STAR CITIZEN UPDATES TO 3.18
Star Citizen has had a ton of scrutiny in its vast history. With each update there are new features, game loops, and of course bugs. Developing a massive Multiplayer Online Experience with the idea of persistent entity streaming, is an undertaking that is beyond reprehensive.
Finding the time to put in the on a game still in Alpha seems frustrating when there is a wipe each major patch, but I find the new game loops actually giving me a new way to encounter the way to my end game. The 890 Jump party with friends.
I find that in Star Citizen each patch or update is consistently battered with the issue with patience. Mind you the game has had it’s fair share of issues. I find the work around and the input I can provide as a backer of the project is just as rewarding as selling a full load of refined Quantanium at my local TDD. The Value of the game is more than just the ability to earn aUEC in game. The experience of meeting someone across a mass verse and not know if they are going to rob you, need your help, or just continue on their way is pretty well the best feeling aside from the in game events.
To be able to do what you want when you want in a game is the reason many games like GTA V have had Roleplaying servers pop up for almost a decade. Star Citizen gives you that on their platform, without having to buy a massive server or be whitelisted in a separate discord somewhere.
Now with the good comes with the bad. After this patch released it took the majority of the players quite a while to be able to just log in to the service. This is due to the patch releasing on a Friday. Probably not the smartest plan, but what it did do is allow the developer to stress test the Persistent entity Servers at a high volume. Success in failure can still be a success. Alpha 3.18 is basically a brand new game, in basic terms. The last iteration of Star Citizen was held on servers that were similar to your DayZ servers or Servers that held timers for object spawning. Persistent Entity Streaming Servers is an unheard of experience outside of Star Citizen and I believe that things are persistent through out the Server String, pretty well “forever”.
Something that I do not like about Persistent Streaming is that there are things that are inaccessible. With the introduction of Salvage, ships that are too close to Loading bays, or Landing pads at Space Stations or Major Cities are unable to be despawned or salvaged by ships that are able to do so. Along with this there is a lot of litter in the common areas where trash collects. Water bottles from players, Hospital Gowns from respawned characters, NPC bodies in bunkers that force collision issues, and a few more things that interrupt game loops or just look tacky.
I do enjoy the game more so than most. Star Citizen for me in the last year of backing the project has been entertaining, frustrating, and rewarding all in one breath. I have improvements that I would like to see but for the most part, I am satisfied to this point. This game is not for everyone, and those who jump in to the Live build and complain inside the game aren’t doing the developers any good. The Spectrum forum for Robert Space Industries is a great place to do so.
Is it worth the $45 dollars US to play the experience? In my opinion… Yes. For others? Maybe not.
As this project updates I will post more of my opinion here on the Website. Cheers!
Patch Notes From Robert Space Industries
Read it all Here
Star Citizen Patch 3.18.0
Alpha Patch 3.18.0-LIVE.8389318 has been released and is now available on the LIVE environment!
It is strongly recommended that players delete their USER and Shader folders for the Public client after patching, particularly if you start encountering any odd character graphical issues or crash on loading. The USER folder can be found (in default installations) at C:\Program Files\Roberts Space Industries\StarCitizen\LIVE. The Shader folders can be found here %localappdata%\Star Citizen.
Database Reset: YES
Long Term Persistence: Disabled (Full Persistence Wipe)
Starting aUEC: 200,000
Known Issues
Game clients may close without error or crash handler
ASOP Terminals are unusable and fade to black when accessed
Harvestable Deposits may be invisible to players, cause collisions or become unavailable for scanning, mining or salvage gameplay
The Trams are out of sync with the station timers, causing trams to overlap or not appear on time
Elevators and Trams are “Jittery” during transit of Player Character
Players may occasionally be unable to exit a ship seat
When flying near another ship, ship seems to hit an invisible box that kicks it in random directions
Reclaimer main on-elevator control panels do not respond to input
Cargo may be invisible in multiple ships after being purchased
When attempting to start a refinery job, players receive the following error ; Something went wrong (Error code: 20)
Security Contractor Evaluation is not re-offered upon failure
Combat Service Beacon Progress / Rating inconsistent on missions
Security Work Assesment Remaining Hostile NPCs Not Spawning In
PTV wheels at the Orison BTR area can clip into geometry and become detached from vehicle
The snub fighter attached to Constellations lacks interaction prompts to enter it, making it unusable
Some ship wreckage erroneously give “No Material” text and do not let you salvage
Markers Will Randomly Disappear After Quantum Travel With No Route Set
New Features
Locations
Daymar Crash Site
The addition of a large derelict settlement on Daymar using parts of the StarRunner & 600i, as well as some habs adapted to the biome, to create a point of interest with included missions.
