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Continuing from our last episode detailing the future of cargo careers, join us for this episode of Inside Star Citizen to explore upcoming changes to the inventory system, hangar kiosks, 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…
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 September 20, 2023
Release View
The following cards have been added to Release View in the 3.20 column, targeting a launch with Alpha 3.20.X:
Argo SRV
Building, implementing, and balancing Argo's tugboat, the SRV, as a game-ready vehicle.
Vehicle Tractor Beams
Implementing tractor beams attached to ships, either remote-operated or a turret-like attachment. This allows players to move and tow bigger objects, including other ships.
Progress Tracker
The following deliverable has been added to Progress Tracker:
Origin G12
Building, implementing, and balancing Origin's wheeled ground vehicle, the G12, as a game-ready vehicle.
That's all for this week! Join the discussion on Spectrum, and check out the Roadmap Companion Guide for more information on the Star Citizen Public Roadmap.
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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 09:13:2023
REF: CIG UK, CIG DE, CIG LA, CIG TX,
FAO Squadron 42 Recruits.
Welcome to August’s Squadron 42 development report. Enclosed you will find details on the latest progress made across the campaign, including AI perception, vehicle UI, and ambient audio.
Thank you for your continued support of Squadron 42.
Sincerely,
CIG COMMUNICATIONS
AI (Features)
Last month, AI reviewed perception to fix issues where NPCs wouldn’t correctly recognize that a target had died or that they’d seen a situation before. These issues led to various bugs, including the AI constantly calling for med-pens or remaining in combat after it had finished.
They also revisited cover usage, polishing various functionality and animations to ensure the feature works across a range of situations and environments.
Changes and fixes were also made to the tactical point system, which is used to drive where the AI moves. This will help identify what needs to be adjusted when reviewing combat in new locations.
Balancing was done for AI ammunition usage while maintaining reload and ammo-finding functionality to provide realistic and emergent behaviors and gameplay situations.
The team continued to review, revisit, and polish combat, including low and high-cover reload animations for different weapons and female animations converted from male assets. They also began developing animations for marine squad hand signals to sell group movement and combat.
AI (Tech)
Last month, AI Tech added undo-and-redo functionality to the Apollo Subsumption tool. They also began improving Subsumption data validation for better presentation and more explicit validation errors. This will allow the designers to iterate faster when creating or adjusting missions and behaviors.
On the boids feature mentioned in last month’s report, AI Tech continued implementing base functionality to allow agents (rats, birds, etc.) to adopt different states, such as wandering, idling, or fleeing, and transition between them. They’re currently looking for a low-cost solution to keep agents on terrain while moving.
For NPC audio perception, the team implemented new functionality for how audio stimuli is propagated. This involves using the room system and how rooms are connected to determine whether an audio event should be heard.
They also continued to improve navigation links. Firstly, how links connect navigation triangles from different zones, which wasn’t working as intended. Secondly, they fixed how animations play when they begin and finish in different zones. For example, when NPCs jump to the ground from a hovering ship.
Finally, investigation began into performance issues relating to the navigation system and pathfinder.
AI (Vehicles)
Vehicle AI’s priority in August was working through issues preventing the new AI features from working correctly. They fixed faults with the recent aiming system refactor to ensure NPCs shoot correctly and worked with the level designers to fix various miscellaneous problems causing the AI to not work in certain places.
Following this, the team will focus on game-wide flight AI improvements as they continue to fine-tune the gameplay experience throughout the flight sections.
Animation
The animators collaborated with the level and AI designers to close out animations across various locations, including the med-bay, bridge, mess hall, and hangar.
They’re currently improving the overall feel of player actions through slides, basic movement, weapon usage, and more. This involves adjusting weapon malfunctions, first-person interactions with the environment (such as opening a hatch), first selects for new weapons, and a selection of other animations.
Additionally, progress was made on combat AI for both enemies and civilians, and Animation worked with Narrative and Design to get level-specific scenes implemented correctly.
The Motion Capture team worked alongside the writers to add the finishing narrative touches to certain areas and supported spot improvements to AI behaviors.
On the facial side, the team completed a large number of behavioral lines and performances to bring the flight combat, ground combat, and background ambience to life. They also progressed with polish tasks for the cast characters.
Audio
Throughout August, the team worked towards a major audio milestone. The aim of this is to provide sound effects for all the work done by the upstream strike teams and identifies any required post-alpha changes or improvements.
The Tech team made significant progress on the walla (crowd audio) system, which is close to first-pass complete. This system groups NPCs into clusters based on their proximity, allowing for dynamic, localized audio that simulates ambient chatter. Resonance tech progressed too, which was detailed in a recent episode of Inside Star Citizen. They also continued to ensure that the game builds remain stable during development so that the devs could work seamlessly.
Audio then began tagging cinematic animations with new foley sound effects. This is an integral push towards implementing audible layers to cinematics, with bespoke animations such as punches or fist bumps receiving their initial audio pass.
The team continued to design and implement effects for a variety of SQ42-specific weapons, including the VOLT manufacturer, ensuring the sounds align with its bold, high-tech designs.
“We are excited for the community to get their hands on these weapons and feel the brawny impact of a Galson shotgun blast or our VOLT sniper.” Audio Team
There was also a significant push to create and improve the sound effects for the various puzzles found throughout the campaign; every puzzle being in some way unique opened the doors to providing distinctive and innovative sounds. In-game gadgets, including the flashbang, also received fine-tuning and new implementations.
Finally for Audio, they made significant post-alpha improvements to the game environments, building on what was already in place and providing locations with more subtle ambience.
Features (Gameplay)
August saw work begin on the vehicle radar’s landing UI. To begin with, the team investigated rendering the environment outside of a ship in the vehicle’s radar display (similar to the minimap) so players can see the area they intend to land on. The geometry will be marked up so will only display the relevant landing area.
For camera transitions from first-person view to cinematic sequences, the team added the ability to create small TrackView sequences for the initial cut-away with smooth transitions to the cinematic cameras. For example, if the player is in a cockpit seat, the team can create a camera transition out through the windscreen for a better visual flow.
Elsewhere, Gameplay Features continued extending crane-controller functionality based on a new use case. They also made improvements to hints and tutorials, mobiGlas notification forwarding to the visor, and mobiGlas linking.
Features (Vehicle)
Last month, Vehicle Features worked towards closing out the self-status UI, filling out missing features in the various sub-screens, including information on quantum travel and fuel. They received support from the UI Art team on this to improve the visuals and ship rendering. Relating to this, the turret variant of the self-status MFD can now render a 3D model of the turret, which will also be improved by the UI artists in the near future.
