Star Citizen

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.

TL;DW:

• sniper glint appears when sniper is aiming and only under specific angle
• there's minor and major glint depending on an angle
• scopes will have different angles where glint shows up
• auto-zeroing on scopes will be removed
• glint will appear at night due to balance reasons
• they're increasing sniper ADS time
• no-scope/aiming recoil and spread were balanced to avoid run & gun sniping
• armor clipping into the sights is being investigated, 3.23 might get a temporary fix
• there are plans for more grenade types (smoke, flash bangs and "more sci-fi" ones)
• they're working on medical gameplay, making a balance pass around injuries
• pre-dawned state will allow to crawl behind cover for safety
• there will be increased BDL cost of revival
• pre-dawned state will be time limited
• new health app for mobiGlas in 3.23, with more info about your state
• ammo repooling will be done on a gun by gun basis, can only be triggered on equipped weapons
• you'll be able to trigger repooling from inventory UI
• energy weapon mags can also be repooled at the moment, might switch to recharging in the future
• tools can't be "repooled", might also use recharge mechanic
• you'll be able to cancel reloading/repooling via sprinting, jumping and some other actions
• no plans for weapons that require teammate to use
• repooling will combine mags but won't equip them on armor slots for faster reloading
• laser attachments will be useful when not using combat armor (no dynamic crosshair)
• specialized suits will provide more info (details about rocks when mining, further pings etc) in the future
• some specialized suits might lose combat info (gun ammo etc)
• things like explosions, running through mud etc will affect specific items/parts of the armor
• there might be an opacity slider for the dynamic crosshair (not necessarily in 3.23), more customization may or may not happen later
• "inner zoom" on scopes is not happening for now due to upscaling, they're still trying to find a way to make it work
• lack of picture-in-picture zoom on scopes (zoom scope, no the whole screen) is a technical limitation
• ballistic shields will happen (already implemented for Squadron 42)
• binoculars are on the todo list
• potential ammo/gun variants: laser, plasma (damage over time), tachyon (faster than light), neutron (stronger the further it hits)
• they're working on adding the ability to equip weapons on civilian clothing, still figuring it out for some of them
• each weapon has a unique recoil pattern
• slide is intended as a way to get into cover, don't want it to be too arcadey
• FPS weapons will no longer cause stagger, flinching stays, grenades will still cause knockdowns
• big weapons balance for 3.23, shotguns will get tighter spread, be more powerful
• there's plenty of polishing work left to fully bring FPS combat to the modern standard (things like movement, weapon feel, various technical issues, more pronounced muzzle flashes, improvements to the medical gameplay and more)
• one weapon/gadget you'd like to add:
  • Zac: slug shotgun
  • Acti: old school rocket launcher
  • Pascal: chainsaw
  • Nick: mini black hole launcher
• Pascal's test level when working on tasks is E1M1 from DOOM

With the new Xenothreat event almost here, I thought I would share this guide which a friend showed to me. It details how to get through each of the phases and what you can expect.

Not much new here to be honest. Main takeaways:

• "MrTrash" was the first player to successfully fly through a jump point in the tech preview server
• they managed to handle 350 player shard (replication layer connected to two servers)
• they're working on a finalized roadmap to 1.0
• confirmation that Rich Tyrer took over as Senior Game Director responsible for both Squadron 42 and Star Citizen
• Todd Pappy returned to US due to family reasons
• main dev studios will be Manchester, Austin and Montreal
• LA office will move towards support role (marketing, finance, legal and HR)
• more tech preview tests coming (including servers dedicated to a single planet and moons, specific landing zones or key locations)

Highlights, thanks to /r/starcitizen #SC-news discord bot:

Notable Information:
➣ "The old character creator could walk so this one could run"
➣ The new character creator takes inspiration from the old creator but is truly a new tool that allows the player to represent themselves in the universe
➣ The new creator is broken into 4 systems
ㅤ✦ DNA System: Blending and shape of the head, most similar to old system. Adds face sculpting which is the big new feature
ㅤ✦ Hair: A much wider array of hairs as well as the addition of facial hair. The ability to tune the colors of your hair expands on the previous color options characters had
ㅤ✦ Features: The ability to adjust skin tone and add makeup
ㅤ✦ Review: The ability to check your entire character
➣ The goal was to have a much more modern and sleep design style, think "Apple Vision Pro"
➣ The DNA center uses real 3D scans of people like before and the DNA pool continues to grow
➣ Rather then scrolling through you actually have a visual library which makes it easier to compare
➣ Save and load functionality is coming with this version of the character creator that allows you to save characters through wipes

Page with more info about the event.

