Star Citizen

From the RSI Weekly email update:

June 8
Lyon, France (CIG ATTENDANCE)
San Antonio, TX, USA
Colorado Springs, CO, USA

June 14
Montréal, QC, Canada (CIG ATTENDANCE)

June 15
Austin, Texas, USA (CIG ATTENDANCE)
North Hollywood, CA, USA (CIG ATTENDANCE)
Manchester, UK (CIG ATTENDANCE)
Frankfurt, Germany (CIG ATTENDANCE)
Arlington, TX, USA
Jönköping, Sweden

Source: https://mailchi.mp/cloudimperiumgames/cmty-weeklyfridaynewsletter672024

Addd to release view:

• Argo MPUV Tractor
• RSI Ursa Medivac
• Aegis Sabre Firebird

Committed for 3.23.2:

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

Update 5/25 - Manchester and Frankfurt were added to the site recently, so I updated this list to reflect that.

Lyon, France
Saturday, June 8, 2024 at 6 PM

 
Montreal, QC, Canada
Friday, June 14, 2024 at 6 PM

 
Austin, TX, USA
Saturday, June 15, 2024 at 5 PM

 
Los Angeles, CA, USA
Saturday, June 15, 2024 at 5 PM

 
Manchester, United Kingdom
TBD

 
Frankfurt, Germany
TBD

 
SongShan District, Taipei, Taiwan
Saturday, June 22, 2024 at 10 AM

 
Bao 'an District, Shenzhen, China
Saturday, June 29, 2024

 
Washington, D.C., USA
Saturday, July 20, 2024 at 4 PM

 
Cologne (Gamescon), Germany
TBD

 
Seattle, Washington (PAX West), USA
Friday, August 30, 2024 at 7 PM

 
San Diego, California (TwitchCon US), USA
Friday, September 20 at 6 PM

 
Marinha Grande, Portugal
Saturday, September 7, 2024 at 2 PM

Guests:

• Eliot, Lead Mission Designer
• Yogi Klatt, Principle Vehicle Programmer
• Richard Towler, Lead Designer on Vehicle Experience
• Thorsten Leimann, Lead Systems Designer

TL;DW:

• Yogi is happy they managed to squeeze Master Modes into 3.23 but is aware "there's couple balance issues".
• Rearming:
  • For ballistics we'll be able to buy ammo containers to use them to reload the guns.
  • On bigger ships those containers have to be put in a dedicated slot (might change in the future).
  • Ammo sizes will be unified between all guns.
• Firebird and Retaliator will be adjusted in 3.23.1a patch, check this post on Spectrum for details.
• Mission team wants to create missions for refueling, lots of problems needs to be figured out first.
• First version of mining missions might happen "soon", will focus on resource gathering (can be mined, bought, pirated).
• After mission team finishes enough "mission modules" (bounty, mining or any other tasks) they'll start chaining them into longer missions.
• Power plants will consume hydrogen fuel in the future (as in, you won't be able to keep your ship powered forever as it is now). This won't come online with the initial resource update in 4.0 but sometime later.
• Team knows exactly what they want to do with space-combat, now will try to tweak things based on player data.
• Lots of future additions (engineering, armor) will affect balance and will have to be re-tweaked again.
• "There will always be some intentional imbalance."
• Distortion damage will have a counter to drain it and make the ship work again.
• Teams are currently discussing how to move away from ships exploding on reaching 0HP to mostly soft death scenario. Check engineering experimental mode in Arena Commander if you want a sneek peek at the current progress.
• There will be some additional info on what kind of content is awaiting you for each mission (FPS, space-combat, requires multi tool, etc.) but no 100% clear distinction as some missions can change when playing (flying target might land and hide in a building for example). This won't come until mission app refactor.
• "Call to Arms" was balanced by the Mission Team in the past, now it's handled by the Economy Team.
• "Master Modes is doing better than what we had in 3.21 - 3.22 before."
• "K/D ratio flattened out a lot."
• ESP needs to be improved, 1v1 dog-fighting needs to be improved, more ideas to avoid backstrafing.
• Both Yogi and Rich are pretty happy with the changes so far.
• Dupe exploit is fixed internally, will go out when possible.
• Racing is important and has a future.
• "MM will allow us to give racing variants more freedom."
• With the old system some of the racing ships "with all their guns" could be the best fighters.
• Yogi is thinking about a potential "racing operator mode".
• Mission team is investigating ways to speed up the process of getting back to the track in case of death.
• They also want to add open access to the racing tracks in PU (no rewards but your laps will be timed) and other race types (on-foot, ground vehicle, played around with race to get out of prison - just for fun, don't think it fits).
• Tank handling was impacted by some back-end changes, issue is fixed internally and will release when possible.
• Ground vehicle physics were also fixed (to how they worked until now).
• CIG is aware of the problems with cluttered HUD, no info since this isn't a UI episode.
• Devs are still investigating problems with gravlev vehicles, aren't sure what happened yet.
• Lots of discussions on how to encourage players to use ground vehicles. Currently investigating environment (no place to land), weather and other features.
• Engineering plans for 4.0:
  • Life support (fire system, room atmosphere propagation, atmo maintenance, new life support generators).
  • Power management.
  • Relays (connections between items) and fuses.
  • Rebalance of items (bigger differences between item classes for example, clearer info about those differences).
  • Batteries (most likely won't make it into 4.0).
  • Repair of components.
  • Distortion counter.
  • Malfunctions (initially 3: fire, damage and distortion to the item).