The vehicle loadout terminal is approaching feature-complete with the addition of special features for group-equipping items. For example, changing a single ship thruster will change the others if required, or equipping a specific missile will automatically swap to the correct missile rack. Additionally, the UI Art team is creating a 3D augmented-reality display for the vehicle loadout terminal. This will be located in the Idris’ hangar where players can customize their ships.
Vehicle Features began looking into changes to vehicle aiming, exploring a feature similar to ADS. This will allow players to zoom in on their target and receive additional aiming assistance to target subcomponents or line up a better shot. This is still being explored.
Progress was also made on the Resource Network, with the team providing support for various vehicle items that use fuel and power, such as quantum drives and thrusters.
“Thrusters using power is one of the more complicated aspects of this, so we’re still working through it.” Vehicle Features Team
Lastly, Vehicle Features supported Level Design on their gameplay sequences, providing bug fixing and technical support for new smaller features to aid with building out levels and experiences.
Gameplay Story
Most of Gameplay Story’s focus throughout August was on supporting the strike team with improvements and additions around the Idris. This involved refactoring and supporting the recently created deck-crew TrackViews and adding additional idle animations and improved prop interactions to the mess-hall scenes. They also spent a few days working on new turret content to add additional life to these areas.
New mo-cap data was used to incorporate several dialogue changes to key character scenes requested by Design. They also created several ‘resolve’ and ‘out-of’ animations to help characters exit their scenes and return to AI control.
Towards the end of the month, the team switched focus to preparing for upcoming narrative shoots.
“We have about 20 new Gameplay Story scenes being recorded and we are keen to ensure the resulting data can be implemented as smoothly as possible.” Gameplay Story Team
Graphics & VFX Programming
In August, improvements were made to the internal implementation of Temporal Super Resolution.
Further progress was made on water, with the shader gaining improved lighting and foam. Work on the simulation continued too, with foam propagation and bullet-impact support being added.
The prototype of the glint shading model was completed and comes in three versions with different performance characteristics. The team are now investigating whether they can take one of these into production. Distant lights are now drawn as tiny bright glows that pass through the existing post-effect system, with the aim of replacing the more traditional 'composite flare' system that can't support post-effects.
On the tooling side, the streaming debugger was expanded and now provides a powerful tool to track the detailed history of any asset or group to diagnose issues and facilitate optimizations. The Mesh Setup Editor was also expanded to allow finer-grained control of how animated meshes are imported.
The Vulkan sub-team added new extensions, including Synchronization2, Maintenance4, and TimelineSemaphore, to improve various aspects of the backend. Focus is now shifting to unblocking progress on Global Illumination, as the ray-tracing component is Vulkan-only.
The VFX Programming team implemented smoke spawning on fire along with various other quality improvements to bring the feature to a visually complete and “rather impressive” state.
Finally, further improvements to lightning effects were made, which will be used in the future within gas clouds.
Level Design
Last month, Level Designcontinued to focus on the Idris interstitials.
Outside of scene maintenance and updates, the Social Narrative team worked closely with AI Content, pushing hard on crew behaviors. This included supporting the implementation of background vignettes in the Idris’ hangar for use after a player lands. These include the deck crew pushing ladders up to the Gladius and climbing on top to carry out maintenance, refueling the ship, and carrying out cockpit and weapons checks. The same was then done for pre-flight vignettes, with the deck crew prepping the player’s ship for take-off with thruster and weapons checks.
The team also started work on having the previously static Idris moving during interstitials, which is subtle but makes a difference.
Narrative
The Narrative team was heavily involved in recent performance-capture shoots. This included interfacing with the level designers to solidify the flow of levels and scripts as well as working with the Core Gameplay and Audio teams to detail wildline scripts for characters. These included some new characters that had been introduced in the latest levels as well as pickups for a handful of returning actors that had been previously captured. Part of these lines included buddy-AI designs for both FPS and flight sections that had been implemented since the last time they had been captured.
The subtitle validation work that began last month was completed, with the team reviewing and updating several thousand lines of dialogue to ensure the subtitles accurately reflected what the performers said.
The team continued to delve into some of the collectibles that players will be able to find scattered throughout the levels. They also progressed with defining the categories and content that will go into the Squadron 42 Galactapedia.
R&D
In August, work on the temporal render mode for atmosphere and volumetric clouds continued; various methods to rectify or reject frame history were experimented with.
Furthermore, a new disocclusion detection system to reject history was implemented that, in spirit, is similar to the general up-sampling solution.
Additionally, various code was updated to work with recent Gen12 improvements.
VFX
VFX continued the work discussed in July’s report. In particular, fire propagation visuals were further improved, with fog volumes being used to show smoke accumulating at ceiling height alongside further visual breakup of the fire particle effects.
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Alpha 3.20
Arena Commander Updates
Star Citizen Alpha 3.20 welcomes the largest update Arena Commander has seen since its creation. Below you’ll find all the details for the changes, improvements, and additions coming in the latest Star Citizen update, and this only marks the beginning. We’re all excited to unlock Arena Commander’s potential and bring it to new heights with each patch going forward. In the meantime, please share your feedback with us in the dedicated section on Spectrum. We hope you enjoy everything this update delivers!
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One of the new additions to Arena Commander from the Persistent Universe, Security Post Kareah will host all of Arena Commander's game modes, both FPS and Dogfighting (except for Classic Race).
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Stanton's INS Jericho debuts as the newest location for all dogfighting game modes in Arena Commander. This true zero-g open space environment has players face off with few distractions and high performance in the lightest of all our maps.
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Alongside the reworked New Horizon Speedway Maps comes a long-requested atmospheric map for dogfighting modes. Battle in the earth-like atmosphere above the beautiful planet Green, the 3rd planet of the Ellis System.
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Face off the against the frigid winds that cover the mountains of the Euterpe Advanced Research Laboratories or bide your time and hope the weather clears. Whatever your choice, know that the Icebreaker takes no prisoners.
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Weave around pylons, duck under cranes, and avoid precarious pipes in this abandoned mining facility as you strive to prevail over the Snake Pit and its venomous turns.
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Brave this eerie racetrack on the edge of Yela’s asteroid belt. Once the site of a tragic mining disaster, the forsaken machinery and floating derelicts of Miner’s Lament will now put your skills and your nerve to the test.
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Electronic Access, Arena Commander, and Star Marine have merged under a single “Arena Commander” frontend menu. This new frontend, powered by Building Blocks, unifies the various simulation module brands and menus into a single easy to use interface.
Included in this significant refactor is a complete rewrite of Arena Commander’s lobby system, which now allows you to squad up with people directly from your friends or party list with new squad limits per game mode.
