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

TL;DR:

• 3.23 targeting April release
• Replication Layer still being worked on and tested, moved to 3.23 for now
• Gravlev Racing added as a new experimental mode (targeting 3.22 cycle)

3.23 specific additions:

• Starmap rework
• mobiGlas rework
• FPS map system (mini & normal map)
• personal and instanced hangars (personal will be located at the home location and allow for customization)
• freight elevators
• unique item recovery kiosk
• cargo hauling missions
• dynamic crosshair
• EVA T2 (new controls and animations)
• FPS loot screen
• new character creator
• visor and lens HUD rework (converting to building blocks)
• distribution centers
• blockade runner (new dynamic event)
• reputation - hostility
• new interaction system
• master modes (all ships)

TL/DR: Boost power to the damaged engine

So I was flying in a fury today. In a fight one of my engines was damaged slightly (93% health left) and everytime I gave some forward thrust, the ship would turn slightly.

I figured I'd mess around with the engines to see if I could try to compensate for the damage.

Going into the Power MFD (middle mouse click to lock zoom so that it doesn't affect scrolling) then overpowering the damaged engine slightly made it so that I no longer turned everytime I gave it some forward thrust. It was a pretty big difference and made the ship flyable again.

Additionally, there's probably the option of underpowering all of the other engines in the case of a severely damaged engine, but I figure this tip is enough to help anyone that gets caught in a bind.

Features planned for 3.23:

• new EVA system

• new interaction system

• gun play improvements

  • dynamic crosshair
  • reworked scopes
  • ammo pooling

• master modes

• distribution centers

• new star map

• mini map

• on-foot compass

• new missions

• freight elevators

• new character creator

• ship price changes

Lots of people think it has been disabled. I'm here to tell it you still works! There is a secret hard to find location on the cockpit that allows you to turn it on, and activate/deactivate it. Check it out!

Hello Citizens! Has anyone tried Virpil and VKB flight sticks in Linux? Will the software run in Wine to configure the sticks? Looks like SC itself will run in Proton, so the next step is peripherals.

How about head tracking with TrackIR or Tobii?

Third render in my series so far. Let me know if you want to request any specific ships!

Official game models and textures extracted using StarFab and rendered in Blender.

Here's another one! Official game models and textures extracted using StarFab and rendered in Blender.

Feel free to ask if you have any questions about how to do this!

They're available until January 8th and can be grabbed here - just log in and click on each day to redeem a gift.

This year freebies:

1. Drake Cutter Icebreak and Deck the Hulls Paints
2. Piconalia Sweater
3. MISC Prospector Icebreak & Deck the Hull Paints
4. Luminalia Mug
5. Drake Vulture Icebreak & Deck the Hull Paints
6. Luminalia Cookie Jar
7. MISC Freelancer Icebreak & Deck the Hull Paints
8. Klaus & Werner Demeco “Ultraviolet” LMG
9. Forgiveness Sweater
10. Gemini F55 "Alpine Sunset" LMG
11. Luminalia Light Stick
12. Scalpel "Permafrost" Sniper Rifle & Sizi Knife

I am having a blast extracting game models and textures using StarFab and rendering them in Blender.

Feel free to ask if you have any questions about how to do this!

Such a good recap.

I've updated my ASMBL VoiceAttack Macros. Automatically control VTOL and Wing deployments! Automatically set default power based on pilot weapons being available! Don't forget all the resolution independent macros for navigation and Mobiglass buttons! Github link is in the video description!