MotD Update 2024-05-24T15:39:00Z:

🕹️(Frjádagr) We are continuing to work through the remaining blocking issues for 3.23.2 which currently contain hangars, cargo updates, and more. Since these changes have huge, widespread effects to how almost every system in our game operates, our goal is go through with an accelerated Evocati to Waves 1-5 system when ready. We are expecting multiple different PTU builds next week starting Tuesday with 3.23.2 hopefully Wednesday. Will update more here next week!

So it seems that CIG decided to cease selling the F7C Hornet Mk1 in favour of the F7C Hornet Mk2. It kinda makes sense from an in-universe Lore and I like that they just don't replace all Hornet Mk1s with the Mk2s like they did previously with the reworks of several Ship Classes (freelancer, Mustang, Constellation) and that they continue working on it, getting it to gold pass and keeping the specs up to date.

When I look at the stats of the Hornets it dawned on me that the Upgrade between Mk1 and Mk2 isn't that significant, its wing hardpoints were upgraded from S3 to S4 and its body got slimmer (less Hydrogen Fuel and less Ordnances), so why not continue flying that old lady?

Do you think this Marketing Stun is just for FOMO? Several citizens in the linked Spectrum FAQ regarding the out-phasing think it is.

Guests:

• John Crewe, Vehicle Director
• Ben Curtis, Vehicle Art Director

TL;DW:

• Drake Ironclad introduction
  • 6 person crew.
  • Armored cargo ship.
  • Cargo access through a front ramp and retractable roof.
  • More firepower than Caterpillar.
  • Detachable command module (like Caterpillar).
  • Smaller secure cargo room for more valueable stuff.
  • Military variant for ground operation support is also planned (smaller cargo space, repair facility).
• RSI Polaris status update
  • "Exterior is pretty much the final art."
  • Decal and smaller details still need some work for the exterior.
  • Interior is at a greybox stage (few rooms at whitebox).
  • Turrets wil be upgraded in the future.
  • Targeted release date: this year's Intergalactic Aerospace Expo (November).

Inside Star Citizen will be on break until June 20th.

Patch 3.23 released a week ago. It brought quite a bit of features, fixes and adjustments which touched many different parts of the game.

I know we didn't have similar threads for previous releases but this version seems to be quite divisive so I'm curious how you guys feel about what we got.

Do you like it? Do you hate it? Is there any specific criticism or feedback you have about certain features?

Just so we're clear, I'm not trying to cause a "CIG is trash" drama here - this stuff can stay on Spectrum. I'm genuinely curious about your opinions about the patch.

Characters in this new environment will be built from LTP data so items such as medpens, ammo, rentals, and refinery jobs will be lost.