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A rewrite of Arena Commander’s Spawning & Loadout Modules has the legacy code updated to modern standards.
Starting with a new spawn screen and loadout manager, this is the first part of a series of updates to how spawning & loadouts are handled in Arena Commander, laying the foundations for exciting new additions like in-game loadout customization, multicrew and spawn locations.
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Gun Rush is a free for all elimination-based game mode where the goal is to kill other players with each of the weapons available in the mode.
On round start, all players will begin with the same gun and upon eliminating another player will cycle to the next gun in the list. The first player to score an elimination with all of the weapons in the list wins!
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Single Weapon Elimination is a free for all elimination-based game mode where the goal is to kill other players with only the single allowed weapon of the gamemode. Players cannot use any other weapons and cannot customise their loadout to change it before or during the game.
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This variant of Duel mode pits you against another Mirai Fury pilot in a best of three dogfighting matchup. This mode locks you into choosing the Fury, truly testing the skills of each pilot given the same loadout.
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Master Modes splits your travel through space into two distinct speed groups. SCM allows shields, weapons, and high regeneration rates for your power capacitors, but you're limited on top speed. NAV allows high speed but no shields, no weapons, and restricts capacitor regeneration. Changing between the two modes is not instantaneous.
This updated flight model is available to try on the Aegis Gladius for a limited time, so jump in and send us your feedback!
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Come nose to nose with a swarm of Vanduul Scavengers, Hunters, Alphas and the 7 infamous Vanduul Primes that ravaged humanity for decades. There may never be an end to this swarm; but how long can you survive?
Additional System and Balance Changes
Below, you'll find a few more changes/additions we're implementing in Alpha 3.20. As we mentioned above, this is only the beginning, and we're looking forward to further revitalizing Arena Commander in each patch going forward.
Competitive Scoring
All competitive game modes now feature a new competitive scoring system where you are measured against the leaderboard rating of your opponent. Fighting the best pilot in the verse? You’ll get increased score depending on the difference in rating or on the flip side experienced players now receive significantly reduced score for killing new players.
Death Cameras
All game modes now feature new death cameras, which will follow your killer after death, giving you a better idea of the who, what and where.
Lobby Recovery
Introduced with the new lobby system, players who disconnect by any means from their lobby (be it in-game or forming on the Frontend) will now be presented with an option to recover your instance, reconnecting to your lobby and, if applicable, automatically connecting to the match they are in.
New Loading Screen Flow
Once you begin connecting to your match, you will first see a Game Mode loading screen. As soon as the map which you are connecting to is confirmed, you will transition to a loading screen specific to the map. This resolves a long-standing issue where loading screens would be inaccurate to the map you are loading into.
Pickup Balance
Ballistic pickups now award 100% of your ammo divided by the number of ballistic weapons (i.e. 4 ballistic weapons will receive 25% each upon pickup, while a single ballistic will be fully restored). Ballistic Pickups now also award Countermeasures.
Medpens
Resolved an issue that caused some medpens to heal approximately 3% health. Alongside this change we have made a number of quality-of-life improvements to Medpens overall including that once healed you will automatically switch back to your weapon and you should now automatically discard empty medpens among other quality of life and bugfixing.
Objective UI & Scoreboard Updates
The first of a series of updates to the scoreboard was added, including a minor visual update primarily for team-based game modes. This now shows team names, logos and rounds won.
Lethal Takedowns
You can now hold the takedown button to perform a lethal takedown, regardless of having a knife. Tap the takedown button to perform a non-lethal takedown.
Entitlement Refactor & Communal Vehicles
A refactor of how entitlements and free vehicles/equipment are handled in Arena Commander. This should provide a faster and more stable experience when using or renting vehicles and equipment. We’re introducing a “Communal” concept, which allows us to grant players vehicles or equipment on a per-game mode basis without the overhead of the entitlement systems. These communal vehicles are free to all players but non-customizable; however, in most cases if the player already owns the vehicle, they will be able to utilize their vehicle with full customization (though some game modes may purposely limit customization).
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STAR CITIZEN ALPHA 3.20
FULLY LOADED
Head into the ‘verse to explore the most action-packed update yet. Whether you’re hauling vital cargo the length of the system, tackling alien hordes, exploring new locations, or risking it all for a place on the podium, Alpha 3.20 is packed with new adventures.
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Driven by Real Racers
Fusing Xi’an tech and design with the knowledge and intuition of seasoned racers of all stripes, Mirai continues to shatter the limits of what snub craft can do. Four additional auxiliary maneuvering thrusters and a streamlined frame ensure the Fury LX is perfectly tuned to dominate courses in and out of atmosphere.
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Now that the Hull C has been added to the ‘verse, we posed a few questions to the vehicle and gameplay teams about MISC’s enterprise-level cargo hauler. Here are the answers, straight from the designers themselves.
Is it planned that, at some point, craft like the MPUV Cargo or Drake Mule could move and carry the detachable cargo boxes from the Hull C?
Yes, we want to have a synergy between those sorts of vehicles to allow players to manually load/unload their vehicles, not just the Hull C.
Can you provide information on the firing angles of the ship's defensive turrets? Also, does the swing range of the turrets vary based on the ship's status, such as deployed, retracted, loaded, or without any cargo?
The turrets have a single set of firing arcs regardless of the spindles. In the closed state, all turrets can fire forwards and the majority have a 360° arc on the upper side. The underside of the Hull C is more vulnerable and only attackers coming from the front underside will be within the turrets’ firing range, so it’s recommended to plan ahead for encounters. This is a civilian hauler, not a military gunship after all!
Will there be different sorts of containers (heavier armor, less capacity)?
Not in this initial release, though we are looking to add containers with various properties in the future.
Can you tell us about the available storage for weapons and gear, or even small vehicles, inside the Hull C?
There are individual personal lockers/storage and a shared weapon rack storing items. There are no vehicles small enough to fit aboard the ship and it isn't intended to load vehicles inside it.
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Can I trade cargo at outposts and landing zones if I make my Hull C able to land with the spine extended by knocking off/shooting off the bottom cargo arm?
No, the Hull C will only be able to trade at the four LEOs. However, we will be adding support for the three jump points in Stanton in the future.
What additional trade routes will be available for the Hull C so that it is competitive with existing ships, like the Crusader C2 Hercules?
As mentioned above, we will have the four LEO stations supported and will be adding the three jump points. The Hull C is designed to fill a specific role in the game - hauling large volumes of cargo to various points in the system with high demand. Some of the economic support for this is still forthcoming as well as other content, like hauling missions, that will further distinguish the Hull C from other ships.