Sand Cave Archetype
The addition of the new Sand Cave Archetype across multiple planets and moons in the Stanton System, including Hurston, Magda, Ita, Daymar, and Wala each with their own 20 unique sand cave formations. These new sand caves include the brand new land crustacean known as the Stone Bug with it’s new harvestable, the Stone Bug Shell.
Stanton Racetrack Locations
Addition of many new racing locations into Stanton. With this update we are including 6 new and community driven racing locations into the Persistent Universe with updated assets and set dressings to make each racing location a unique and rewarding experience for players to test their racing skills. These Racing Tracks include: Hurston – Lorville Gateways (The Start of the Time Trial missions that leads to further track unlocks), Daymar – Yadar Valley, Orison – Caplan Stadium, Grim HEX – Miner’s Lament, Euterpe – Icebreaker, and ArcCorp – The Sky Scraper.
Greycat PTV Race Track
Implementing a race track into the Orison Vision Center on Crusader in the same location as the most recent Invictus Launch Week, designed for the Greycat PTV.
Gameplay
Physicalized Cargo T0
This refactor of the ship cargo system allows both found and purchased cargo to be picked up, moved around, and placed into the cargo grid of a ship. The Cargo system has been completely re-written and with this refactor, the cargo boxes that you see in the ship, are actual, individual boxes which can be added to and removed from the grid via the use of a tractor beam and snap to the grid for perfect placement. As part of this refactor, we’ve rebuilt the Commodity Kiosk UI in Building Blocks which will be used to buy/sell cargo to/from the ship/player inventories, and had to update not only the standard trading commodities, but also the harvestable and mineable entities.
Security Post Kareah Reactivation
Security Post Kareah will be taking a more central role in Stanton’s security. Crusader Security have moved in a full-time staff and have begun storing confiscated contraband aboard. The station will be off limits to all civilians, unless given prior authorization. Kareah has undergone a full art redesign polish. This includes a new evidence and contraband processing office addition with interactable contraband dispenser, new traversal pathways, new color schemes and branding, and updated set dressing and cover around the whole interior. The interior and exterior of Kareah have been updated with armed admin AI and reinforcements including new crusader security loadouts and police detectives in kevlar.
Inside Kareah, criminal players will now be able to trigger a boss to spawn after killing several AI. After this boss has been killed players will be able to loot them and find a code on their body that will unlock a terminal inside the evidence storage room. After unlocking, players will be able to activate the contraband machine to dispense drugs. The player will be able to keep getting drugs out of the dispenser until a set amount of items are generated (randomized amount between 15 and 20 items). Once all items have been retrieved, the security terminal will lock itself, and upon leaving, the contraband room the door should lock not allowing players access to the area.
Along with the Security Post Kareah Reactivation, we are introducing a new mission type called Retake Location. Initially only at Security Post Kareah, this new mission type is generated for players when a location deems itself under attack (e.g. when X amount of a location’s population is killed). This mission will generate for players outside of the location and will allow players to go to that location and lawfully enter and remove all hostile attackers. Each attacker a player kills will give them a bonus after completing the mission. Any players in the area contributing to the mission will get part of the overall reward.