• Long Term Persistence: Enabled
• Replication Layer: Enabled
• Server Crash Recovery: Enabled
• Starting aUEC: 20,000

Changes:

• Launcher 2.0
• Ship AI Pilot Balance Pass
• NPC Locomotion Polish
• Medical Bed Respawn Update
  • T3 medical beds will allow respawning up to 20km away
  • T2 medical beds (which previously allowed respawning up to 20km) will now allow respawning up to 50km away
• AEGIS Saber Raven Gold Standard
• Made Further Gamewide Client Performance Optimizations
• Interior Map Materials Optimization
• Water Caustics Visual Polish
• Added Character Creator Validations
• VFX Visual Improvements and Fixes

Bug Fixes:

• Fixed - PU - Stanton - UI - Oversized active Armistice Zone icon (STARC-108910)
• Fixed - PU - Stanton - Actor - Respawning - Players who die and then get disconnected before respawning become stuck in a dead state and are unable to respawn
• Fixed - PU - Stanton - UGF - Locations - Bunker elevator does not return up when called (STARC-111250)
• Fixed - Multivehicle - PU - Vehicles / UI - QT effects are breaking HUD UI (STARC-104656)
• Fixed - PU - Gamewide - Using a medpen causes you to drop your weapon
• Fixed - PU - Distribution Centres - Elevators - Several elevator transit carriages created & destroyed immediately
• Fixed - MULTIVEHICLE - PU - Vehicles / Components / Locations - It is possible when vehicles are spawned from fleet manager that radar components and elevator panels can detach from the ship and float permanently in a hangar, causing issues with collisions (STARC-101070)
• Fixed - ARGO Mole / ROC - PU - Vehicle / UI - Vehicle HUD - Mining Mode UI has a variety of defects obstructing gameplay (STARC-88859)
• Fixed - Drake Cutlass Black - Vehicles - Drake Cutlass Black is unable to liftoff from landing pads
• Fixed - PU - Fleet Week 2024 - Actor / UI - Physical Shopping - Physical shopping AR Card is flickering when approached, impacting functionality
• Fixed - Aegis Reclaimer - ALL VARIANTS - Ships / Salvage / Master Mode / UI - Players are unable to access claw in the copilot seat and the UI changes to QT / NAV master mode without any feedback to the copilot (STARC-111581)
• Fixed - Anvil Hornet - ALL Variants - PU - Vehicles - Flight controllers have pitch and yaw rotational max speeds reversed
• Fixed - PU - Stanton - ARC L4 - Locations - Lobby elevators cannot be called (STARC-109845)
• Fixed - Community Localization - PU - Character Customizer / UI - Some labels cannot be localized (STARC-110101)
• Fixed - PU - Law / Infractions / Notifications - Players cannot press charges against another player if they commit infractions against them
• Fixed - PU - Stanton - Locations / Inventory - Users are able to place Hangar flare items in public areas where they cannot be picked back up
• Fixed - MISC Prospector - PU/AC - Vehicles/Balance - Misc Prospector has invulnerable spot for its nose leading to no damage taken (STARC-109000)
• Fixed - PU - Stanton - microTech - Creatures / AI - Kopion are jittering and teleporting when running
• Fixed - PU - UI / Upscaling - Shopping Kiosk UI missing elements when Upscaling is enabled
• Fixed - PU - Stanton - Mission Content / Law - Trespass timer will go to negative numbers (STARC-95347)
• Fixed - PU - Option Menu - UI - "Water - Number of Simulated Regions" going back to Medium between sessions (STARC-104172)
• Fixed - Origin 400i - PU - Vehicles - Life Support / Room System - Two room volumes are missing in the technical deck causing players to suffocate in the 400i (STARC-106700)
• Fixed - Stanton - PU - mobiGlas / Visor Chat - Visor Chat messages remains visible over the mobiGlas
• Fixed - PU - Physical Shopping - Locations - Multiple Locations - Items on display at multiple shops will end in 'Transaction Error' when attempting to quick buy
• Fixed - PU - Stanton - Mission Content / UI / mobiGlas - Completing a contract while the mobiGlas is open on the contract does not open the specific contract in the History tab
• Fixed - PU - Runtime Cubemaps - Graphics / Lighting - Runtime cubemaps are taking an excessively long time refresh and / or not refreshing at all
• Fixed - PU - Stanton - Distribution Centers (DC) - Locations / AI - The worker NPCs sometimes use tractor beams to shoot at the player
• Fixed - PU - Actor - EVA - Depending on orientation, player places weapon through their head and neck when ADS
• Fixed - RSI Ursa - PU - Vehicles / Design - Cannot enter Remote Turret
• Fixed - Greycat ROC - Stanton - ROC Mining Laser Not Activating
• Fixed - Crosshair not showing on GRIN_ROC
• Fixed - PU - Character Customizer - Clicking the Character Customizer screen after reviewing your model and going back to it will show T-Posed models
• Fixed - AC - UI / Scoreboard - The Grav Race mode does not show or update player score
• Fixed - AC - Free Flight - UI - It is possible to select ground Vehicles for AC Free Flight mode, which can cause UI problems once in game lobby