Will you be able to create buy/sell orders from the Docking Services counter, or will you have to travel all the way to the Admin Center in the Galleria?
For now, this is only available in the Admin Center.
Are all of the components able to be removed from the ship via tractor beam?
Like all other ships, S3 and above items are not intended to be removed by players via tractor beams. As a general rule, repairing, upgrading, and swapping these items is intended to be done at a dedicated facility.
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Is it possible to jettison the cargo during an emergency landing in order to contract the ship and extend the landing gear?
This is not currently possible. However, it is something we want to look into for future releases of the cargo system. Ideally, all relevant ships will eventually be able to jettison their external cargo.
Given the ship’s role as a cargo hauler, what sort of long-term amenities are available to the crew for long hauling trips? For example, food, water, medical supplies, and activities during quantum travel?
Like our other multi-crew vehicles, the Hull C has a typical assortment of amenities on board, including a shared hab area and personal storage for items and weapons.
Are there any no-questions-asked terminals available for the Hull C for pirates/salvagers to take advantage of when selling recovered cargo?
Not at this time.
Are the advertising panels from the concept included with the Hull C? If so, can they be customized with our own placed art?
During production, we decided to remove these for three reasons. Firstly, they took up a fair amount of space geometry-wise and provided additional complexity to the animations. Secondly, we have no way to allow players to choose what’s on them, so it would result in all Hull Cs looking the same advertising-wise. Finally, the cost of having such large RTT screens was an unknown, especially as the budget for these is shared across what’s onscreen and may cause degradation to other UI elements using the same system.
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Does the center ship spindle rotate to accommodate the loading and unloading of cargo?
It does not rotate as the four tractor-beam turrets have enough coverage to reach any crate attached to the spindles.
If a player finds a cargo-loaded Hull C floating in the unloading bubble within an armistice zone, can they steal cargo off its cargo grids with a tractor beam?
Not for now. When in an armistice zone, tractor beams only work within hangars. The only way would be to shoot open the door and fly the Hull C out of the armistice zone before pulling the cargo off with a tractor beam.
We’ve seen players get creative with attachable pods, like attaching Mirai Furys to the Starfarer in place of the fuel pods. Are there similar possibilities with the cargo boxes on the Hull C?
While we applaud the creativity, the Starfarer/Fury carrier is the result of a bug and not intentional design; it will be fixed in the future as it isn’t the desired way to transport vehicles. We don’t currently have plans to allow ships to “dock” directly to the cargo plates of the Hull CWhile we applaud the creativity, the Starfarer/Fury carrier is the result of a bug and not intentional design; it will be fixed in the future as it isn’t the desired way to transport vehicles. As shown on Inside Star Citizen, we're looking into future changes to allow various items to fit on cargo grids. However, at this moment in time, it is restricted to cargo boxes..
Will there be future cargo hauling missions that the Hull C would be better suited for?
There are definitely plans to have more in-depth cargo missions that larger hauling ships benefit from.
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HULL C
ENTERPRISE-LEVEL
CARGO HAULER
Any experienced commercial hauler will tell you plain as day that anybody taking interstellar freight seriously should lock their sites on MISC’s ubiquitous Hull series. Simply put, it’s how cargo gets around this universe of ours.
Considered by many to be the most versatile in the series and undoubtedly the most popular, the Hull C hits the sweet spot between the smaller single-person transporters and massive superfreighters that make up the rest of the range. With a telescopic spindle system capable of carrying a staggering 4608 SCU, the Hull C offers the cargo capacity of much larger ships while still retaining a modicum of the maneuverability allowed by the lower end of the range.
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Every MISC Hull carries serious weight, but the Hull C is your ticket to the big leagues with its easy-to-load cargo blades accommodating an enormous maximum payload of 4608 SCU.
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Loading and unloading gargantuan amounts of cargo is a snap thanks to the Hull C’s remote cargo management system, utilizing multiple industrial spec tractor beams.
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Welcome to Loremakers: Community Questions, a series focused on answering your lore quandaries and conundrums. We’ve done a deep dive through the lore Ask The Devs section and selected ten questions to answer about the Star Citizen universe. All questions were edited for context and clarity but you can click on the topic to go directly to the original post and join the conversation. Also, the Narrative team plans to do one installment of Loremakers: Community Questions every quarter with the next entry scheduled for Tuesday, December 12th, so please join the discussion and drop any other questions you might have about the universe in our Ask The Devs forum.
Question:This Week in Star Citizen shows someone wearing a Second Tevarin War uniform at Invictus. As I understand the lore, the UEE is trying to distance itself from its pro-fascist Messer era. So why would people be encouraged to go to something like Invictus in a Second Tevarin War Uniform? It would be like having an ad campaign for the US Space Force with people wearing Civil War era Confederate uniforms. It runs counter to what the UEE is trying to be now, right?
Answer: People do not typically associate Second Tevarin War uniforms with the Messers, and their appearance at events like Invictus would be seen as patriotic instead of controversial. This attitude is in part because Tevarin forces instigated both wars. They're seen as historically justified and necessary from Humanity's perspective, and not wars of aggression pushed on the people by the Messers.
The First and Second Tevarin Wars also predated the outright fascist era of the Messer regime. Ivar Messer first came into prominence during the First Tevarin War, and his son Deacon Messer, considered by many to be the least problematic Messer, ruled during the Second Tevarin War. While the Messer regime would argue that the wars proved that the UEE needed strong leadership, the regime would not shift itself toward outright fascism to consolidate and retain power until after the Tevarin Wars. Another major factor is that the military uniforms worn during the Second Tevarin War would be changed by the Messers. Those uniforms are most synonymous with the iron fist of the Messer regime, and would raise ire if worn to Invictus.
Question:Will we see religion and religious figures in-game? Battle hardened warrior nuns. Priests swinging electron maces. Places of worship and religious factions. Maybe a gothic BMM that doubles up as a cathedral?
Personally, I'd like to see cult-like activity around mega-fauna like the giant sand worm, Valakkar, with priests feeding sacrificial victims to it to purify their souls. Hoping that SC will not be soulless.
Answer: Plenty of people will be believers within the universe. As we've previously stated, current religions still exist but will not be a focus of the lore. Instead, Narrative attention will be on religions and cults that have found followers since Humanity’s expansion into space, several of which we’ve already established. They run the gamut from the benevolent Church of the Journey, which teaches people to meditate on the path they're traveling through life, to the fanatical Outsiders (aka Sun's Eye Fellowship) whose aggressive anti-modernity stance lead to them overthrowing corporate interests and ruling Mya (Leir II) since 2812. There will also be smaller sects whose reach and influence will be more localized, like the flare star obsessed Fire Rats gang or those that believe an all-knowing prophet resides in Pyro.
