Star Citizen

Guests:

• Duncan Bunting, Lead Gameplay Programmer
• Thornsten Leimann, Lead Systems Designer

TL;DW

• 5 new race tracks coming to Arena Commander (some already existing in PU)
• Experimental modes focused on engineering:
  • Duel (A2 vs A2)
  • 1v6 (A2 vs Gladius x5)
  • Free Flight
  • Not a full engineering loop, focus on time to kill of ships and components, player actions
• Custom Lobbies (previously Private Lobbies) are coming back
• VOIP (with mute option) coming to AC
• Can use your customized character
• Multiple weapons lists for Gun Rush
• Pirate Swarm will have Idris x2 instead of Javelin
• Achievement updates:
  • "Vanduul Agressor" - reach wave 25 in Vanduul Swarm
  • "99th Test Squadron" - play every experimental mode throughout the patch

Guest: Chad McKinney, Senior Lead Gameplay Engineer

Personal hangars:

• Main reasons for the delay were:
  • Incorrect estimation of the finish date due to the size of changes.
  • Additional work required for some of the features.
  • Various stability issues making the game unplayable.
  • Some things happening outside the features (team restructuring, changes to direction)
• Tasks planned for 3.23 are "really close to completion".
• They don't know whether cargo changes will be released before or after Invictus.
• Previous episode (two weeks ago) didn't happen because Jared got a concussion.
• At the moment people not in your party will be treated with the "impound" mechanic when accessing your personal hangar. This will be changed in the future for a "less gamey" solution.
• Personal hangars will be inside armistice zone so no shooting.
• Unwanted guests can steal your stuff if they manage it before the trespassing timer runs out.
• Party members have access to your personal hangar even if you're not there. They can use all the available features there (cargo elevator, item kiosk etc) but only to access their own inventory.
• You'll only see your personal hangar and ones belonging to your party members when using space port elevators. No more access to all of the hangars at your location.
• Kicking people from your party will remove their access.
• If you buy a bigger ship after getting your personal hangar you won't be able to spawn it there, you'll be assigned a public hangar when you do it. This will change in the future.
• Don't leave any of your stuff in the public hangar as it will be deleted after leaving the location.
• They want to add an option to pay for "temporary storage" to retrieve the stuff you left in public hangars.
• There will be a warning about the stuff you're about to lose.
• Plan for the future includes the ability to upgrade your hangar size as well as renting hangars at other locations.
• Team started working on party member access to your local inventory however this will require more security/permissions systems.
• Only one personal hangar at the starting location for the initial release. No changing.
• Criminals will have to live with their personal hangar being on one of the main planets for 3.23.
• Long term plan is to allow players to acquire personal hangars in any location that has hangars.
• There might be different hangar prices depending on the location in the future.
• No player limit for personal hangars, feel free to invite the whole server.
• Bed logging in hangar initially, they do want to look into this option in the future.
• You'll be able to use your tractor beam in your hangar, not weapons.
• Many classic hangar decorations won't be a thing on initial release as they need to be reworked. We'll be able to buy and set up furniture.
• "If you can pull it out and manipulate in the game today, you'll be able to use it to decorate on initial release."

Cargo changes:

• "If there's no hangar you won't have the auto loading as an option. That's a feature, not a bug."
• Small locations (without hangars) not intended for large scale trading.
• Freight elevators will be attached to the landing pads, no need to move cargo at long distances.
• Auto loading times will be adjusted.
• "We want people to engage with manual loading."
• Auto load time and cost will take cargo volume and number of boxes into account (transfer values of the same amount of cargo will differ based on container size for example).
• Cargo weight is still planned to affect flight characteristics. Not implemented yet as cargo not attached to the cargo grid isn't currently counted towards mass of the ship.
• Ability to attach objects other than boxes to the cargo grid is coming but not yet ready.
• They aren't sure what they'll do with cargo decks since they were designed before current cargo implementation was decided upon. They do want them serve a bigger role beyond being a store for boxes and tractor beams.
• Stolen loot brought to the personal hangar can be stored, can't be sold. You won't be arrested.
• Trying to sell mission cargo net you a fine. Doing it in places like Grim Hex means selling for much lower price since the cargo is treated as high-risk.
• There are plans for customizing (naming/labeling/tinting) boxes/containers for easier organization. No specific solution as of yet.
• Cargo elevators come in 4 sizes (small, medium, large, extra large) with different max SCU values they can hold. All should be able to fit stuff like vehicles.
• No option to spawn multiple vehicles at the same time using the ship elevator on initial release.
• Fauna brought to personal hangars should persist, needs testing.