Platform Assault on Orison
Addition of Bounty, Assassinate, Clear All, and other missions that take place on the Inspiration Park platforms created for Siege of Orison. This includes eliminate all missions similar to the current UGF missions. For these islands the player will be tasked with killing everyone in a given building. These Mercenary missions available from Crusader Industries will have three difficulty curves, ranging from an easy clear of one building, to a hard clear of three buildings. Similar to eliminate all missions, Eliminate Specific Missions will task the player with killing single or multiple Bosses based on difficulty. For players to qualify and receive these missions they first need to complete Security Work Assessment for Crusader Security.
New Missions: Time Trials Racing T0
Racing time trials have finally come to the PU! Players will be able to test their skills versus set times on the newly added Racing tracks around landmarks in the PU, earning rewards based on performance and even unlocking more tracks as they progress. Players can pick up the first racing mission for the outskirts of Lorville and with enough racing prowess, get reputation to move onto the rest of the Time Trials around Stanton! This T0 implementation is focused on Ships and includes reputation progression tracks. (Note for PTU: Currently after completing the Lorville racetrack Time Trial, reputation will unlock the rest of the racetracks at once. This is intended to help test them during PTU and will have normal track unlocking later on in PTU)
Salvage – Hull Scraping
The first implementation of Salvage into the persistent universe, which includes both hull stripping as well as repair. This includes both performing hull stripping and repairs by hand, as well as hull stripping using the systems aboard the Drake Vulture and Aegis Reclaimer. Using highly advanced compression technology, these tools can break down ship and vehicle exteriors, converting them into Recycled Material Composite (RMC), and store them in the canisters attached. The player then has the option to either use this material to repair their ship using the FPS multi-tool by filling in damaged areas or they can sell this material as a commodity. This feature also has the addition of many new, discoverable derelict ships in space around places like asteroid belts with many more common smaller ships and much rarer larger ships for players to salvage.
Vehicle Hull Scraping
Salvaging while in a vehicle is a mode like mining. To be able to scrape the hull of a newly “found” wreck, the target must have it’s shields turned off (Indicator in UI will informs about shield state). To enter and exit Salvage mode hit ‘m’ (Default keybind). Players can right click to cycle through attached Beams in the sub item slot. By Left Clicking players can activate and deactivate the scraper beam. There are 2 modes players can be in while salvaging by pressing ‘G’ (Default keybind), Converging and Fixed Mode. Fixed mode acts like weapons and points the salvage beams directly where the player aims the ship while Converging mode lets players gimbal the beams independently. Left alt + Mouse wheel will move converging point while Left alt + Right click will switch between vertical and horizontal converging mode. Players will need to manually remove filled storage boxes from the ship’s salvaging area using a using a handheld tractor beam or by converting it into RMC canisters for repairing.
FPS Hull Scraping & repair
To utilize FPS Hull scraping mechanics, players will first need to acquire a Grin Multi-tool, the Salvage and repair module for it, and the ammunition canister for the salvage and repair module. As will ship hull scraping, players will be able to strip away the hull of a ship while it’s shields are down (Indicator in UI will informs about shield state) and store the Recycled Material Composite (RMC) in the canister. Players can cycle between salvage and repair mode by pressing ‘B’ (Default keybind) a which will allow them to either scrape away materials or use collected materials to repair the hull of a ship.
Vehicle Soft Death
Introduction of vehicle ‘soft death.’ Now, if one of a ship’s critical components is destroyed, the ship will remain intact but stranded, leaving its contents and crew hanging in the balance. Soft death is key to the Salvage career, as abandoned vehicles can be ripped apart for serious profit by ships like the Aegis Reclaimer and all-new Drake Vulture. During ship Soft Death, players on board will not be killed and left stranded in the nonfunctional ship with MFD, weapons, engines, and thrusters being disabled. Soft Death will allow players to exit pilot and turret seats to leave or enter the ship.