We've also spent time developing the religions practiced by the various alien races. Banu will often have an altar dedicated to Cassa, the Patron of Luck, or Taernin, the Great Traveler. They will also hire a religious souli to do blessings for them, or even adopt a foreign religion they encounter on their travels. Meanwhile, Xi'an follow the Li'tova, which centers around the concept of time and was codified into Xi'an law in 19,668 BCE. The planet R.aip’uāng (Kai’pua III) is a religious commune dedicated to practicing Li'tova and famous for its labyrinthine gardens and sacred temples. Finally, Tevarin followed the war ethos of the Rijora until their defeat in the Second Tevarin War led them to abandon its practice during their cultural purge. The religion has seen a resurgence recently and found new followers among the Tevarin diaspora in Branaugh.
Question:I have a question about the production of oxygen on ArcCorp. Since there are no trees or any other kind of vegetation on this planet, how does an oxygen-rich atmosphere occur? Is the oxygen produced artificially?
Answer: Natural oxygen production does occur on ArcCorp. According to the planet’s description in the Stanton Galactic Guide:
"Almost all of the terrain has been sculpted, zoned and built upon, leaving only its mountain ranges and large bodies of water left for nature."
The version of the planet currently in-game doesn't represent those areas yet, but will hopefully be added in a future patch.
Question: The BiotiCorp Regen Serum is used as a base material for the bioprinting of bodies. My question is, how human is a regenerated person? I don't mean from a philosophical point of view but rather how well can the serum mimic real blood, bone, and tissue? Will a regenerated person feel the difference?
Answer: From a physiological perspective, regened Humans are 100% Human with real cells, tissues, organs, and so forth. There's no placeholder goo or tech replicating aspects or functions of the body, it's a real body. The serum works with the Ibrahim sphere to regen a Human or alien that's physiologically identical to their imprint, including imperfections and life's wear and tear.
Now, whether a regened person can 'feel the difference' between their previous and regened body is a question that veers into the philosophical, but we have already called out that phantom pain is possible. The regen serum creates the physical aspects of the body, but it's the Ibrahim sphere that captures and transfers a person's memories, personality, and other intangibles. Imprinting creates a link, or 'echo', that can pick up and register traumatic events that occur to the host's body. So someone regening after an accident might feel phantom pain in a leg that was crushed, as the physical pain and psychological fear of that experience will 'echo' to the imprint and impact their regeneration. This mind/body connection was important from a design perspective, so characters would age and face the consequences of their actions. While the psychological aspect of how someone 'feels' after regen aren't represented in the game design, the situation creates some interesting role playing situations for Players and dramatic possibilities within the lore, one of which was already explored in the short story Hazy Days.
Question:We are told that shields are an energy barrier in Star Citizen. Are there any details about how shields work, strengths, weaknesses, and variations?
Answer: The Narrative team recently did a lot of work reviewing the technological world building of the 'verse over its 930 years of history. Shields were, of course, a big part of this, but any firm decisions on how shields work, and their individual specifications, will depend greatly on Design and what they determine is best for the player experience.
However, the intent is definitely for there to be different types of shields with unique variations between them. The Tevarin, in particular, developed their own impressive shield technology that, at the time, was better than anything Humanity had access to. But a lot of time has passed since Humanity defeated the Tevarin across not one, but two wars, so it stands to reason a lot of those technological advances would've been adopted by the UEE and, eventually, public ship manufacturers.
Question:What is the Chairman's Club in Star Citizen?
Answer: In-universe, the Chairman's Club is an exclusive concierge service provided to high-end customers of the Central Core Bank. Members get access to luxury lounges, special edition items, and other perks. There is a ranking system within the club that people can climb up to access rewards that are otherwise unattainable. Entry to the club is generally seen as an impressive accomplishment, and attaining the highest rank within the club is a status symbol associated with the UEE's wealthiest people.
Question: Crusader is a gas giant. So where does the breathable atmosphere for Orison come from? What about the temperature regulation? Even assuming Crusader has a somehow oxygen-rich atmosphere, Orison is in the high atmosphere, which would thin the oxygen considerably. The platforms have thrusters to keep them up in the air, do they also have some form of atmosphere generation/temperature regulation?
Answer: There is a non-zero chance that a low-mass gas giant with a naturally-occurring nitrogen-oxygen atmosphere, safe air pressure, and comfortable temperatures and gravity in its upper reaches can exist, but based on current theories of planetary formation, it is almost certainly not possible. However! We live in a universe where we have planets with diamond rain and areas of space with giant molecular clouds that taste like raspberry rum. "Space be crazy," to quote Dave Haddock. And space is full of things we haven't yet discovered. So Narrative decided that while we prefer to keep our environments as scientifically accurate as we can, sometimes we bend the rules in favor of creating something fun. Crusader is one of those cases.
Orison does utilize some technology to keep things comfortable for everyone. Things stay pretty temperate so climate control isn't an issue, but there are artificial gravity plates in the platforms. The plants you encounter around Orison were engineered by Crusader Industries to help keep the local air clean and oxygen rich. We've discussed the possibility of specialized machines that create breathable air in a small localized area, but that idea is tentative at the moment.
Question:Why are there ATMs in R&R stations and around ArcCorp if the universe uses digital currency?
Answer: As part of the UEE's switch to a purely digital currency, a faction in the Senate wanted to enshrine a right to fiscal privacy through guaranteeing an option to use physicalized credit-chits. Most people in the Empire prefer not to use them as they are inconvenient, only hold a set amount, and are much riskier to carry since any funds on them are gone if the chit is lost or stolen.
And while the chits are popular among criminal elements, they are not the only ones that use them. People wanting to make surprise purchases, folks living on the frontier with chancy comm connections, and tech-averse citizens all prefer to use physical currency. The ATMs serve as a way for people to move credits from their accounts on to a chit. Transferring funds off of a chit is easier as most mobiGlas have that ability. Design has been discussing various options for how to incorporate the chits into the game, and the hope is that they will eventually be something players can find around the 'verse.
Question:It was previously mentioned that the majority of the UEE population does not own a ship. I would imagine that the majority of pilots in the 'verse who own personal ships are probably Citizens who learned how to fly ships whilst serving in the UEE Navy, and received the appropriate pilot training along the way. But what about the ordinary civilians who are using their ships for jobs like cargo hauling? Are there different "classes" of ships that a pilot's license will allow them to fly, based on the amount of training they have received?