Next week's stream will be on UI (inventory, Star Map, etc.).

Added to 3.23.0:

• Vulkan API support
• Water Simulation & Rendering Improvements

Changed to Commited for 3.23.0:

• mobiGlas Rework
• FPS:
  • Loot Screen
  • Map System
• Visor & Lens HUD Rework
• Player Interaction Experience
• EVA T2
• Starmap Rework
• Master Modes
• New Missions - Creature Hunting
• Fauna:
  • Kopion
  • Marok
• Arena Commander:
  • Grav Royale
  • Custom Lobbies
  • New Flight Map - Miner's Lament

Moved to 3.23.x:

• Item Banks
• Personal and Instanced Hangars
• New Missions - Cargo Hauling
• Freight Elevators

This seems to be a pretty controversial topic so if you have any thoughts on Master Modes make sure to pop on Spectrum and let the devs know. As long as you had a chance to test the changes that is.

Notable Information:
➣ The Overdrive Initiative was known as Hex Penetrator internally before its release to hide the real details from dataminers
➣ Overdrive Initiative was an attempt for CIG to dip their toes in new questlines and stories
➣ The goal was to experiment with ways to increase player engagement
➣ 5 phase mission meant to prepare the player for the primary Xenothreat incursion event
➣ It is meant to be a very narrative driven mission
➣ Players support the CDF through different tasks to work against Xenothreat
➣ These tasks range from fighting Xenothreat in bunkers to stop tasks, to engaging in space combat with them to retrieve keys and restore comm-links
➣ This event has allowed the team to examine numerous bugs across the mission playlist as well as let players experience new features like improved AI behaviors
➣ The ability to do phase 3 while not having done the previous phases is due to it being a public event, its meant to be something happening "right now"
➣ The comm-array phase is meant to be more difficult in a space-combat sense compared to the others, to give players a unique challenge
➣ Phase 5 is a more direct lead-in to the primary Xenothreat event which tasks you with starting to collect the gear needed to take on Xenothreat alongside the UEE
➣ The primary Xenothreat event features changes that the team implemented as a result of the recent Capture Idris event
➣ This chain of events is meant to be repeatable, adaptable, and engagement-building as the game grows

Summary thanks to Hencaric - /r/StarCitizen Discord

Here's a "short" version, read the post for complete info.

AI (Features):

• continued to fix bugs and make improvements to Human combat and other AI behaviors

AI (Tech):

• focused on finalizing and polishing features for Alpha 3.23 alongside optimizations for existing systems
• work on planetary navigation was completed allowing the team to generate navigation mesh over entire planets
• continued to implement new rules and finalized synchronization between the server and clients for boids
• iterated on new ship behaviors with Design, improvements to the aiming-control system for ships and turrets
• load reduction to AI navigation system
• improvements to Apollo tool

Animation:

• team has been working on the “Space Cow”, a medium-sized bird, a predator wolf-like creature, as well as several new vehicles entrance animations

Art (Characters):

• completed a range of branded racing flightsuits
• continued working on outfits for the Headhunters gang
• began exploring specialist armors and worked on handoff sheets

Art (Ships):

• progress on the RSI Zeus (greybox was completed and all functionality has been validated)
• Anvil Legionnaire is whitebox complete
• work on the Resource Network began, 10 ships nearing completion
• update work on a legacy ship continued

Community:

• Community team support for the Overdrive Initiative and Stella Fortuna
• banner design contest for the latter
• spent time helping prepare the RSI Launcher 2.0 for live release
• supported various community events

Core Gameplay:

• Gameplay Features team successfully passed the go/no-go gates for procedural recoil, new scopes, dynamic crosshairs, and reload improvements
• progress on ammo repooling
• preproduction for base building
• added different colored loot screens depending on whether the player is looting an enemy, friendly, or neutral entity
• added a button to go from the inventory to the loot screen and a pop-up window when an item swap can’t be performed
• allowed for separate loot-screen styles between the visor and lens
• conversion of on-screen chat to Building Blocks was completed
• converted more markers to the new system
• unblocked animation content to support weapon customization and two-handed carry to work with the new EVA system
• improvements to how shop items are highlighted when players look at them
• completed buy and rent interactions for physical shopping
• improvements to prone locomotion
• improvements to aiming and targeting for the gunnery system for Master Modes
• temporary solution for ship-hull penetration was added until Maelstrom is ready to support physical ship armor
• optimized the dynamic room atmosphere system and made it network compatible
• more work on cargo elevators and instanced hangars
• updated radar zone queries to use new zone query time splice tech
• work began on ‘signature categories’ (different signature detections based on emitters)
• Arena Commander:
  • improve to multi-crew experience by adding access selection
  • refactored the team-balancing system
  • improved loadout definitions
  • support for the Engineering Experimental Modes and a selection of new maps and modes
  • support for a new system for Gun Rush
• progress on reputation-based hostility
• changes to the trespass behavior
• UI:
  • work continued on the redesigned Contract Manager
  • completed payment validation for beacons
  • made Journal compatible with the new mobiGlas and updated the Home screen
  • support for the legacy Comm-Link and VMS Flash apps
  • visual updates to the Wallet and Assets apps
• provided new data structure to Mission Design so they could start setting up hauling missions
• progress on hangars, including the Instanced Interior Manager
• improvements to the freight elevator and commodity kiosks

Economy:

• continued rebalancing commodities
• mission rewards are being rebalanced according to the difficulty and time required to complete them
• team is involved in the design of reputation and org progression
• starting to balance the time and cost of autoloading freight elevators

Graphics, VFX Programming & Planet Tech:

• bug fixing the various deliverables for Alpha 3.23
• added performance-scaling options to the water simulation
• Vulkan team worked through several performance issues as they moved closer to matching D3D performance
• reworking shaders to reduce the total number of PSOs (shaders) that need compiling when the game starts
• work on Global Illumination continues
• Planet Tech team started work on Planet Tech v5
• VFX team continued with networking support for the fire simulation

In-Game Branding:

• preparations for Invictus Launch Week
• work for cargo containers and additional signage for various locations

Interactables:

• item banks (now called gear storage) were finished
• explosive containers were reworked and now replace static meshes in levels
• fire extinguisher recharge cabinets progressed through greybox
• cargo hover trolleys are being finalized

Lighting:

• worked on instanced hangars, freight elevators, distribution centers and Invictus Launch Week
• supported the upcoming Character Customizer

Locations:

• polishing content for Alpha 4.0
• closed out the upcoming distribution centers
• kicked off preproduction for new mandates officially beginning in Q2
• Landing Zone team finalized art for instanced hangars

Mission Design:

• Mission Feature team was restructured, becoming the Mission Design team
• following feedback on the Overdrive Initiative event, the team is revisiting the standard data heist missions
• progress on the upcoming cargo hauling missions (lawful stores across Stanton will not buy your cargo, got to use a fence if you want to sell them)
• began working on wildlife related missions (Kill ‘X’ Amount, Clear Location, Kill and Collect)
• some older mission modules were refactored
• further testing of Blockade Runner

Narrative:

• revising existing missions like the New Player Experience
• outlining new missions
• discussions with gameplay teams on ‘lorification’ of upcoming systems
• various posts on the website and Galactapedia updates

Online Technology:

• refactoring of social services backend
• work to reduce EAC Anti-Cheat false positives in preparation of enabling sanction enforcement
• finished off long-term persistence work for the Character Customizer

R&D:

• work continued on the temporal render mode
• supported the Gen12/Vulkan work

Tech Design:

• support of preparations for Alpha 3.23 and beyond
• support for hangars and ship flight
• polish work on Master Modes

UI:

• development of the new freight elevator kiosk, commodity kiosk, and item bank
• preparing mandates coming later this year, including the Resource Network and jump points
• added new player-facing UI, new mobiGlas
• new visor and lens improvements
• polished the new shopping UI and Character Customizer

VFX:

• finished work on distribution centers and freight elevators
• completed tasks for several upcoming vehicles
• progress on jump point effect

For those fans of Dune and Star Citizen out there.