Sandbox Prison Activities
Expansion of prison gameplay with a new suite of missions and sandbox activities to give inmates more opportunities to earn merits or to aid in their escape from prison. The prison and it’s mine are now filled with an emergent population of prison guards and civilian prisoners’ with lootable items. Players will be able to loot contraband located throughout the prison mines and from bodies and sell to the prison kiosk for merits. This includes a brand new Prison Escape Delivery Mission, where players have to find and loot an item in the escape route and then deliver it at the nearest outpost, upon doing this the player then will have their criminal record wiped by the mission giver. Players will now incur a punishment for suiciding in the prison, however if they retrieve their gear from their dead body they can pay off this merit value instantly.
Request landing has a new default keybinding of ALT + N
Disabled bed log around Outposts
Improved layout of commodity price alerts journal entry to list by commodity type rather than location
Removed Physical Pressure from Distortion Weapons
Ships and Vehicles
Added New Ship: Drake Vulture
Addition of Drake Interplanetary’s light salvage ship known as the Vulture.
Weapons and Items
Greycat Multi-tool Salvage Attachment
Addition of the new multi-tool salvage attachment into the PU. This new attachment attaches to the Grin Multi-tool along with the new salvage ammunition canister to allow players to scrape and repair the hulls of vehicles.
Core Tech
Persistent Entity Streaming
Implementation of the Persistent Entity Streaming core technology into Star Citizen. Making use of services such as the Entity Graph and Replication Layer, this will allow every dynamic object in a shard to persist within that shard, irrelevant of whether it is owned or held by a player.
Feature Updates
Locations
Small Derelict Outpost Expansion in Stanton
Addition of 30 new, small Derelict Outpost locations across more planet-side locations in the Stanton System. These are additional variants of those already placed on microTech in 3.17. Each location features a collection of ruined outposts in varying degrees of degrade along with missions and AI inhabitants.
New Rivers in Stanton
Adding dozens of additional rivers and lakes with biome-specific object rulesets around bodies of water and distributing these around microTech and Hurston.
Added Parallax Interior Window Shader for buildings around all landing zones
Restricted Areas v3
Complete rework of the restricted area tech around landing zones. Instead of ships being autopiloted away or destroyed upon entering a Restricted Area, players are now given more freedom to fly and maneuver around cities. Upon entering a Restricted Area, players will now be given a text warning, a countdown, and an arrow pointing towards the exit. If the countdown ends, or they go further into the Restricted Area, the player will be teleported to a safe location, their ship will be impounded and they will receive a misdemeanor crime stat. This feature also applies to Ground Vehicles. Players outside of a vehicle won’t receive a countdown but will be teleported to safety if they venture too far into a Restricted Area.
Caterpillar Crash Sites Improvements V1
Added base AI to populate Caterpillar crash sites. Added kill specific and kill all missions. Including a general polish pass and visual improvements.
Derelict Settlements – Reclaimer V2
General polish pass to the Derelict Reclaimer Settlement including additional buildings and general visual improvements.
AI
NPC Loadout Updates
Updated many NPC loadouts throughout Stanton with new Shopkeeper outfits, Earth Fashion Dress, Hospital Surgeon outfits, Service hats and aprons in shops, and armor sets.
Gameplay
Courier Delivery Missions Update
Addition of new Local Courier Delivery Missions around each Stanton planet system. These new missions are based around the local delivery companies for each planet system in Stanton and give players a more focused area for deliveries. There are 4 new Delivery reputations based on the area you are in. Red Wind Local Delivery, Ling Family Local Delivery Route, Covalex Local Delivery Route, and UDM Local Delivery Route. These new missions can be acquired after completing the intro missions for the local delivery company in your area.
QoL Inventory Updates
Added ability for long term persistence (LTP) items to stack in inventory. Added transfer all button to inventories that work based on selected filters. Added visual feedback attempting to quick move an item that won’t fit in the target inventory. Implemented toggle option to the top right of the player’s inventory to always show/hide item ports for equipping gear.
Law System Improvements
We have overhauled many aspects of the law system to be less punishing for players with lower level crimes.