In addition to all the extra nuances of flying a ship compared to say driving a car even many so-called "starter" ships such as the Aurora are capable of pulling upwards of 7 Gs in the game - which, while not quite as much as a fighter or a racer, is still quite a lot (roller coasters, by comparison, usually top out at around 4 Gs), so I would imagine that an aspiring civilian pilot would probably have to undergo a similar physical fitness regimen, centrifuge training, etc. as a military fighter pilot just to obtain a license to fly their own ship. And probably even more so if the pilot in question is training to be a racer or a data runner, as the Herald is actually the fastest current ship in the game!
Answer: The Narrative team has discussed that the Traffic Safety Board (part of the Department of Transportation and Navigation) would issue certifications for pilots to legally be allowed to operate spaceships.There are different classes of certifications for various vessels depending on their size and capabilities. In recent years, thanks to how advanced sim-pods have become, much of the training and certification process can now be done virtually. And with the popularity of flight-sims like Arena Commander, there are numerous pilots across the 'verse who are accredited to fly without ever having physically flown a ship.
How this might be represented in-game is still being discussed with Design and the final decision is still pending. So, it may be that players will have to be certified before being allowed to legally operate vehicles, or possibly that there will be an assumption that they have been certified well before they even started playing.
Question:I've been looking at the available images for the alien species in the Star Citizen universe, and it immediately struck me that they're all 'humans in rubber suits'. They all have two legs with the same joints as humans, just slightly different stances and bone lengths. They all have two arms... with the same joints. They all have heads with primate-like faces... a high forehead, a pair of eyes above a nose and a mouth.
Why is this? Why do all these species need to be humanoid? Is it so that they can be performed by humans in motion capture suits? To make them more relatable to the players? Or is it just a lack of imagination?
As someone who has made a hobby of designing realistic, biologically plausible but truly alien aliens, it is rather jarring to see such un-alien 'aliens'.
Answer: It was a conscious choice for a couple reasons. It was so we could potentially capture actors playing the roles, but also one of the original goals was to ultimately allow players to potentially play as aliens so it would save us from having to create completely unique animation sets and allow for our ships to accommodate them with minimal modifications as well as letting humans fly their ships. It would be considerably more difficult if the aliens each had really exotic physiology. That said, our hope is that the fauna that players will encounter in the ’verse will be very diverse in their physiology.
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Avast there, buccaneers!
It's time to sharpen your cutlass and prepare to cast off, for Pirate Week has docked in Stanton, and booty awaits! Or, if you wouldn't call yourself a scallywag, lock and load to protect the good citizens of Stanton from the encroaching pirate threat!
On September 21, the battle for Stanton's infamous drug labs will reignite in the return of our Jumptown Event. Show you've got what it takes to become a glorious captain, not just a bilge rat.
For the saltiest seadogs looking for real adventure, the Treasure Hunt Screenshot Contest can secure ye booty beyond measure. The contest ends Wednesday, September 20, so make sure to dive in while you can!
CitizenCon 2953, our biggest event so far, is little more than a month away! If you haven't picked up your tickets yet, you can get them here. And if you can't make it, don't worry, you can still catch the show live from the comfort of your own home on twitch.tv/starcitizen. Also, if you're planning to celebrate from home, make sure to get your hands on this year's exclusive Digital Goodies Pack! We'll be sharing more details about the event later this week, so keep an eye out! We can't wait to see you there!
Last but not least, on the Alpha 3.20 front, if all sails smoothly today, we're targeting to release to the live servers tomorrow! If you haven't yet, set your course towards the iconic Port Olisar tonight to secure a memory (and a Spectrum badge).
Now, let's see what's going on this week:
On Tuesday, the Narrative team returns to us with the latest monthly Galactapedia update.
This Wednesday, we'll publish last week's August Squadron 42 Monthly Report email as a comm-link followed by our bi-weekly Roadmap Update and the complementary Roadmap Roundup.
On Thursday, Inside Star Citizen has the second part of Design Brief, detailing the future of cargo careers. If you missed last week's episode, be sure to catch up ahead of time. We'll also see the return of the Jumptown Dynamic Event.
This Friday, join us for Star Citizen Live on Twitch at 15:00 UTC / 8 am Pacific. We'll learn more about sound design and chat with the people who create the soundscapes for our games. Furthermore, you'll find our weekly RSI Newsletter directly delivered to your inbox.
Have a stellar week both in and out of the 'verse!
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We're constantly amazed at the contributions made by the Star Citizen community. Whether it's fan art, a cinematic, YouTube guide, or even a 3D print of your favorite ship, we love it all! Every week, we select one piece of content submitted to the Community Hub and highlight it here. The highlighted content creator will be awarded an MVP badge on Spectrum and be immortalized in our MVP section of the Hub.
Don't forget to submit your content to our Community Hub for the chance to see it here!
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…
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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Hoist a flagon of ale skyward in revelous homage to the Banu gods of pillage and plunder, for it be that time of year once again. That’s right, ya scurvy wretches, Pirate Week has once again made port and brought with it more piratical fun and shenanigans than you can rattle a cutlass at.
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Ever wanted to throw down with the saltiest dogs in the ‘verse? You’ve come to the proper place. Whether you’re a lone wolf or looking to start a crew, you can arm yourself and your vessel to the teeth and start stalking the outskirts of Stanton. Or, maybe you’re the type to walk the lawful path of righteous destruction, keeping the spacelanes free and clear. Either way, ye need look no further than Pirate Week for a heavy dose of action.
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Arena Commander’s Pirate Swarm mode is a great place to sharpen your dogfighting skills, while earning the right to pick up a Pirate Gladius or Caterpillar. With a brand-new Pirate Aggressor Spectrum badge and new challenges coming in Alpha 3.20, this is the perfect time to prepare for the gathering onslaught and your last chance to secure the classic Pirate Aggressor badge before it, and its access to coveted ship variants goes down with the tide.
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Ask any buccaneer sober/alive enough to tell you a tale or two, they’ll surely admit that roughly 60% of piracy is how you look doing it. So, we’ve got you covered with the new Meridian paint scheme that’s certain to strike fear into the hearts of those foolhardy or unlucky enough to cross your path. Secure 'em now for your Mercury, Hercules, Ares, and Eclipse, and claim 'em when they make port in Alpha 3.20.
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A life of piracy requires many things, but above all else, it requires both nerves and a liver of steel. This diabolical treasure hunt puts both to the test, as you’ll follow a map to a pair of locations near Klescher with a beverage in hand, being ever so careful not to spill any of the precious liquid along the precarious journey. The freebooter with the most creative screenshot showing off their beverage at quest’s end will have a chance to secure booty beyond measure.