Technical Updates:

• Fixed 8 Client Crashes
• Fixed 6 Server Crashes
• Fixed an Out of Memory Crash
• Fixed 2 Vulkan+Upscaling GPU Crashes
• Made Further Entity Graph Stability Improvements

Guests:

• John Crewe, Vehicle Director
• Ben Curtis, Vehicle Art Director

TL;DW:

• Sabre Raven gold standard
• Sabre Firebird introduction (new missile ship)
• Ursa Medivac introduction
• Return of respawning at all med beds (distance based, varies by bed tier)

Added as targeting 4.0 release:

• Server Meshing V1
• Mission System Refactor
• Transit System Refactor
• Pyro planets:
  • Pyro I
  • Pyro II - Monox
  • Pyro III - Bloom
  • Pyro IV
  • Pyro VI - Terminus
• Pyro moons
  • Ignis
  • Vatra
  • Adir
  • Fairo
  • Fuego
  • Vuur
• Pyro Space Stations
• Outposts - Colonialism
• Jump Points (working ones, between Stanton and Pyro)
• Solar Burst
• Life Support
• Engineering
• Charge/Drain
• Multi-Tool Updates
• Fire Hazard
• Fire Extinguisher
• MFD Rework and New Displays
• Quasi Grazer (Space Cow)
• Additional Player Customization (additional hair and facial hair options, face piercings)
• RSI Zeus MkII ES

Added as released in 3.23.0:

• Mirai Pulse
• Mirai Pulse LX

Commited for 3.23.1:

• Aegis Retaliator - Gold Standard
• Vehicle Modularity

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.ml/post/15647506

Version 2.17 of the Star Citizen Linux User Group helper tool has been released. Wiki and quick start guide: https://starcitizen-lug.github.io

• Add Kron4ek wine runner source
• Environment variables to support Open Wine Components umu proton in Lutris 5.17+
• NVIDIA and AMD Environment variables for Star Citizen Vulkan renderer
• Remove un-needed winetricks steps and DLL overrides

Source: https://x.com/erkulgames/status/1789428050263732419

Currently only works on the Retaliator, but hopefully this means other ships will start to see this soon.

Lots of people having issues getting into queue for download, but it's finally live! Let's goooooo!

Hi everyone,

The Overdrive Initiative was the first event of its kind, and it's been incredibly rewarding observing everyone dive into the various Missions with such enthusiasm. Beyond just the increase in engagement, we've gained valuable insights that will guide the development of future narrative events. With a wealth of feedback in hand, our team is already planning how to enhance future experiences and rewards in a way that resonates even more with our community.

To ensure clarity, let's take a moment to recap key aspects of the current Overdrive Initiative's status.

The XenoThreat menace has been repelled for now, and it’s unlikely the planned incursion will happen until after Invictus Launch Week (invading during a military expo is clearly a bad idea). As such, Overdrive Initiative Phases 1 - 5 will still be available for all volunteers right up until the XenoThreat assault begins.

If you’ve completed missions 1 - 5, you’ll receive a mission titled ‘Overdrive Initiative: Reward.’ Once accepted, you’ll be granted your F7A Hornet Mk II upgrade token and a seven-day day ship rental. To use the F7A Mk II rental during XenoThreat, hold off on accepting the ‘Overdrive Initiative: Reward’ mission until the event begins.