I was able to test it out last night and successfully made it from Stanton to Pyro.

The tunnel is currently just a greybox/placeholder most likely to make debugging any issues easier, but the fact that their tech works is game changing.

While party jumping isn't in, it is possible to follow someone else into the jump point and if you're close enough you can see them throughout the entire jump.

Transitions are indeed seamless. I was also able to move around a ship while going through the jump... (no loading screen).

It is possible to collide with another ship/object mid-jump.

Currently there are a number of reclaimers/vultures cleaning up the exit points of the jumpgate from the collisions occurring there as well.

Summary thanks to /r/starcitizen #sc-news discord bot:

Inside Star Citizen | First-Person Assertion

Notable Information:
➣ Reloading exists in the game, even if future technology may allow it to not be needed, because it has such an effect on gameplay and helps immerse the player in the game.
➣ In 3.23 reloading is split into two parts, backpack reloading and ammo pooling.
➣ Backpack reloading allows you to pull directly from your backpack with a longer reload time.
ㅤ✦ This allows you to utilize the ammo you have stored but forces you to consider the time tradeoff.
➣ Ammo pooling allows you to condense multiple partially used magazines into one and the empty mags discarded.
ㅤ✦ This is supported by new HUD UI indicators.
ㅤ✦ Different magazine types will have different pooling times.
ㅤ✦ In the future you will be able to repool other items like grenades and medpens.
➣ Recoil is very important to both gameplay and immersion.
ㅤ✦ Laser weapons having recoil is primarily a gameplay choice.
ㅤ✦ Some of these new recoil functions were in 3.22 and some are in 3.23.
➣ Both scopes and iron sights have been reworked.
ㅤ✦ Raising the camera made the sightline much cleaner while retaining the chunky iro sights.
ㅤ✦ Scopes have been completely reworked to fix the numerous issues they had before.
➣ In 3.23 when equipping a combat visor you will have a dynamic crosshair.
ㅤ✦ This crosshair will actually follow where the barrel is rather then being static.
ㅤ✦ Both the dynamic crosshairs and new hitmarkers can be enabled and disabled independently.
➣ Bullet blocking by items attached to armor has been fixed.
➣ The above changes reach all guns in 3.23.

➣ Next week's ISC will be on the new character customizer coming in 3.23.

CIG rewards players for actively testing certain features/gameloops. Looks like they're going to keep this up for each major update.

Update from Waka and MotD:

🥑 With the upcoming 3.23 release, we are adding additional Evocati members over the next couple weeks. We already have potential members selected and will be sending out communications as early as Friday! Thank you all for testing with us!

MotD Update

(Tysdagr) No intended publishes today. Goals for the week, 2 Evocati Publishes: We are currently still on plan to release a 3.23 Stability Playtest to Evocati on Wednesday (tomorrow) and goal to have a second Evocati Static Server Meshing test with jump gates enabled Friday. (Jump gates will be functional but full end visuals and gameplay mechanics are not a focus of this build and intentionally not integrated. Players will be autopiloted through the gate between star systems) 👾 PTU Currently Closed 3.22.1 has now been released to the LIVE environment! Read Notes here

For those who haven't looked into Evocati testing before. Typically CIG will put out tests that are very much stripped down from what will actually be released to the public.

We've been down roads before where leaked patch notes led people to believe that some temporary solution for an evo test was the permanent long term solution... only for it to get fixed a week later.

It's possible that T0 Jump Gates will release like this, but it's also very likely that by the time we get 4.0 the Jump Gates will be much closer to the plans that they have already released.

MotD update in SC-Testing-Chat Spectrum channel:

(Mánadagr) No intended publishes today. Goals for the week, 2 Evocati Publishes: 3.23 code branch stability playtest Tues/Wed and goal to have a second Evocati Static Server Meshing test with jump gates enabled Friday.

Got this from the official RobertSpaceInd twitter account: https://x.com/RobertsSpaceInd/status/1763595707410210858

MOTD in SC-Testing-Chat:

(Thursday) We currently have a new TECH-Preview build in testing for an Evocati Only release later today for a 4 hour playtest with Static Server meshing, Stanton/Pyro. More info will be posted closer to release

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

Wakapedia-CIG:

  As per our updated release notes, we are going to start posting patch notes and playtests publicly starting today for evocati builds! https://robertsspaceindustries.com/spectrum/community/SC/lobby/38230/message/51813438