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On September 21, the infamous Jumptown drug labs become operational on moons across Stanton. Raise your colors and make a name for yourself as a ruthless reprobate or side with the dastardly do-gooders of the system and put an end to the madness once and for all. It’s a good and bloody way to sample life on both sides of the law.
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Mit Port Olisar verschwindet mit dem demnächst erscheinenden Update Alpha 3.20 den fast zehn Jahren alten Startpunkt aus dem Orbit von Crusader. Doch es gibt eine Nachfolgerin.
Mit Port Olisar verschwindet mit dem demnächst erscheinenden Update Alpha 3.20 den fast zehn Jahren alten Startpunkt aus dem Orbit von Crusader. Doch...
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As we close in on Alpha 3.20’s Live release, many teams are finalizing their work on the patch’s various new features. Beyond the patch, significant progress is being made on content coming later in the year, so read on for the latest.
AI (Features)
Last month, AI reviewed perception to fix issues where NPCs wouldn’t correctly recognize that a target had died or that they’d seen a situation before. These issues led to various bugs, including the AI constantly calling for med-pens or remaining in combat after it had finished.
They also revisited cover usage, polishing various functionality and animations to ensure the feature works across a range of situations and environments.
Changes and fixes were also made to the tactical point system, which is used to drive where the AI moves. This will help identify what needs to be adjusted when reviewing combat in new locations.
Balancing was done for AI ammunition usage while maintaining reload and ammo-finding functionality to provide realistic and emergent behaviors and gameplay situations.
The team continued to review, revisit, and polish combat, including low and high-cover reload animations for different weapons and female animations converted from male assets. They also began developing animations for marine squad hand signals to sell group movement and combat.
AI (Tech)
Last month, AI Tech added undo-and-redo functionality to the Apollo Subsumption tool. They also began improving Subsumption data validation for better presentation and more explicit validation errors. This will allow the designers to iterate faster when creating or adjusting missions and behaviors.
On the boids feature mentioned in last month’s report, AI Tech continued implementing base functionality to allow agents (rats, birds, etc.) to adopt different states, such as wandering, idling, or fleeing, and transition between them. They’re currently looking for a low-cost solution to keep agents on terrain while moving.
For NPC audio perception, the team implemented new functionality for how audio stimuli is propagated. This involves using the room system and how rooms are connected to determine whether an audio event should be heard.
They also continued to improve navigation links. Firstly, how links connect navigation triangles from different zones, which wasn’t working as intended. Secondly, they fixed how animations play when they begin and finish in different zones. For example, when NPCs jump to the ground from a hovering ship.
Finally, investigation began into performance issues relating to the navigation system and pathfinder.
Animation
In August, the animators worked through a number of behavioral lines for background ambiance and flight. They also supported Tech Animation on creature skeletons that will eventually be used in the PU.
Art (Characters)
Last month, Character Art progressed with content for various upcoming events and assets for the Headhunters gang.
Alongside this, the concept artists explored additional ideas for the Headhunters and worked on a medical outfit and handoff sheets for a new flightsuit.
Art (Ships)
Last month, Ship Art completed their work on the Tumbril Storm, though they’re currently focussing on ongoing issues with the treads and how they appear. Two new variants of an existing vehicle were completed too.
An all-new ship progressed through whitebox, revealing various areas that require updating from the concept, including an increase to the interior space.
The Aopoa San'tok.yāiis almost LOD0-complete; final updates are underway, including polishing the pilot compartment. The damage pass is also in progress while the rest of the LOD0 tasks are closed out. Once complete, the team will move on to paints.
The Origin X1is currently awaiting whitebox review, though significant changes to item locations have already been made to maximize space. Modeling of the greybox geometry began too.
Community
August saw the return of Ship Showdown, an annual month-long event where the community champions their favorite vehicles by sharing original creations on the Community Hub and social media. The Community team hosted two contests in support of the event, rewarding the top 10 submissions from the Community Hub and the top three most creative videos on the official TikTok channel. After daily head-to-head battles between the top 16 ships, the Drake Corsair was crowned the Ultimate Champion of Ship Showdown 2953. Community also supported the Free Fly event, posted updates on the New Player Guide, and curated media on the Welcome Hub.
With CitizenCon 2953 approaching, much of August was also spent ramping up preparations, with a focus on finalizing the details of the various presentations, venue layout and design, Cosplay Contest, Community Booths, and much more.
“It's been four long years since we've had a physical CitizenCon, so whether you're joining us in Los Angeles or watching from home, we can't wait to celebrate our shared universe with you on October 21 and 22! Keep your eyes peeled, as we’re finalizing some details and will share more information with you very soon!” Community Team
The team continued to support dozens of evergreen publishes (such as this Monthly Report, the postmortem, etc.) alongside planning for a variety of future in and out-of-game engagements to come.
Lastly, the team attended Gamescom and a trio of Bar Citizen events in Cologne, Germany.
“The turnout was unbelievable, eclipsing our Gamescom events in the past. We were so happy to meet so many of you, veteran backers and fresh pilots alike. We hope to see you all again soon!”
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Economy
The new Economy team planned their upcoming goals, including rebalancing cargo and the related experience. They also began building a tool to investigate the current state of cargo, which could be expanded to other areas of the in-game economy.
Features (Arena Commander)
The Arena Commander Feature team polished and supported Alpha 3.20 while beginning stage two of the Arena Commander revitalization plan.
Alongside patch work, the Engineering team supported the new top heads-up display, which will feature in all game modes from Alpha 3.20.
They also assisted the ongoing investigation into the return of Theaters of War. This involved identifying the steps needed to update the new spawning module with several unique Theaters of War features (such as spawn locations and multicrew) and bring them into other game modes.
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Work continued on the new Custom Lobbies feature (previously Private Matches), with several successful tests conducted. The team are currently focussing on finalizing the UI design and hooking up the various interactions. Engineering began restoring the Spectator Module too, which will allow players to spectate matches in Custom Lobbies and other modes. For example, spectating a player who has lost all their respawns in a PvE game mode.
Design enhanced several outlines for upcoming updates and scouted locations from the PU and beyond for use in Arena Commander. They also began investigating the Theaters of War location Crossroads of Crime to help estimate restoration efforts.
The team also addressed a large collection of feedback from the Evocati and PTU regarding the frontend and game modes. The frontend game mode selection now shows which modes are new, which have REC multipliers, and which have achievements associated with them. Design also progressed with the spawn-screen UI for in-game vehicle selection, which began internal testing.
Finally, the team helped create several new game modes requested by other teams, including a 2v2 mode that will host Fight or Flight at CitizenCon.