This video is from the same guy who made the Star Gear teaser a few months back.

Hey all, just to provide a heads-up on a few things we're doing to address the legibility issues with the Starmap. This list is not extensive, and there's quite a few more things being worked on to improve the UX.

particularly on microtech, the text disappears behind the planet sometimes while rotating the planet model.

That is exactly what is happening unfortunately due to a render bug. The marker and text will render behind the planet, making it very faint. We have a fix in the works.

there is a weird curved jittering rainbow lcd screen effect on planet surfaces

The color banding is probably due to a shader effect on the planet. We're investigating what the cause of it is.

the location markers are too hard to see on the sunny side of microtech.

We have a fix in the works that will adjust the brightness of the lighting in the Starmap and are also working to make the surface of planets have more contrast.

sometimes the text becomes blurry for a couple of frames.

We have a tentative fix for this in the works.

the auto brightness adjustment when leaving mobiglas after looking at microtech sunny side view for a while takes a long time for the brightness to adjust

The eye adaptation kicks in due to the relative brightness of microTech compared to the rest of the screen when you zoom in. Adjusting the brightness of the lighting, the shader of the planet and tweaking the camera settings when the mobiGlas / Starmap are open are currently in the works to improve on this behavior.

Rest assured, we're aware of those issues and are actively working to fix them. Please, keep the feedback and IC reports coming if you find other issues that affect the functionality / UX of the Starmap.

Thanks!

Hi all,

Unfortunately, due to unforeseen circumstances, we will have to cancel this week's episode of Star Citizen Live with Team Chad. We know many were looking forward to it, so we are already working on rescheduling for a later date.

Today's episode was supposed to be about cargo changes.

TL;DW:

• Complete overhaul of mobiGlas, moved to "Building Blocks" & "Cards" system
• New home panel displays:
  • Tracked missions
  • Notifications
  • Reputation & crime stat
  • Status of connected ship (ammo, fuel)
  • Environment data (gravity, atmo, pressure, temperature, radiation)
  • Health data (overall %, temperature, heart rate, suit fuel & oxygen)
• Some app updates won't make it to 3.23 (chat, vehicle customization)
• Health app displays everything home screen does as well as:
  • Conditions effects (injury status)
  • Active drugs
  • Hunger & thirst
  • Blood drug level
• Contract manager changes:
  • Toggle between legal/illegal missions instead of separate tabs
  • "Mark all as read" button
• Star map changes:
  • Now responsible for everything (space and locations)
  • Local map has a clickable list of available points of interest (shops, transit, hospitals etc)
  • GPS routing
  • Custom markers
  • Mission markers
  • Will be able to navigate between zones (ex. needing to travel via trams) but there are some issues that require fixing first
  • Space part contains all the info available until now, plus
  • Clicking on a space location (like space station) displays info about available POIs (stores, landing options etc)
  • Improved feedback when routing between space locations
  • Search bar
  • Marker list
• HUD shows level of injuries to each body part

CIG asked for feedback on HUD readability, drop by on Spectrum if you have something to add.

Added to 3.23.0 release:

• Fauna - Kopion
• Fauna - Marok
• New Missions - Creature Hunting

Added to 3.23.X release:

• Vehicle Modularity (torpedo and cargo room modules for the Aegis Retaliator)
• Aegis Retaliator - Gold Standard

Can be bought here: https://robertsspaceindustries.com/comm-link/transmission/19819-MISC-Raptor

(Don't forget to at least add it to your cart for a new Display Title).

Happy Triggerfish Day!

TL;DW:

• UI is split to visor (provided by helmet) and lens (always available)
• new HUD provides info about:
  • minimap
  • location owner
  • crime stat
  • environment (pressure, oxygen etc)
  • health info
  • mission objectives
  • compass
  • weapon/ammo info
  • control hints
  • notifications (main ones at the top of the screen, low priority ones to the side)
• after 3.23 info provided by visors will differ based on their type
• the only specialization in 3.23 will be combat visor (adds dynamic crosshair)
• loot screen:
  • available for both bodies and other containers
  • allows for equipping objects (including armor) straight away
  • contains contextual actions like the ability to highlight ammo and attachments for specific weapon and quick loot them
  • keybind to switch between loot screen and full inventory view
  • currently using Squadron 42 version, will be somehow changed for SC in the future
• updated shopping experience
  • new info boxes
  • quick buy using key hold
  • "try on" with key press instead of aiming for floating text
  • key binding can be changed

In case you can't/don't want to access Spectrum:

Hey everyone!

