, including placing the New Horizon Speedway tracks above a new planet, Green III of the Ellis System. Some adjustments were also made to the racetracks themselves to suit the new earth-like atmosphere. The team also experimented with new loadout selection previews on the frontend alongside polishing its style and flow.
Work continued on the Classic Race refactor, with the first version of the new Race Manager and checkpoint setups being tested and feedback addressed. Optimizations and additions, such as splits, qualifying, and new analytic data, were made alongside improvements to time accuracy. The refactors of both the Rounds and Spawning modules continued across Arena Commander and Star Marine. This refactor sees the code drastically improved and brought up to current standards while providing more modularity for new features. It also tackles some of the problem areas that prevented expansion of the old systems, such as separating unintended connections to PU characters, validating loadouts, and adding the ability to change the ship selection while in-game.
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Features (Characters & Weapons)
Last month, the Features team continued to support the upcoming patch release with critical bug fixes, specifically issues relating to the cargo system, tractor beam, and inventory. They fixed several client and server crashes too.
They also worked on the player skills feature. This tracks certain player activities and actions with minimal hooks into the gameplay feature logic and with an emphasis on performance. From the data and events gathered, players can improve certain aspects of their performance. For example, a player with a higher level of fitness may have more stamina or consume stamina at a slower rate.
The team has been working on better support for the player playing animations triggered by environmental interactions, such as a character physically opening a locker door or pressing buttons on a vehicle dashboard. These are either quick or decorative action sequences with a large focus on reusability to scale with the amount of planned content. There’s a lot of balancing to ensure it increases immersion with minimal impact on responsiveness.
Features (Gameplay)
The EU team continued work on the tractor beam, this time focusing on ‘escaping’ mechanics, such as how shields affect the required strength of a tractor beam to secure a ship. A prototype was built to test the potential and help decide whether average shield strength or per-shield-face determines the required strength. Additionally, the team began work on detaching and attaching items with the tractor beam, which is an expansion of the attaching-to-cargo-grid feature.
A clearer direction for the expected ship engineer gameplay was also defined. This involved determining the gameplay beats and planning the possible malfunctions and dangers players will face while maintaining their ships.
Additionally, the ongoing mining balance update progressed well, with small changes that have bigger impacts being added to the system. For Salvage, Gameplay Features helped Missions prepare to use the mechanic in new content.
In the US, Gameplay Features continued with the overall design for loading and unloading physicalized cargo, and designs for missions that leverage the new cargo systems kicked off. These missions will also utilize the boarding actions now available with soft death alongside the retrieval of containers or other objects of interest.
Investigation and preliminary design work started on changes to ship insurance and how it works in conjunction with ship destruction. These changes are necessary to make towing and repairing either at stations or in space a better choice.
Tasks were started for a change to commodities, including the locations they can be bought and sold from. For example, changes to mining locations will impact the location and prices for mined and refined ores at commodity brokers.
Features (Mission)
The majority of the Mission Feature team’s month was spent addressing bugs and balancing for Alpha 3.18. Progress was also made on the design and prototyping of various new missions, including salvage.
“The order we are tackling these missions is based on when we receive the necessary support, so the first missions produced will be the more simplistic salvage ones. These include a lawful contract in which players must pay for the location of salvage, an unlawful timed mission in which players must strip a ship quickly or deal with inbound hostiles, a lawless mission in which multiple players pay for the location of the same large salvage opportunity, and one in which players must restore a ship using nearby wrecks for materials.” Mission Features
A mining mission was also prototyped in which players purchase the location of a valuable prospect. There are currently three variants: lawful, which takes place in a monitored zone and has friendly defenses to protect against hostiles; unlawful, where players seize legally owned mining claims; and lawless, which takes place in unmonitored zones and can be accepted by multiple players.
The team are also developing larger missions set on the Orison platforms. These task players with either preventing the Nine Tails gang from stealing Crusader Industries prototype parts or stealing them for another criminal organization.
A few other missions progressed through the design and work on Bounty Hunting v2 and the Mission Manager update continued.
Finally for Mission Features, designs for defending player ships from intruders and ship-based hostility were worked on. These features are intended to replace the simplistic hostility currently in-game where ships remember the hostility of their last pilot or turn hostile the moment a hostile player steps aboard.