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Features (Characters & Weapons)
August saw the Characters & Weapons Feature team working on weapon poses. Currently, when a player approaches a collision surface, their equipped weapon is raised to avoid clipping through the geometry. The team explored alternatives where the weapon is lowered, moved to the bottom of the first-person view, and rotated toward the body so that it lies diagonally across the abdomen. This is more natural in certain situations, limits clipping, and ensures the majority of the player's view is unobscured, particularly when interacting with screens in the environment.
Procedural recoil also progressed last month. To ensure that the feel of each weapon can be tweaked to make it feel unique, a large number of curves were exposed to the content creators.
“These curves allow multiple layers of subtle movement and rotation to be overlaid to create a wide range of interesting results. It is a bit of a manual process and requires significant attention to detail, but it can add a lot to the personality of a weapon.” Features Team
Features (Gameplay)
Gameplay Features continued their ongoing work on the vehicle tractor beam feature, readying it for testing by QA. They also progressed with the Resource Network mentioned in last month’s report and supported the upcoming patch release.
Features (Mission)
The Mission Feature team spent the month working through their upcoming deliverables and bug fixing for Alpha 3.20.
Away from the upcoming patch, Siege of Orison received various improvements ahead of a future release, with the main focus being keeping players together. Development of Blockade Runner (which will replace Nine Tails Lockdown) continued too, with various technical issues considered and planned for.
Significant improvements were made to the existing Destroy Drug Stash missions to ensure mission-critical items are spawned when the player arrives. They also made great progress in modularizing the New Player Experience so that it can be used in any landing zone with the correct markup.
The Steal Evidence at Kareah and Retrieve Consignment missions entered the polish phase, with reputation being hooked up. Work also began on ship-restoration missions, which will require players to restore ships to a saleable condition. Data Heist passed another gate review and will enter internal playtesting to ensure the objectives are clear.
“The Ship Cargo Steal/Recover Hauling mission has been taken as far as it can until further cargo features are developed. In the meantime, we will make a ‘courier’ version in which small items are the objective.” Mission Feature Team
The team progressed with reputation-based hostility, devising a mission that allows players to work for the Nine Tails gang. Once completed, they’ll convert most of the nameless criminal missions to Nine Tails until further gangs are added.
Code work was completed on the highlighting and filtering of mission-critical items in the inventory. This was handed to UI for their pass. Finally, tasks for Ship Trespass progressed, with ‘nested trespassing’ being the main thing holding it back.
Features (Vehicle)
Last month, the team assisted with bug fixing and stability for Alpha 3.20 and beyond, including getting the MISC Hull C ready for release and completing smaller feature work for upcoming ship releases.
The designers then tuned how racing ships perform in-atmosphere to bring them closer together and converted more ground vehicles to the new physics model, which allows for more realistic behavior than before.
The mass of Size 1, 2, and 3 items were rebalanced for better consistency across ship loadouts and to improve the tractor beam gameplay of removing and replacing items. Smaller vehicle and weapon balance tweaks were also made.
Graphics, VFX Programming & Planet Tech
In August, improvements were made to the internal implementation of Temporal Super Resolution.
Further progress was made on water, with the shader gaining improved lighting and foam. Work on the simulation continued too, with foam propagation and bullet-impact support being added.
The prototype of the glint shading model was completed and comes in three versions with different performance characteristics. The team are now investigating whether they can take one of these into production. Distant lights are now drawn as tiny bright glows that pass through the existing post-effect system, with the aim of replacing the more traditional 'composite flare' system that can't support post-effects.
On the tooling side, the streaming debugger was expanded and now provides a powerful tool to track the detailed history of any asset or group to diagnose issues and facilitate optimizations. The Mesh Setup Editor was also expanded to allow finer-grained control of how animated meshes are imported.
The Vulkan sub-team added new extensions, including Synchronization2, Maintenance4, and TimelineSemaphore, to improve various aspects of the backend. Focus is now shifting to unblocking progress on Global Illumination, as the ray-tracing component is Vulkan-only.
The VFX Programming team implemented smoke spawning on fire along with various other quality improvements to bring the feature to a visually complete and “rather impressive” state.
Finally, further improvements to lightning effects were made, which will be used in the future within gas clouds.
In-Game Branding
The In-Game Branding team continued to progress with the underground facility exteriors. They’re also working closely with EU Locations 2 on an upcoming event and progressed with some event-related add-ons.
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Interactables
Last month saw the Interactables team create new assets for Pyro’s rundown station alongside various Flair items.
Lighting
The Lighting team continued to contribute to Pyro, working on tasks for the colonialism outposts and rundown station. They also worked on an upcoming event.
Live Tools
In August, the Live Tools team released a new version of the crash-handling pipeline, which is now in the maintenance phase.
For Hex’s Network Operation Center, they worked on general navigation to improve the quality of life for its main users; this included redesigning elements of the discipline module and Entity Graph.
Locations (EU)
The Locations team progressed across various areas last month, including the rundown station and colonialism outposts for Pyro. They also worked on signage and dioramas for an upcoming event.
The Organics team continued to build Pyro’s planets, including foliage, while the Sandbox team moved the new underground facilities through greybox.
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Narrative
The Narrative team continued to focus on Pyro, writing multiple missions and crafting strings to populate new locations with everything from signage to food items. In Stanton, several new mission types were worked on and improvements were made to existing content.
Alongside the evergreen tasks of naming and describing various in-game items and wearables, Narrative worked with Interactables on interesting ideas for future additions.
The Narrative Design team worked on NPC behaviors for Pyro and continued to explore how to make NPC behaviors feel unique across the various landing zones.
The Narrative team will have a new installment of Loremaker’s Community Questions coming up soon, so don’t hesitate to ask your questions in the team’s dedicated Spectrum channel.
Online Services
In August, the Online Service team worked toward finalizing the design and approach for updating several legacy backend social services to gRPC.
As a quality-of-life update, the team added new Social menu options, with players now able to enable or disable friend requests and friend-request notifications, and choose who they receive party invite notifications and currency transfers from.
Updates were also made to the discipline service, which is necessary for future anti-cheat enforcement and sanction updates.
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R&D
In August, work on the temporal render mode for atmosphere and volumetric clouds continued; various methods to rectify or reject frame history were experimented with.
Furthermore, a new disocclusion detection system to reject history was implemented that, in spirit, is similar to the general up-sampling solution.
Additionally, various code was updated to work with recent Gen12 improvements.
UI
As part of the development of Pyro, the UI team created fluff screens and converted flash animations into fluff screens. They also supported Mission Features on Data Heist by uplifting the screen style.
VFX
Last month, the VFX team continued working on various Pyro locations, including some with animated machinery.
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…