The team wanted to give a huge shoutout to all our Wave 1, 2 and Evocati testers for diving into our first-ever Static Server Meshing technical preview! It's been fantastic seeing you all engage with the static mesh for the very first time.

Your involvement has been invaluable. Not only have we been able to see the mesh in action with many real players, but your testing, boundary-pushing, and bug-spotting have been incredibly insightful. It's been awesome watching you all experiment and explore, discover server boundaries (ok we made this easy to find  ) and play around to see how the mesh would affect your gameplay...even when things didn't quite go as planned.

Massive thanks to all of you who joined in. We know it's not always easy, especially with instability and server hiccups. Every server crash recovery, every transition from one server to another, and every play session provides us with the data we need to stabilize, mature, and improve the system.

As we gear up for larger game shards, our priority is not just scaling up but also ensuring greater stability and adjusting game features to properly support the mesh and authority transitions (quantum, missions, etc). We will need your help regularly in the coming weeks as we test fixes and even more mesh configurations.

We've got our work cut out for us, both on the tech side, and in shaping the game itself to truly leverage the mesh. But with your ongoing support and optimism, I've got no doubt we will achieve!

Thank you for your time; your passion propels us forward. Onwards!

o7!

Bault / Benoit

CIG is now testing in the Tech-Preview channel. Stanton starting off with 2 DGSs (Dedicated Game Servers).

The player cap will start off at 200, and then they will be ramping it up during some focused player testing at these times:

Saturday - DGS Per Mesh Increase Playtest: 2-4 PM CDT | 1900-2100 UTC 
Discord formatting in your local time: <t:1711220400:f>

Sunday - DGS Per Mesh Increase Playtest: 2-4 PM CDT | 1900-2100 UTC 
Discord formatting in your local time: <t:1711306800:f>

I would expect to see at least one test with 400 players... and maybe if things are stable they'll test out even more.

Server recovery is enabled. So, if one part of the system crashes, players on the other end should be unaffected (based on how this worked out during the Pyro playtests). If both servers are down at the same time, I suspect that this is when you will actually get a 30k error and get kicked back to the menu.

Big note here:

**PYRO will appear on the drop down for locations but make sure to select Stanton as Pyro will not function*l

There is also an issue where crossing from one server to the next causes you to drop out of quantum (most likely if the other server is experiencing a server error and is in the middle of recovering).

Guests:

• Forrest Stephan: Principal Technical Artist
• Andre Pires: Lead Artist
• Jacob: Gameplay Programmer
• Gabriel Hector: System Designer
• Andreas Rohr: Principal Technical Artist/Animator

TL;DW:

• All the heads currently available in the PU will be available in the new customizer (some only partially for now).
• Existing heads got a visual refresh.
• Current target (for the future, not 3.23) is 60 heads to choose from.
• Skin details and color are separated, you can mix & match.
• Character customizer will only be available during initial character creation for now.
• They do plan to add special machines scattered around that will allow players to change their look.
• You can edit your character from the main menu, before loading into the verse, this will be removed once the machines are implemented.
• New customizer is built with backwards compatibility in mind, can't promise saved designs won't break with changes to various features but they do have some kind of "restore" system that will try to convert the saved version and keep it as close to the original as possible.
• Characters might also slightly change in case of art adjustments/updates.
• Exported look files are encrypted, no modification outside the game.
• BIOTICORP is the in-lore company responsible for "Calliope Machines" used to modify your looks.
• No promises on ability to change light/scene conditions in the customizer to check your creation in various condition.
• You can use FOIP during character creation to play around with face expressions.
• Beards have physics, just like "normal" hair. Use the legacy system instead of Star-Cloth for now.
• Small heads in the selection grid update to display your changes to hair etc.
• They chose to limit the max hair length up to the shoulders.
• Longer hair styles will adapt and stick out when wearing hats/masks.
• Each hair style has multiple assets (male, female, with and without hat etc).
• No option to choose specific hair strands to color, some kind of additional color mask system is technically possible but isn't planned at the moment (lots of technical considerations to keep in mind).
• They use the new customizer to create NPCs (using bonus debug options).
• Lots of new hair styles coming in the future, most likely added with big updates.
• Hair tech will also be used on armor and creatures.
• Ace Ventura hair style (or any other old ones) might come back if people really want it.
• Body customization (shape, height) is technically possible but won't happen in short term due to technical limitations (mainly attachments scaling/displacement, animations and possible balancing issues). They do want to try and make it work in the future.
• Andreas already spent some time refactoring the head DNA code to allow its use for bodies, however it's a part-time project.
• No current plans to allow to import your own photos as a texture for character face (lots of technicalities to consider). Could be cool.
• Some theorizing how they could use FOIP to scan player's face to generate a starting point based on currently available head shapes.
• Only natural eye colors for 3.23, they'd like to add crazier options in the future (possibly full color selection, iris details, asymmetrical design).
• "Cursed" face options depend on the available character pool, it's going to keep increasing. "Uglies" will be possible as they try to keep the pool as diverse as possible.
• One thing you'd like to add:
  • Forrest Stephan: Jared's head to the customization pool.
  • Jacob: more randomization.
  • Gabriel Hector: scan your own face and add it to the pool.
  • Andreas Rohr: flesh out the preview view with swappable lighting conditions, outfits etc.

You need to be logged in and in wave 1 to see the Spectrum post.

• Issue Council for the launcher
• Sneak peek on YouTube

TL;DW:

• persistent hangars are instanced locations assigned to your home planet
• size of persistent hangars is based on the biggest ship you own (assigned on first login or patch reset)
• you'll be able to keep things around, invite people etc
• you fly into the hangar via ATC as usual
• you can request anything in your inventory to be sent up in the cargo elevator and put it anywhere
• you can decide on the placement of items placed on the cargo elevator when requesting them
• some items will have to be put in cargo container when requesting
• item bank is a separate kiosk, used to request personal items (clothes, weapons etc)
• item banks are available in hangars and around hubs (LZs, hospitals, rooms)
• no more interacting with local inventory from anywhere
• ASOP terminals will be available inside the hangars, can request your ship from there
• ships are delivered via ground elevator in the middle of the hangar
• you can spawn ground vehicles as well
• you can spawn multiple ships at once (first one has to be moved away)
• you can fall into the ship elevator and die
• hangar sizes had to increase to fit everything needed for the new system
  • extra large: ~25% larger
  • large: ~30% larger
  • medium: the same but taller
  • small: hasn't changed
• some small ships were reclassified to use larger hangars
• automatic (un)loading still exist as an option in the commodity terminal
• automatic (un)loading costs money
• ship has to be stored to make use of automatic (un)loading and will be locked for the duration of this process
• transfer times will vary by location (ex. cargo facilities will be faster)

Edit: added info about hangar size updates.

Notable changes:

• removed unique item recovery for further development (item banks still on track)
• Anvil Hornet F7C MkII added to release view
• features that passed final review for 3.23:
  • new character customizer
  • reputation - hostility
  • dynamic crosshair

Also, no progress tracker update this week due to focus on planning for 1.0 release. Here's Spectrum post from Jake Acappella about it.

Wakapedia:

  Our goal is to have another Tech-Preview Server Meshing test for select waves of testers (Multiple Waves) starting on Friday and running through the weekend. This Server Meshing test will be focused solely on the Stanton system, with multiple servers sharing the load. We will be testing multiple configurations throughout the weekend with more servers per shard than we have ever tested before, increasing the number of players per shard to stress test the system.

This will not be just evocati.

https://robertsspaceindustries.com/spectrum/community/SC/lobby/38230/message/52087974

I'm guessing that we will most likely see servers covering each major zone throughout the solar system that includes at least one planet. If things are looking good they might take it further than that.

Explore a 1:1 scale milky way galaxy alone or with friends on a meticulously built Starship. I suggest trying the tech demo on steam, running through the cold and dark startup tutorial, then finding your first black hole. It's a lot of fun even in its bare bones state. Very friendly discord with active devs, too.

I know they mentioned they will release a native Linux version in the past, but I'm curious if we've heard any new information about it.