XenoThreat armor will be awarded once you’ve completed all Overdrive Initiative missions and the Overdrive-specific XenoThreat missions.

Alpha 3.23 also includes fixes to help those who have been struggling to complete Overdrive Initiative:

► A fix has been implemented to support volunteers who couldn’t complete Phase 5

► A temporary CVAR has been added to allow players to check their mission completion progress:

• Login and enter Star Citizen
• Open the console by pressing the ` (grave accent) key (to the left of ‘1’ on your keyboard, though it may show a different character depending on your layout)
• In the box, type mission_log_all_completed_missions and press enter (make sure you include underscores and don’t capitalize)
• You will then be able to view your Overdrive Initiative mission completion information. If you’re missing anything, check the Priority tab in the Contract Manager to see any incomplete missions
• We hope you’re enjoying Overdrive Initiative, and we appreciate your feedback on this first-of-its-kind event in the 'verse!

Once again, we want to thank you all for your participation! See you in-game!

TL;DR:

• Final phase of The Overdrive Initiative moved until after Invictus.
• Still possible to finish the missions if you didn't,
• 3.23 will bring fixes that should make this easier.
• You can check your progress using mission_log_all_completed_missions command in the console.

Link: https://twitter.com/RobertsSpaceInd/status/1788662358652440894

Guests:

• Zac Oreece, Senior System Designer I
• Adam McEwen, Principal Animator
• Camil St-Pierre, Lead Character Artist
• Andrew Davies, Lead Gameplay Programmer/AI Programmer
• Michael Clarke, Sound Designer III

TL;DW:

• Marok:
  • Flies around as a flock.
  • Skin differs depending on the biome they spawn in.
  • They couldn't really use feathers due to tech constraints at the moment.
  • They are implemented as boids - a stupider and less resource intensive form of an "actor".
• Kopion:
  • Is intended as a combination of dog and a cat.
  • Has a few variants to better blend in with the environment, like Marok.
  • They usually run around in a group of 10-14 (number at the time of recording, subject to change).
  • Not a boid, fully fledged "actor".
  • Will not T-Pose on a chair.
  • Faster than a sprinting player.
  • Attack in formation.
• We should be able to hear the creatures from a distance.
• Both creatures can be looted when dead ("pearl" from a Maroks, horn from Kopions).
• They have a decent plan and a pipeline for creatures they'd like to add for 1.0, should be easier to implement future ones.

Limited TL;DW since it's mostly a design episode. Lot's of nice shots of environments and both creatures. There's also a sneak peak at light amplification on a scope, space whale and space cow as well as lots of animal murder.

Bonus reminder: there's no SCL tomorrow.

MotD:

🌊 (Tuesday) Today, we're holding off on releasing 3.23 on LIVE as we finalize a few crucial updates, one of which addresses STARC-52845. Our goal is to roll out a new EPTU, possibly later tonight, as a LIVE Release Candidate. This version will undergo rigorous monitoring to ensure readiness for a full deployment to the live environment in the coming days.

Guests:

• Richard Tyrer, Senior Game Director
• Rick, Design Director
• JJ, Assistant Design Director

TL;DW:

• No live release today.
• Kopion and Marok were chosen to be the first fauna in game because they were faster to implement than previously announced creatures.
• Next week's Inside Star Citizen will be about development of Kopion and Marok.
• Economy rebalance (guns, armor, ships, salvage and mission rewards) coming with 3.23.
• They want to start bringing money sinks into the game.
• aUEC and rentals wipe incoming with 3.23.
• New reputation system won't be fully implemented in Stanton as it's more aimed towards 4.0 and Pyro. It will be available in some places (GrimHex, settlements).
• Sniper glint is something they wanted to try out as a balancing feature. Some other ideas (including getting rid of it) might be tested in the future.
• Scanning inside your own ship will be handled by FPS scanning tech (it's in the process of porting from Squadron 42).
• Master Modes were created as a response to jousting. It's suppose to be easy to pick up but with a lot of depth.
• They're looking into all the desync/lag/interaction issues in 3.23 EPTU. "We think we've got it" but some new issues might always show up.
• They want to avoid another 3.18 situation but still need to release the patch to evaluate the changes with the help of the larger LIVE audience.
• Larger audience will help with debugging some of the issues they are aware of but can't find the cause.
• 3.23 bringing tons of changes was a deliberate decision so they can move to new features not present in S42.
• Rich wants to make Star Citizen into a "real MMO" as soon as possible.
• Personal hangars had some issues with cargo elevators - some are already fixed.
• We won't be able to change our home location if personal hangars make it in with an .X patch. It might be possible if you use the "character repair" functionality on the website but that means losing all your progress. Just wait for another full patch.
• GrimHex as a home location still needs more work and considerations.
• State of Arena Commander:
  • It's not a priority (that would be SC proper).
  • Good testing bed for features.
  • Might get FPS AI (in the nearish future?).
• "Go/No Go" is not a singular moment in time, longer process based on constant evaluation of each feature.
• Bed logging is still planned. In the future they also want to log you back wherever you log out. Also buffs for sleeping in beds.
• They want Pyro to be the main place for the "bad guys" to do their thing. Stanton activities might be easier when "working in the shadows".
• "Piracy and unlawful gameplay don't always have to be against lawful players."
• They need more than one system be available before they can work on policing.
• Solo players have their place in the future of SC but some goals might be hard or impossible without other people (for example producing and crewing Idris).
• Hiring NPC to crew ships is still planed, far into the future.
• Night vision is already tested on gun scopes, visor/ship implementation needs more time. Should be more of a scheduling than technical problem now.
• "Not true night vision but light enhancement."
• No Star Citizen Live next week.

Buy up what you want while you still can!

Still no update to the progress tracker, "will be updated in the coming weeks".

Release View changes:

• Arena Commander: Grav Royale removed from Release View until critical issues are resolved
• Changed to committed:
  • Distribution Centers (will only contain surface areas initially, underground parts will be added later)
  • Vulkan Graphics API Support (new graphics option in 3.23)
  • Water Simulation & Rendering Improvements
  • Volumetric Clouds Update
  • Image Upscaling (DLSS, FSR, in-house TSR)
  • Replication Layer Update

Guests:

• Gabriel Hector, Systems Designer
• David "BONE" Gill, Technical Director for UI
• Zane, UI everything man
• Emily, UI Programmer

TL;DW:

• If you're sitting in a ship map will zoom out to a system level, if you're standing around it'll zoom in to local one.
• Map will start zoomed out a bit more than it currently is while on foot.
• Separate keybind for local map is coming.
• There will be map filters for easier POI selection in the future.
• Map will feature more info about POIs in the future (icons, type of location).
• All the PU map improvements will be ported back to Squadron 42.
• Persistent map pins will come in the future, not ready yet due to server meshing.
• Map pins will be sharable with your party.
• We should be able to plop pins anywhere on the star map.
• Plans for landing UI:
  • Hangar door brackets.
  • Ladder/track to help guide to the hangar.
  • Ship and ground display when landing.
• They got a little too excited when trying to make the UI cool and holographic and dialed it back after the feedback. There were (and are) some bugs that caused additional issues with readability as well. Trying to find a balance between super plain and movie UI.
• Sometimes work gets released before it's ready - in regards to UI readability and polish.
• "Readability isn't as straightforward to solve as we thought it would be."
• Trying to figure out the best way to deal with exposure compensation.
• They want to implement settings for color blindness and font sizes.
• Building Blocks still requires a lot of optimization.
• Main cause of readability issues is UI being diagetic instead of drawn on top of everything.
• Planned mobiGlas updates:
  • Org app (comms and other "grand plans" for that).
  • New inventory app.
• Looking into how to solve the issue of UI clutter.
• Chat is slightly improved but more work to be done in the future.
• Compass and altimeter will be improved.
• Ship HUD will be cleaner and will get more options to toggle info.
• In the future planets in the star map will be renders of actual locations rather than just generic models.
• Animation for activating the mobiGlas will be sped up but won't be instant.
• Routing between zones is fixed with a temp solution for now, proper fix will come after transit refactor.
• Ability to keep track of your ship over longer distances will come in the future.
• Widescreen support will be based no an aspect ratio slider, can be changed by user.
• They want to make the lens UI the best they can before they start looking into customizability (like moving widgets around).