In-Game Branding (Montreal)
Last month, the In-Game Branding team progressed with their work on the Lorville skyline. They then transitioned to Invictus Launch Week, including a refresh of the DefenseCon branding, which will become the main focus for the upcoming weeks. Progress continued on the brand catalog too.
Lighting
Lighting began the year making progress in several key areas, including tidying and bug-fixing Area18 to restore its intended appearance.
Work on Pyro continued, with the team lighting the interiors and exteriors of the colonial outposts and Ruin Station.
They also supported the ongoing rework of Lorville’s skyline, touching up and improving several areas around the city.
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Live Tools (Montreal)
In January, the Live Tools team worked on several improvements to the local development environment tool. They’re currently finalizing the last step of implementing the Entity Graph tool into the Network Operation Center. The roadmap for 2023 projects was also refined, with the addition of new projects that will support Server Meshing.
Locations (EU)
January saw the Locations team continuing work on Pyro’s Ruin Station.
“This is a behemoth task that the team have been diligently working on and it's looking better day on day.” EU Locations 1
EU Locations 2 progressed with thelocal law office mentioned in last month’s report and created new content alongside Mission Features.
The Sandbox teams further developed the colonial outposts and continued exploration and development of the underground facilities.
“Production is starting to ramp up and the team are feeling good about the work being done.” Sandbox team
The Organics team spent the month reworking areas already in the game and progressed with the art benchmark for rocky caves.
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Narrative
Narrative began the new year with a continued push to support the latest patch and progressed with tasks started before the holidays. This included working with the Design teams to start scripting upcoming mining and salvage mission content. They also continued developing stories for the first batch of ‘Investigation’ missions and discussed potential upcoming content.
The Environment and Design teams provided updates on new locations that will start appearing in the game to support Bounty Hunting. Narrative worked closely with them to ensure these areas align with existing lore and gameplay expectations.
Planning was also undertaken for the year ahead. Part of this included building a comprehensive resource listing all the various organizations and NPCs and what mission content they offer. This provides a single source for team members to reference when coming up with new missions. Narrative are also seeking to leverage their dedicated narrative designers to look at the current mission-giver setup as well as prototype simple story-based missions that could be placed around the various landing zones to provide additional content.
“In short, we have scaled back on original fictional content for the website in order to focus on in-game content. The ultimate hope is that we will be able to resurrect these stories and news updates in the game.” Narrative Team
Online Services (Montreal)
In Montreal, Online Services planned the year ahead, discussing Server Meshing with the Networking team. The goal was to achieve technical design consensus and division of responsibilities between the teams in order to deliver the feature. The following week, Online Services further defined the tasks needed to achieve Server Meshing tier 0.
The remainder of the month was spent putting the final touches on Alpha 3.18’s features, including character repair, long-term persistence, insurance, and bug fixing.
Ship Tech Art / Animation
Ship Tech Art and Animation progressed with the Hull C. January saw them working on the animation and state setup for the ship’s expanded cargo mode.
Tech animation and damage support was provided for several ships in the pipleline, and all ships were reviewed alongside QA to ensure that relevant component attachments can take damage.
They also enabled shader damage scraping on various ship attachments and fixed several hull-scraping issues on ship bodies.
UI
The UI Tech team continued to support Alpha 3.18, ironing out any remaining issues with the way the vehicle and character loadout systems interact with Persistent Streaming.
The team also helped with the Squadron 42 Starmap, which will eventually make its way into PU. The current focus is on adding navigation aids, such as grids and coordinates, improving the sizing of planets and markers, and adding visual polish.
VFX
Last month, VFX carried out several CPU-to-GPU particle library conversions, starting with vehicles.
“The sheer number of existing libraries, combined with new content being added all the time, means it can sometimes be tricky for the team to revisit and update the older libraries. We are getting there, though!” VFX Team
Elsewhere, pre-production began on some new locations, including a huge underground facility and rock caves.
The team also continued with the snag list mentioned last month. While some of this was done in the Alpha 3.18 workspace, it was continued in staging-content when Alpha 3.18 was locked down in the build-up to release.
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…