Players with a Crime Stat (CS) 1-2 can no longer be attacked lawfully (their ship marker won’t be red to players) and AI and defenses will not attack them on sight. Murder will still give a CS3 so this will be our new threshold for being able to be killed on sight. Players with CS1-2 will be able to request and receive landing permissions at ATCs. Security ships will not attack players with CS1-2 and will instead scan and tell the player to pay off their fines. The vast majority of crimes can now be paid off as fines rather than needing prison time. However, more serious crimes are very expensive. All crimes accumulate so should you get a couple serious crimes or many minor crimes, you will still reach CS3 though you can still pay it off should you be able to reach a fine terminal (difficult as you will be shot at by defenses and not be permitted to land). As is the case already, security will attack a CS3 player while requesting their surrender and players can power down their ship to surrender. Players are now able to surrender at Fine Kiosks found in rest stops and landing zones, should they not be able to afford to pay off their fines. As before, surrendering gives the player a 25% discount of prison sentence. We have lowered the threshold for CS1 so that it displays when the player gets any minor crime. This is to show the player they have a law issue that needs taking care of. The threshold for CS2 remains where it was and warns players they are either getting dangerously close to CS3 or, if they got it from a single crime, tells them that was a particular serious crime. Players have 1 week to pay off fines for a more reasonable price. Should they allow the fine to escalate, it doubles in price. Given we have made hacking Crime Stats more challenging by limiting it to Kareah, we have greatly reduced the time it takes to remove each infraction.
Bed log out is now blocked in landing areas
Claim Jumper Missions have been temporarily disabled for 3.18
Ships and Vehicles
Ground Vehicle Speed Changes
We have done a pass on ground vehicle speeds with some gaining and some losing max speeds.
Vehicle Combat Balance Changes
Greatly increased Ballistic weapon shield penetration. Ship armor now grants 50% physical resistance, increasing ship durability against incoming ballistic fire. EM and IR adjustments to shields to support more accurate missiles, reduced overall signal strength, and made them more consistent. Increased shield down delay from 5 to 10 seconds. Distortion does not scale the power output of power plants. Distortion weapon explosive radius has been increased. Distortion weapon heat development has been decreased. Distortion health pool has been increased, it should take a good while longer now to disable a ship. Power plants will turn off binary and take 300 seconds to recover. Coolers cannot be distorted. Item health has been balanced so that a single missile hit cannot instantly kill them. Updated component damage for coolers and power plants.
Greatly increased the hull health of the 600i
Core Tech
Enabled Gen12 Renderer
Physics Optimizations
Made Many Server Performance Improvements
Updated Commodity Kiosks to Use Building Blocks Tech
Bug Fixes
Players should no longer receive a Bad token/Missing text on main menu after server crash
Combat Service Beacon mission progress and rating progression should no longer be inconsistent
Remote Turret aim assist should no longer be broken
Players should now correctly receive a flight suit and helmet in their inventory when respawning at hospitals
UGF Missions should no longer be missing NPC spawns to complete the mission
Hangar elevator collision grid should no longer push players through its path when called
Cutlass Black Reinforcement AI should now correctly exit the ship
The Corsair should no longer nose down without pilot input when flying in a straight line in atmosphere
Commodities should now correctly appear in the Commodity Kiosks and be sold
The Orison Shuttle to the vision center should now correctly arrive and not get stuck
Fixed an issue causing players exiting Klescher to have no head or mobiglas
Ship should no longer fall out of quantum when Pressing B or Missile Mode
QT markers will no longer disappear when traveling between planetary markers until QT drive finishes spooling
Security AI should now spawn in their correct loadouts
Hostile AI should now correctly leave their spawn closets
PvP Bounty should no correctly complete if the target suicides after being downed
Players should now be attached to the cockpit seats in the Star Runner during the enter or exit animations
Weapons should no longer holster and unholster themselves repeatedly
KLWE scope optic crosshair should no longer be missing
Inner Thought wheel Back / Exit button UI should no longer be missing
Animations should now correctly line up for Female player characters in the Greycat Industrial STV
